Starlight Investments, a national rental residential and commercial developer and owner, has broken ground on Phase I of Harris Green Village in Victoria. The project is planned to be the city's largest multifamily housing development.

It's a three-phased, mixed-use development on two downtown city blocks that will produce 526 rental suites in the first chapter of the project.

The master plan — if fully realized — will eventually add 1,500 new rental homes to Victoria and 100,000 square feet of commercial space. The development will also deliver 80 affordable suites as part of the first phase, said Howard Paskowitz, vice president, development and public affairs, Starlight Investments.

"There's really no better time than now to try to help solve the housing crisis," Paskowitz told RENX in an interview. "This is a project we've been working on for many years in the City of Victoria. It (Victoria) is a fantastic place to live and work, and it has a significant shortage of good quality, attainable rental housing."

He said that while development conditions in Victoria and elsewhere in Canada remain a challenge, the demand for rental homes continues to outstrip new supply in the provincial capital.

"We are hearing quite a bit of the need for . . . quality rental housing in Victoria, not just for people to go there that want to live, but a lot of the local businesses are having trouble staffing their operations because there aren't enough people that can afford to live in Victoria.”

Harris Green Village spans two city blocks

He said the commercial space at the project will be retained by Starlight and they can "move a few pieces around” to maximize the commercial and retail arrangements in the development. 

Harris Green Village is located on separate tracts at the 900 block of Yates St. and at 1045 Yates. It will include a mix of suite options including townhomes, studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. It will also have a street-facing plaza alongside residential green space with outdoor amenities.

Phase 1 of the development will start at 1045 Yates and will include one 20-storey tower and one 21-storey tower. 

"The Harris Green Village development is a demonstration of Victoria's forward-thinking approach to driving purpose-built rental housing," said Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto in a release. "This is exactly the kind of vibrant, community-driven growth we can expect as the city continues to create more opportunities for housing and community spaces in the downtown core."

Jeff Bray, CEO of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said his organization is excited that construction is starting. "Starlight is bringing much-needed rental housing into our core. This is the biggest single investment in purpose-built rental in Victoria and demonstrates the confidence investors have in downtown Victoria," he said in a release.

Victoria’s vacancy rate in purpose-built rental was 2.6 per cent, with average two-bedroom rent logged at $1,993, up by 3.6 per cent from a year earlier, according to the CMHC's 2024 Fall Rental Market Report. The purpose-built rental inventory expanded by 5.7 per cent in 2024 when compared to the previous historical pace, the report said. 

Since then, vacancy likely has continued to inch up in Victoria as new rental projects have completed, but there is still an overall shortage of rental homes. 

Starlight focused on rental development

Starlight has a development pipeline to deliver thousands of rental suites across Canada over the next decade, with 17 projects underway across B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. "The majority of Victoria's rental homes were built more than 40 years ago," Paskowitz said. 

He said they are a pure rental developer and have no condos in their pipeline: "We're the largest provider of rental housing across Canada."

Part of the driving force is that big-city Canadians are increasingly accepting rental as a long-term or permanent living situation, he said. 

It's not that Canadians are giving up on their dreams, it's that — for some — their values and priorities are shifting, Paskowitz said. Having an affordable home in an urban environment well connected to transit and amenities and other people without having the burden of home ownership and maintenance and high borrowing costs, is increasingly appealing.

"People want to belong to something and be part of something.”

Starlight Investments is a global real estate investment and asset management firm headquartered in Toronto.

It has more than 70,000 multi-residential suites and over seven million square feet of commercial property space with $30 billion in assets under management. Starlight offers a range of investment vehicles across various real estate strategies.