Royal Oak is getting a new six-storey, 60-unit residential development from a partnership of Saanich builders, Tri-Eagle Developments and Jawl Residential.
Saanich council gave final approval on June 13 for the Radius at Royal Oak at 4396 West Saanich Rd. (immediately south of the Royal Oak Shopping Centre) after years of consultation with Saanich staff and the Royal Oak Community Association.
The Radius will sit on an area that is currently surface parking and grass, and it will complete Tri Eagle Plaza, with the existing Tri Eagle commercial building Raven and residential buildings Orca and Centennial Walk.
The planning stages for the Radius date back to 2007, said Travis Lee, president of Tri-Eagle Development.
“The original plan for the final portion of Tri-Eagle Plaza was an eight-storey Leed Gold Class A office building known as the Thunderbird,” Lee said. “After consulting with the Royal Oak Community Association and various neighbourhood groups, it was decided that a more appropriate use for the land would be for a high-quality residential building.”
With a residential building in mind, Tri-Eagle partnered with Jawl Residential. It comes immediately after the two companies built Uptown Place, a two-building residential project completed in 2014 and 2015.
Principal architect Charles Kierulf of de Hoog and Kierulf Architects is leading the Radius at Royal Oak, the same architect who led Uptown Place’s West Coast design.
Radius will be built on a six-storey wood-frame to Built Green Gold standards. Most suites will have nine-foot ceilings while some top-floor suites will have 12-foot ceilings.
The flat-roof building will have exterior finishes that include a combination of white and grey fibre cement panels, dark grey metal and wood siding. Wood siding will be used on the soffits and underside of balconies, and as a vertical element on privacy walls.
Upper-storey units will have a balcony with first-level units having private fenced-in patios and yards.
The Radius will also sit next to an east to west trail connector that Tri Eagle gifted to Saanich to connect to the Centennial Trail.
Parking at the Radius will include 12 surface spots for visitors and 78 underground stalls, including eight for electric vehicles. There will be 60 secure bike rack spots and 60 storage lockers in the underground.
Travino reaches third phase
Mike Geric Construction has broken ground on the third of the five planned phases for the Travino at 742 Travino Lane, on the site of the former Royal Oak middle school.
The third phase, known as Travino Landing, has broken ground much earlier than initially planned and will be ready for move in by the summer of 2017. Plans for the fifth and final phase of the project, Travino Gardens, is now underway.
The Travino’s first two buildings were completed in 2015 and are sold out, the four-storey Travino Park and five-storey Travino Central, each with 36 condos. The third phase, the six-storey, 50-suite Travino Square is nearly sold out.
Sales for Travino Landing’s 46 condos have just begun, with 50 per cent of the building sold to home buyers who had significant input into the design of their new home.
“… With Travino Landing we tried something completely different,” said Edward Geric, president of Mike Geric Construction. “We started working with potential home buyers really early, letting them adjust the size of their home, move walls and completely rearrange their space if that’s what they wanted. That’s a pretty unusual opportunity for a condo buyer.”
reporter@saanichnews.com
