View Towers (at-centre) along the 900-block of View Street in downtown Victoria's Harris Green district.  Citified.ca

View Towers readies for new tenants three years after damaging blaze

Dozens of units in downtown Victoria’s View Towers complex will soon hit Victoria's starved rental market following a three year building remediation process, Citified has learned.

In May of 2014 nearly 100 people were displaced from the 19-storey, 360-unit highrise at View and Quadra streets after fire ripped through a tenth floor apartment. Ultimately 70 people were forced to vacate their homes.

Although the blaze was mostly contained to a single unit, water penetration from fire suppression efforts caused significant damage to suites along the building’s north and south frontages.

The complexity of the renovation, which included asbestos removal and mitigation efforts throughout the 1960s-era concrete tower, resulted in a longer than anticipated remediation. Some suites were also used as entry and exit points for crews utilizing scaffolding to access floors while interior corridors were cordoned off.

Building owner Westsea Construction of Vancouver remained mostly silent throughout the ordeal, opting to forgo requests to confirm the project status or to provide an anticipated occupancy date for affected units.

View Towers is now reportedly queued for a municipal inspection process that is expected to be completed this month. Once final occupancy approvals have been granted, the building’s vacant units will re-enter the housing market. C

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