Developer eyes Nanaimo for ‘affordable’ housing
A Vancouver development company is making its first investments in Nanaimo, joining other Lower Mainland firms that have been building on the Island as land values and demand rise in B.C.’s housing market.
Wertman Development Corp. has bought two Nanaimo sites — one for a downtown condo tower of 20-plus storeys and another for a two-building rental project.
“As far as acquiring land to develop in Vancouver, [it] is next to impossible to have anything that is affordable,” said Jason Wertman, vice-president of Vancouver’s Wertman Development Corp. “We’re running out of room in this city for people to acquire and to move to.”
That’s why the 55-year-old firm started looking at Vancouver Island, buying two neighbouring Nanaimo parking lots at 66 and 77 Chapel St., close to the water, and another site on Third Street near Vancouver Island University.
“We’re quite confident that the city is in a growth period,” Wertman said,
The family company isn’t alone. Vancouver developers discovered Vancouver Island many years ago as land prices climbed on the Lower Mainland and residential demand heated up in the capital region. Reliance Properties, Chard Development, Bosa Development, Concert Properties and Townline are among Vancouverbased developers working here.
Wertman Development has produced a range of projects including condos, residential rental, offices and seniors developments on the mainland.
Its Chapel Street properties would house a 90-unit condominium tower, to be called the Maracielo. “Our idea is to do a boutique condo there to take advantage of some of the views,” he said.
Concept drawings are in the works, with the height possibly between 22 and 25 storeys, Wertman said. Plans call for about four to six suites per floor, mainly twobedroom units.
An adjacent building would stand two storeys tall on the Chapel Street side of the site, rising to four storeys on the Skinner Street side behind it. This building would house about six townhouses, a retail space, and a gym and pool, Wertman said.
For the commercial space, “we are thinking maybe a restaurant or a grocery store to serve the neighbourhood.”
The project would require a rezoning and development permit, he said. Applications will likely be submitted to the city in January.
Wertman is using de Hoog and Kierulf Architects of Victoria, the same architect used by the Maracielo’s next door neighbour on Chapel Street. Island Creek Developments received City of Nanaimo approval this year for a 61-unit condo project at 91 Chapel St. with a west coast contemporary style.
This will mean that these two projects “won’t clash,” Wertman said. “They will blend in with each other.”
Also in the planning stage is a rental project that would be built in two buildings in the 500-block of Third Street in Nanaimo.
“We are still playing with drawings, but the idea is to service the family neighbourhood there and the university.”
Most of the suites would be one bedroom, he said. Each building would have between 70 and 80 suites, and would be lower than six storeys.
There’s no date yet to go to city hall with the rental project, Wertman said.
More than 300 new units would be added to Nanaimo’s housing stock when the Island Creek and Wertman’s three projects are finished. New housing is welcome in Nanaimo, where the vacancy rate is a tight 1.5 per cent and the city is embarking on writing an affordable-housing strategy.
The downtown projects join two new hotels in the city’s core — one on Gordon Street and another on Front Street.
Developers are looking forward to the prospect of a passenger ferry service between Nanaimo and Vancouver. Island Ferry Service is planning to introduce a 68-minute Nanaimo-Vancouver passenger service, permitting daily ferry commutes.
“We are really hoping that the commuter ferry is going to go through next year,” Wertman said.