Last week’s news that the Onni Group had finalized its purchase of the former Capital City Centre property was good news for a municipality decried by some of its residents as “the land of big holes.”
As indicated in our Homefinder feature in last Friday’s Gazette, Colwood is indeed open for business and home to a number of interesting and encouraging developments, both commercial and residential.
We look forward to hearing the details about the future of the Colwood Corners project, which has sat vacant for some months after original developer League Assets filed for bankruptcy protection.
We’ve always insisted that a municipality cannot be blamed for a bad economy that sends overextended developers into financial ruin. Jurisdictions such as Colwood do their best to encourage well-planned developments and do as much due diligence on proponents as is possible without scaring them off.
So when a situation brought on by recessionary times rights itself, as the Capital City Centre project appears to have done, we can’t help but applaud all those involved for sticking with it, having patience with the process and seeing things through.
In Colwood’s case, much work still remains to be done by the planning department before Onni moves its crews onto the site and begins creating its vision for the property. But without a doubt, the fact the development is even at that stage again is a sign the West Shore’s economy is in a good place.
From Colwood’s perspective, a little friendly competition with the City of Langford can never be a bad thing.
The latter municipality continues to grow apace, both residentially and commercially. But having its next-door neighbour enjoy some development kudos can only be good for the whole West Shore.