The Arbutus

The Arbutus is a five-storey, 38-home condominium at 2500 Hackett Crescent, in the Turgoose area of Saanichton, District of Central Saanich. Construction came out of the ground in 2017 and the building completed in 2019.

It was the first phase of the Marigold Lands, the former Marigold Nursery site rezoned in 2017. Two further phases have followed: Bella Vista, 235 purpose-built rentals across two six-storey buildings at 2515 Hackett Crescent, and The Sequoia Residences, a 50-home six-storey condominium with 14 townhouses at 2520 Hackett Crescent. Both are now built and occupied. The Arbutus was the small, quiet building here first; it is no longer either of those things by default.

A note on the name: some listings and correspondence refer to this building as "The Marigold," after the neighbourhood, the café next door, and the nursery that preceded all of it.

Architecture & construction

Wood-frame over a poured concrete foundation, clad in cement fibre, with an asphalt torch-on roof and a West Coast palette of dark and natural finishes. Five storeys, one building, 38 strata lots, all on a single level within the suite. Front elevations vary by unit — the four homes on these sheets face west, north-west, east and south-west respectively, which matters more here than in a tower, because exposure is most of what separates one floor plan from another.

The building was covered by the standard BC 2-5-10 New Home Warranty from its 2019 completion. The ten-year building-envelope portion of that coverage runs to roughly 2029. Ask for the warranty documentation and any envelope claims history — a 2019 wood-frame building is early enough that the depreciation report should still read as routine, and late enough that you want to confirm it does.

The homes

Nearly all of The Arbutus is two-bedroom, two-bathroom, in a fairly tight range of 915 to 976 square feet of finished area. Layouts separate the bedrooms across the suite, most with walk-in closets and both bathrooms accessible without crossing the living space.

Common features across the homes:

• Nine-foot ceilings and open-plan kitchen, dining and living
• Quartz counters, stainless appliances, gas range
• Natural gas fireplace in the living room
• In-suite laundry, storage, closet organizers
• Heated tile floors in the ensuite in several units
• Large outdoor space — the four suites reviewed carried between 166 and 371 square feet of balcony or deck

Heating is baseboard electric plus natural gas. Air conditioning is not standard: of the four suites reviewed, only the top-floor corner had a heat pump. If cooling matters to you, it is a unit-by-unit question, not a building answer.

Strata fees in the four suites reviewed ran $530 to $561 a month, covering garbage removal, hot water, insurance, grounds maintenance and sewer. Property taxes ran $3,078 to $3,468. Assessments for 2026 came in between $640,000 and $654,000.

Amenities & policies

• Secure underground parking, with EV charging infrastructure
• Storage lockers, bicycle storage, kayak and paddleboard storage
• Elevator, secured entry, playground
• Pets: cats and dogs permitted, with number limits — one listing states two dogs or two cats with no size restriction
• Rentals: unrestricted, no short-term rentals

Verify both bylaws with the strata before writing. Number limits and rental language change.

Location & getting around

The building sits off Lochside Drive near Mount Newton Cross Road, with the Lochside Regional Trail at the door — a flat, paved route running north to Swartz Bay and south into Victoria, connecting to the Galloping Goose. Saanichton Bay is a short walk. The Marigold Café, a pharmacy and a family clinic are steps away.

By car, it is roughly six minutes to Victoria International Airport, about thirteen to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, and about twenty minutes to downtown Victoria. Frequent transit runs the Highway 17 corridor.

What is not at the door is a grocery store. Central Saanich's mayor has been asking about one on this site since the earliest days of the Marigold project; the density has arrived and the retail has not. Thrifty Foods and Home Hardware are a short drive toward Saanichton Village. If you want to buy milk on foot, this is not your building yet.

Who it suits

The Arbutus works for a downsizer or a peninsula-based buyer who wants a genuinely large two-bedroom, real outdoor space, and a five-minute run to the airport and ferries — without paying core Victoria per-foot pricing. The floor plans are more generous than most 2019-vintage two-bedrooms in the region, and the gas range and fireplace are unusual at this price.

It works less well as a cash-flow investment. Rentals are unrestricted, which is genuinely useful, but the rental competition next door is 235 professionally managed suites currently giving away a month's rent. Underwrite conservatively.