The CPR Steamship building at Victoria's Inner Harbour - Date/Photographer unknown.

3 September 2011

Six Potential Tenants in Line for CPR Steamship Building

Victoria Vancouver Island British Columbia - As renovations near completion at the CPR Steamship building in downtown Victoria, six potential tenants are being considered for the stately waterfront landmark.
 
No lease agreement has been struck yet for the historic building on Belleville Street, which is owned by the Provincial Capital Commission and is in the final stages of a $5-million renovation.

The interior of the CPR Steamship building at Victoria's Inner Harbour - Date/Photographer unknown.

At least one prospective tenant expects a decision shortly.
 
"I would be surprised if this has not been decided in six weeks," said Barry Rolston, president of the Maritime Museum of B.C.
 
Directors and staff of the museum, which is in Bastion Square, have for years dreamed of being on the waterfront. The museum needs donations of at least $2 million to launch other offers of funding and to provide a foundation for a public campaign, Rolston said.
 
Rolston said between $4 million and $6 million would be needed to set up the museum in the Steamship building.
 
"We are confident that it can be done," he said, but would not provide details of possible backers.
 
Even if a decision came in early October, the museum would not be open by summer 2012, Rolston said. At least a year would be needed.
 
The three-storey building, which was designed by architects Francis Rattenbury and Percy Leonard James, was built in 1924.
 
It housed the Royal London Wax Museum for more than four decades. The museum closed last year after the capital commission announced a major seismic upgrading plan.
 
When workers started opening walls they discovered additional structural problems, so the original budget of $3.25 million was increased to $5 million.
 
Ray Parks, the commission's chief executive officer, said Friday that renovations are scheduled to be finished next month.
 
Proposals from three potential tenants were turned down in April, with the commission saying it wanted more information. Parks said the commission is talking with the original three applicants, as well as three new ones.
 
The original three were the Maritime Museum, Matt MacNeil's Victoria Pub Co., which suggested a version of Seattle's Pike Place Market, and Bob Wright's Oak Bay Marine Group, which proposed a high-tech attraction featuring First Nations and local history.
 
Wright could not be reached Friday evening, and MacNeil would not discuss details, but said, "I am still very interested."
 
MacNeil's plan would take up the whole property. "Every project evolves a little bit but the concept is the same," he said.
 
MacNeil has three pubs, the Bard & Banker, the Irish Times downtown, and the Penny Farthing in Oak Bay.
 
"I'm not under the pressure of a time line. I want it to be right," he said. "I'm still looking forward to working to that end."
 
Carla Wilson.