Where does a toy shop go after more than fifteen years on Oak Bay Avenue? In the case of Timeless Toys, it went to Estevan Village. The store moved from the Avenue at the start of February 2026 and now lists its storefront at 2525 Estevan Ave., with online sales running alongside it.
Hide + Seek Coffee, its neighbour in the Bell Block, closed its Oak Bay café at 2207 Oak Bay Ave. on June 14 and opened at the Royal BC Museum. Behind paper in the café's old window, a newcomer called Blue House is getting ready to serve $2 drip coffee to seniors. The idea came from a conversation with someone who missed the old café.
A year after the rent increases made news, the Bell Block's story looks less like a block emptying out and more like a scattering. The businesses are still running at new addresses. Of the two storefronts they left, one is about to reopen with a nod to what it used to offer, and the other is still advertised for lease.
A building that changed hands once in 97 years
The Bell Block is a two-storey, 12,766-square-foot building with five shopfronts at street level and eight homes upstairs. In early 2025 it was bought by Vancouver-based Upfield Capital Management. The firm said at the time that it was "the first time this architecturally significant building has traded hands in 97 years, offering a rare opportunity to enhance and reposition a legacy asset."
Lease talks with two long-time tenants followed. In fall 2025, Oak Bay News reported the details:
- Timeless Toys at 2201 Oak Bay Ave., there since 2010, faced a 59 per cent triple-net rent increase over five years. A triple-net lease puts taxes, insurance and maintenance on the tenant.
- Hide + Seek Coffee posted on September 10, 2025 that its rent would "almost double." The café said it would look for a new space once its lease ran out the following July.
- Fort Royal Pharmacy, HearingLife, Sampsons antiques and the 4 Cats arts studio were named as the building's other businesses.
CHEK News covered the same increases a few days earlier. Upfield didn't respond to Oak Bay News' request for comment. The paper also noted that British Columbia caps residential rent increases each year but has no such limit for commercial leases.
Councillor Hazel Braithwaite called the shops "long-established, well-loved local shops that contribute enormously to the character of Oak Bay Avenue." She described the pressure as "a pattern we are noticing not only here in Oak Bay but across Greater Victoria."
The toy shop route runs both ways
Timeless Toys' move to Estevan reverses an earlier one. Buddies Toys once had an Oak Bay store in Estevan Village that moved to the Avenue in 2015 and merged into the company's Sidney shop in 2019. Buddies' Sidney store on Beacon Avenue then closed on April 4, 2026, after owner Lauren Powell decided against committing to another five-year lease.
So within about a decade, Oak Bay's independent toy retail has gone from Estevan to the Avenue and back to Estevan, carried by two different stores. The same Oak Bay News article reported Timeless Toys' move and Buddies' closing together. Families who shopped at either now find the nearest independent toy store on Estevan Avenue.
Hide + Seek moved downtown, into a café with its own history
Hide + Seek's Oak Bay café closed roughly eight months after the café first said its rent was going up. Its next location was already set. In June the company announced a café at the Royal BC Museum, promising patio seating, tree shade, Le Corbusier lounge chairs and a turntable, with free parkade parking on Sundays. The company's location page now marks the museum café "NOW OPEN!"
The museum space was empty for a reason of its own. CHEK reported that 2% Jazz Coffee left it after business fell off sharply during the weeks-long BCGEU strike in fall 2025, which included some museum workers. Hide + Seek still runs its cafés at 1839 Fairfield Road and 820 Catherine Street.
For Oak Bay regulars, that means the nearest Hide + Seek is now on Fairfield Road. The museum is a stop for a downtown afternoon, not a weekday walk to the Avenue.
What is going into 2207
The coffee counter at 2207 is being rebuilt by someone new to the trade. Blue House owner Michael Zhou trained as an engineer and built an e-commerce business, mostly on his own, before selling it. He told Tasting Victoria he wants a place where people gather offline:
"If you look at a coffee shop it's like a mini community centre. It's a social hub. That's the concept behind this cafe."
Before announcing anything, Zhou spent a month in Victoria cafés asking people what they liked. One older woman told him she was sad Hide + Seek was closing, and said her favourite thing about it was the $2 drip coffee. If he ever opened a coffee shop, she said, he had to have one. That conversation helped move him away from a fancier, "Instagrammable" first concept toward affordability. Blue House will serve $2 drip coffee to seniors as a tribute to her.
Here is what Blue House's website lists so far:
- Hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
- Seniors' drip: $2, any size, any day.
- Menu range: from a $1.50 madeleine to $7.95 signature drinks, with coffee, matcha drinks, pastries and a ham-and-cheese Suisse.
- Small savings: oat, soy and almond milk at no extra charge, and 50 cents off when you bring your own cup.
Zhou is doing much of the renovation himself. He has run several rounds of blind taste tests with friends to choose the matcha, milks and brewing methods, and is buying beans a grade or two above what most shops use.
The opening date is still unconfirmed. Tasting Victoria's August 24 article described a September opening plan. On August 22, Oak Bay Local reported that the window sign said September but the doors weren't yet open. As of early October, the café's website still reads "Under construction, opening September" and invites visitors to sign up to hear the opening date. Until Blue House announces a date, the paper in the window is the best guide.
The other storefront is still on the market
When Neil Rogers spoke to Oak Bay News in September 2025, he said the landlord had started advertising the Timeless Toys space for lease "more than eight months prior to the end of our lease, while we were still in negotiations." He also warned that "if we are forced to move, there is a good chance our space could be vacant for some time."
A commercial listing for that 858-square-foot retail unit at 2201 Oak Bay Ave., described as part of the historic Bell Block, is still active and marked available immediately. The listing is dated May 14, 2025 and was last updated August 24, 2026. No public source yet names a new tenant or a signed lease for the space.
The tenants who stayed
Two of the businesses named in 2025 still list Bell Block addresses on their own websites. Fort Royal Pharmacy gives its Oak Bay branch as 2217 Oak Bay Ave. and says it has operated there since 2019. HearingLife lists its Oak Bay hearing centre at 2215 Oak Bay Ave., open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sampsons and 4 Cats appeared in last year's reporting. Their current status at the building isn't confirmed by their own pages.
On a walk along the Avenue this fall, that leaves a pharmacy and a hearing clinic still open, a café window papered over with a September sign, and a former toy shop still offered for lease. The toy shop is now on Estevan, and the café is at the Royal BC Museum.
FarupScott Group works from RE/MAX Camosun Oak Bay and follows how the Avenue changes, storefront by storefront. If you'd like to talk through how changes along Oak Bay Avenue fit into your own plans in Oak Bay, Connect With Us.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
