Victoria council has approved a tax break worth about $1.38 million over 10 years for developers upgrading the historic Scott building on Douglas Street.
City staff had recommended declining the application, noting the project failed to meet more than half the required criteria for the incentive program.
But Coun. Matt. Dell, who sits on the board of the Victoria Civic Heritage Foundation, said the project deserved a break, noting that it’s maintaining heritage features of a 112-year old building, and bringing 146 units of rental housing to the market in difficult financial conditions, including high interest rates and soaring labour and construction costs.
“I don’t think this tax exemption even covers probably a shred of what it costs to try to preserve most of this heritage building to keep it updated and also dealing with the increased cost of construction,” he said, adding it’s worth the city throwing “a couple of chips in to make sure that this project goes ahead and that we preserve this important building in the city.”
He also noted the estimated construction cost is more than $59 million, which means property taxes, after the tax break runs out in 10 years, will be high.
“I think over the long term we are going to get this money back in spades,” he said. “I want Victoria to show builders who want to take on heritage that we’re on their side, that we’re supportive, that we want to see this work happen.”
Coun. Jeremy Caradonna agreed, calling the tax break “a way of tangibly and materially supporting our heritage community and the proponents who are willing to work on heritage buildings.”
City staff had noted that the project missed many qualification criteria — little of the heritage structure was retained, which was not justified through the seismic and structural assessments, a seismic assessment of the heritage building was submitted retroactively, and the proponent submitted its application after construction started.
Coun. Dave Thompson, who was the lone councillor to vote against approval of the application, said he likes the project and understands the rising costs of construction but the decision has nothing to do with either of those things.
“It’s not about whether we want housing, it’s not about whether we want to see heritage preserved, it’s about whether it meets the criteria for tax exemption. And so far it’s failing,” he said. “This is our policy — this isn’t some policy that’s 20-years-old and out of date.
If council wants to encourage more sensitive redevelopment of heritage properties, it should amend the policy, removing the criteria that it doesn’t like, to provide certainty to the development community, he said.
The Scott building, designed by Lord William Hargreaves and completed in 1912, was built during Victoria’s economic boom for Robert Scott.
The building is located in what was once Victoria’s centre of resource-based industries, and accommodated commercial businesses on the ground floor and residential units on the upper floors. In more recent years, it housed a bank and offices.
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