History of Broadmead Village

Characterized by mature trees, connected green spaces and an emphasis on the natural landscape, the Broadmead community is a unique region. Settled by the Songhees Nation and later purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company, almost 719 acres of land was deeded as a farm to Alexander Grant Dallas in 1859 and named The Dallas Farm. The farm was then acquired by R.P. Rithet in 1891.

Rithet named the farm Broadmead after his beloved prizewinning racehorse and the community adopted this name, continuing the historic connection to the region. Rithet passed away in 1919 and his heirs decided the best future for Broadmead was to develop a holistic plan for the property that preserved the area's natural landscape and character. Local developer Gordon Rolston and a group of investors bought the property in 1965 and began implementing this plan.

Broadmead was comprehensively designed to be a community and Broadmead Vilage was built in 1993 and renovated in 2013 by Grosvenor Americas, offering the community a variety of amenities as well as a central gathering place. The Broadmead Village logo features a horse's head to maintain the connection to the racehorse Broadmead and the property's history.

Renovation and Sustainability Highlights

Signage - Signage was carefully integrated into the overall storefront design to complement the architecture, and to provide a unique identity for each tenant.

West Coast Design Elements - Masonry bases of stone, granite and tile were created at feature entries and a wide variety of tones and textures – stained wood, painted metal, and glass complement the warm toned contrasting cementatious and brick surfaces.

Breezeway - The parking enclave adjacent to the West side of the Breezeway was redesigned to create a large public plaza incorporating place-making amenities such as public seating, new landscaping, LED lighting, a heated, covered soft-seating area, zero carbon fireplace, and landscaped interactive fountain.

Awards and Recognition

BOMA BEST Environmental Certification

December 4, 2012: Broadmead Village Shopping Centre received a Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Building Environmental Standards (BEST) Level 1 Certification. This is the first of four levels of certification and is a benchmarking process that helps applicants move up the levels of certification through improved environmental management.

ICSC Maple Leaf Silver Award

September 4, 2014: Grosvenor was acknowledged for its outstanding achievement in Design and Development Excellence for the renovation of Broadmead Village at the ICSC Canadian Shopping Centre Awards.

Urban Beekeeping at Broadmead Village

We are very excited to advise that Grosvenor Property Americas have secured a contract with BeesPleaseFarms (beespleasefarms.com) an urban bee keeping company located on Happy Valley Road, Victoria, to install and maintain two bee hives on a rooftop of Broadmead Village Shopping Center. BeesPleaseFarms will harvest honey from the hives for our distribution. Stay tuned for distribution plans.

The beehives were installed on June 10 and we are fortunate to be able to utilize our rooftop space for this initiative to help increase the world population of bees, which is in dramatic decline. Bees play a major role in fruit, vegetable, and nut production and about a third of what we eat relies on their pollination.

The Bees provide no cause for concern to customers as that even while our Bee-Keeper is working with them, they will stay more on their level, and not come down to street level.

When they do leave their hive to go about their work (which is really all they are concerned with), they buzz out and 'bee line' to their next pick-up location (which they learned from the other bees). The bees are not attracted by food like wasps, they are only interested in the nectar of flowering plants.
Honeybees are more defensive than aggressive. BeesPleaseFarms has over 60 locations in greater Victoria, with some located in very small backyards, and people get along well with their neighborhood bees.
The only real enemy of the honeybee are wasps and under the direction of BeesPleaseFarms we have strategically placed wasp traps around the property to help provide a safer environment for the queen and the other bees.
The Royal Oak geographic area is lush with tens of thousands flowering plants and all our neighbors will be benefiting from the associated pollination that our bees will be assisting with.

Sustainability

• Decreased Annual Water consumption of 35.87%

• LED Lighting – Used for all new individual store signs,
    podium and wayfinding signage, general outdoor
    lighting elements.

• Recycling – Recycling programs were expanded at the
     centre reducing landfill waste and waste hauling
     expenses. Soft plastics can now be recycled.

• Carbon Offsets – New heated outdoor amenities are
     carbon neutral through the purchase of carbon offsets.

• No Smoking Policy – The centre is now designated as a
    non-smoking environment.