The city says it will issue a request for proposals this week for a developer to design and build a six-storey mixed-use project on the site.
Langford is offering up an old fire hall property on Happy Valley Road for a new development that would bring another medical clinic and housing to the growing West Shore community.
The old No. 2 Fire Hall, which has been used for decades to store the city’s trolley cars and spare municipal equipment, is deemed surplus — and considered an ideal location to build its third clinic in four years to meet the ever-pressing demand for family doctors.
Mayor Scott Goodmanson said the city will issue a request for proposals this week for a developer to design and build a six-storey mixed-use project that would include 4,500 square feet of medical-clinic space to house 12 to 14 doctors who could be attached to up to 12,500 residents currently without a family doctor.
The proposal would also include several units of housing and 2,400 square feet of commercial space for potentially a pharmacy and coffee shop. The project would be on the former fire hall site, next to the newer No.2 station, and an adjacent property along Happy Valley Road that the city acquired in 2024 as part of a land assembly.
The deal with a potential developer — which could include non-profit or for-profit entities — would see the city retain ownership of the medical space in exchange for the land, said Goodmanson.
The mayor called it “a hands-on approach” to address the severe shortage of doctors. “By leveraging partnerships and under-utilized city land, we’re directing supporting access to medical care,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.
Langford is partnering with the South Island Primary Care Society on the project. It’s similar to the city’s arrangement with two other clinics it created — the medical office on the third floor of the city hall building and the Goldstream Medical Clinic on Bryn Maur Road, which opened this year.
Alyssa Andres, executive director of the South Island Primary Care Society, said the Goldstream Medical Clinic has hired 10 physicians, five of whom are already seeing patients, and more doctors have been recruited and are expected to arrive in the coming months.
She said the society is also operating medical clinics in Royal Oak, Colwood and View Royal.
Andres said another location in Langford is needed.
“This is an exceptional announcement for us and for people looking for care and a doctor,” she said. “I think one of the greatest things our organization has seen in the last two and half years of running five clinics we currently have is that we have a really strong proof of concept here.
“We have something that’s working, that’s actively bringing physicians to the community.”
She said the society has recruited 46 doctors over a 30-month period.
But with an ever-increasing West Shore population, more spaces and ultimately more doctors are needed.
“We hear from more doctors who are retiring and we hear from more members of the community who still need access to care,” Andre’s said. “So while we put urgent care access in place, and while we do all this attachment with patients, we recognize that we still need more clinics, and we need to be doing succession planning to ensure that our growth sustains at the rate we’re currently doing it.”
In the past, physicians had to be the owners-operators of their practices, but in this case, the society takes on recruitment and provides some of the day-to-day administration, freeing doctors to focus on their patients, although they will still contribute a flat rate for overhead costs.
All the new patients are selected from the province’s Health Connect Registry, which is the only way to be registered with the clinic. Patients cannot be enrolled by visiting the clinic, phoning or emailing it.
Andres said the society has a good working relationship with Langford on new clinics as the city assists with project management and marketing and providing administrative resources.
“They’ve allowed us to really take the lead on running the medical clinic and informing what that looks like from an operational perspective,” said Andres. “That partnership really allowed us to have success early on, to work in a speed we wouldn’t be able to work without them.”
The new clinic announced Tuesday could take up to two years for completion.
Andres said it would likely be the same size as the Bryn Maur clinic with about 14 exam rooms, and 10 doctors will be attached to 12,500 patients. The Bryn Maur location currently has 7,000 registered users, which will increase as five more doctors are added in the coming months.
Andres said recruited doctors are chiefly coming from Canada, the United States and Great Britain.
The old No. 2 fire hall was built in 1964 as the Glen Lake Fire Station and operated as a volunteer hall for decades. For the last several years, it has been used to store Langford’s trolley cars, which were sold off three years ago. It’s currently used for storing the city’s electric bike rentals.
Fire Chief Chris Aubrey said it is a fitting location for a medical clinic. “We often talk about building resilient, healthy communities. Health care is a cornerstone of that resilience,” he said. “When people can access medical care, they prevent emergencies before they happen. It reduces the strain on emergency services, and we improve the quality of life for everyone. This project reflects an understanding of our community’s needs.”