The shovel has officially hit the ground at Palace Place in downtown Courtenay, now that the owners of the former Palace (E.W.) Theatre have secured a building permit.
The site at 5th and England had housed the theatre since 1940 until a fire destroyed the building in 2007. The new structure will contain commercial space on the ground floor, three floors of residential rental suites and an underground parking lot. There will be 30 one bedroom rentals and nine two bedrooms.
The proprietors thank the City of Courtenay for providing a positive process in reaching this point.
鈥淭his could, and should, follow further development for residential housing,鈥� said Brian Moran, a partner of Endure Projects Inc., along with Guy Champagne and Allan Landa. He said many buildings in Qualicum Beach contain commercial at ground level and residential above. 鈥淭he Village of Qualicum is really busy because of all these people living in the downtown core.鈥�
The owners anticipate to start advertising in January for tenants for the commercial space. The main floor might contain a restaurant and medical/dental tenants.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a different feel to the retail component of what鈥檚 on this downtown street here, instead of another sushi restaurant or another furniture store or another jewelry shop,鈥� Landa said. 鈥淢ore food would be good. We could put two food spaces in. For us, this is the first zero lot-line building in the downtown core, which means it has underground parking right up to the sidewalk.鈥�
This meant they had to strike a deal with the Masons next door, and underpin the building.
鈥淭he end result is their building will be in a more secure spot once ours is up,鈥� Landa said.
Knappett Projects Inc. is the general contractor for the project.
The owners hope to start renting the units by the spring of 2023.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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