Nanaimo's (near) future skyline?

[raggedy13]

I found this future skyline rendering on the City of Nanaimo's website: http://www.nanaimo.ca/printer_friendly.asp?id=395



I knew there was that convention centre tower proposal but I didn't know there were other towers going up too.

Anybody know the status of these?

Makes for a nice little skyline for Nanaimo.

[mr.x]

nice find, and would be great for Nanaimo.....and poorly rendered. It almost looks as if those towers were set on fire.

[westcoast604]

Tall towers in Nanaimo look rather silly. Its completely out of context with the size and scale of the city. City hall should encourage more mid-rise developments to densify first, instead of having sparse tall towers spread about.

[excel]

Yea does look a little out of place for sure.

[mr.x]

well it's not like there aren't going to be more towers after these.

[djp]

South Nanaimo is actually very dense already. Downtown Nanaimo is far more densely populated than, for instance, downtown Victoria. Many of the people living there happen to be drug addicts and homeless people, but what can you do?

[The Great Scaper]

Victoria's density is much higher than Nanaimo. That being said I think it would be better for Nanaimo to build more mid rises too. I also saw this photo on Nan.'s website.

I am going to be going up island soon, I'll take some photo's of Nanaimo when I'm up there!!!

[aastra]

Downtown Nanaimo is far more densely populated than, for instance, downtown Victoria

Actually, there are probably almost as many people living in the largest building in downtown Victoria (View Towers) as there are in all of downtown Nanaimo. There are 18 residential highrises in downtown Victoria (10 stories or taller) and about the same number of lowrise/midrise residential buildings. This area doesn't include James Bay or Vic West.



Here's downtown Nanaimo:

[aastra]

South Nanaimo is actually very dense already.

No, it isn't. Here's south Nanaimo:

[Coldrsx]

id love to see nanaimo be more like jasper to banff (victoria) where there are amenities, but the purpose of visiting is much different.

[someone123]

I'm actually near Nanaimo right now. It is an interesting little town but it's also pretty rough and a little drug-addled. There's no way that it is as densely populated as Victoria. The downtown is mostly small scale commercial development surrounded by houses, plus some waterfront development and a mall. The South end of town has some very rough spots and a lot of little houses presumably built for miners that look like they haven't seen any maintenance since about 1962. As far as I know the only three highrises are that newer condo building, the narrow green and white apartment building and the hotel.

Some of the industrial waterfront could definitely be turned into highrise condos like the ones in the rendering. Land values are lower than in Victoria and Vancouver is not far away.

[ilford]

Nanaimo city's population density is 881 per square km. Victoria city's population density is 3,966 per square km. Granted, Victoria city is only 19.68 km. But even if you add Oak Bay, Esquimalt, and View Royal (!), you still get a density of about 2,336 per square km over 52 square km.

Downtown Victoria's current residential highrise construction projects (the Falls, Aria, and the Juliet, which aren't pipe dreams but actual construction sites) probably account for more people than the current population of downtown Nanaimo.

[aastra]

Victoria proper also has dense lowrise and highrise areas just outside of downtown:

Cook Street Village:


James Bay:




Vic West & Songhees:

[aastra]

So does anyone know what the status of Nanaimo's convention centre project is? I thought it was basically toast because they couldn't get a hotel chain to commit?

[The Great Scaper]

Here is a few more photos I have taken of Downtown Victoria,











I am going to go up island next weekend. I am going to be taking some photos of Nanaimo when I am up there and I will post them on here!

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

Anybody know the status of these?

The leftmost rendered building (not the Beacon) is the hotel/condo for the conference centre. Millennium couldn't couldn't secure financing for the Marriott hotel component last year, so it isn't proceeding right now. There's an amending agreement on the site below that provides that they must proceed by Sept 30 this year.

The stepped building in the middle is Pacifica - well under construction (old Malaspina Hotel site). http://www.pacificananaimo.ca/index.php

Note sure about the next one - on the old Chez Michel restaurant site. Major Projects Inventory search showed that it is still on the books - 24 storey designed by Rafii.


The next two are on the old Civic Arena site - they will probably go ahead. The land was rezoned in connection with the rezoning for the conference centre. New ice rinks were built near Malaspina College.

Conference centre webcam:
http://www.viconference.com/latest_news.php

News releases and updates here:
http://www.nanaimo.ca/cityhall/index...&collection=57

I suspect that a number of these projects may have lost some appeal after the HarbourLynx shut down operations.

[The Great Scaper]

The problem with Nanaimo is that their is a smaller work pool, so the cost of construction tends to be a bit higher than in Victoria and Vancouver. On that note property values are lower too, but so are unit prices. Even with the lower real estate values, the price of a top floor condo on Nanaimo's harbor compared to a top floor Condo like the Fall's looking over Victoria's harbor is massive. It's going to be hard for a lot of these proposals to fly.

I really hope they can make the conference center come together. Nanaimo needs some big help the downtown is really run down.

[shovelsauce]

Originally Posted by aastra

So does anyone know what the status of Nanaimo's convention centre project is? I thought it was basically toast because they couldn't get a hotel chain to commit?

The hotel chain committing to the project wasn't the problem. Marriot was and still is intent on going ahead as planned if the development proceeds. The problem was a financing issue with the developer that resulted in the agreement with the city of nanaimo expiring. Since then the city and developer have resumed talks and the reliable rumour is the city is allowing the developer another opportunity to arrange financing for this project.

This hotel/residential tower is located next to and will be integrated into the new nanaimo convention centre although both projects are seperate entities.
The nanaimo convention centre construction is well underway with a forecasted completion of spring 2008.

[SpongeG]

nice to see - i always liked nanaimo - i used to live really close to the waterfront just to the right of that pic

i wonder what it would take to run downtown around - i remember when Sears closed that mall really suffered

[Dylan Leblanc]

here's a condo going up downtown, beside the bowling alley I think

http://www.thestudios.ca/