Redbrick celebrates 15 years and announces forthcoming proposal to build Westholme, a landmark hotel in the heart of downtown Victoria, BC.

We’re excited to introduce Westholme Hotel, our proposal for a landmark hotel at the corner of Government Street and Pandora Avenue. Collaborating with local developer, Aryze, we’re putting together preliminary development plans that would help address the city’s current hotel room shortage and establish an architecturally significant hospitality gateway to the north end of Victoria’s downtown.

603 Pandora Avenue, the proposed site, is just down the street from our current headquarters—the same neighbourhood where Redbrick started 15 years ago in a small red-brick office in Market Square.

"As we celebrate 15 years of Redbrick in Victoria, announcing Westholme feels deeply meaningful to us. We’ve spent the last decade and a half building businesses in this neighbourhood, and this project is an opportunity to invest back into the community we’ve grown alongside."

Tobyn Sowden, CEO of Redbrick

Back to the beginning

Way back in 2011, Redbrick was a small martech start-up with just enough team members that you could count them on one hand. Redbrick, which got its name from—you guessed it—the red-brick walls of our first office, would catch the attention of Google Canada and be named a top 10 advertising partner just one year later.

Redbrick was growing quickly. Over the next two years, we built up a base of over 1,000 clients and an internal software division which, today, is Shift, our alternative browser. What started out as a marketing services business was now fully hands-on in tech. Turns out, we couldn’t shake the spirit of entrepreneurship that started Redbrick in the first place. We wanted to keep building businesses.

And that’s exactly what we did. We launched Assembly, our digital publishing technology solution, in 2015 and it took off. By 2016, Assembly was garnering 100+ million page views a month and Profit 500 named Redbrick the second-fastest-growing software company in Canada.

But Redbrick’s role was quickly shifting into a parent company as our portfolio grew. We weren’t a traditional software company, not anymore. Our Shared Services model was emerging: a core team of operations, marketing, finance, and people & culture experts that made up Redbrick. This team would be the driver behind Redbrick’s next stage of growth, integrating with our portfolio to provide support and giving new businesses a launch pad.

During that time, we sold Assembly to Canada’s largest independent media company, where it would go on to power publications like Maclean’s, Today’s Parent, Chatelaine, and more.

We didn’t slow down. Redbrick completed five major acquisitions: Leadpages, Delivra, Animoto, Paved, and Quartz Media. In 2023, we met a huge milestone when Redbrick reached over $100M in revenue and more than 200 team members.

What’s the secret to sustainable growth?

Fast forward to today, we’re a B Corp Certified group of companies that has been one of Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers for seven years running. Our Shared Services model is still going strong, and because of it, we’ve stayed hands-on with all our businesses—even as our portfolio continues to grow.

Our role in the community has expanded as well. Our focus has been on growing a talent pipeline here in Victoria and carving pathways for entrepreneurship in our city. We’ve reinvested locally through initiatives like TEDxVictoria and mentorship with STEM programs at UVic. Over the years, our co-op program, which started with just one computer science student, has seen over 120 co-op students come to Redbrick for early work experience. In 2025, alone, we welcomed 19 co-op students.

We hire nearly 40% of our co-op students after graduation on a part-time or full-time basis. Fostering emerging talent, especially the talent in our own backyard, has been one of the key ways we find and retain amazing people—and one of the best ways businesses can help young professionals stay in Victoria.

We’re a long way from that red-brick office—metaphorically. Geographically, we’ve only moved a few blocks away into our new Victoria headquarters. But when we reflect on the last 15 years of growth, there’s really only one answer for how we got here: we build and operate on the premise of leaving things better than we found them.

That means prioritizing long-term ownership over short-term returns, and measured growth over rapid expansion. This mindset has guided all of our decisions from day one, and we’re proud to be an example of how a profitable business can be equally committed to creating a positive impact on our community.

Looking ahead: Westholme, our community, and Redbrick

Westholme is part of our mission for long-term growth and ownership. We’re looking ahead to invest in what’s lasting and impactful for us and the city, and Westholme delivers on every count.

603 Pandora Ave has sat empty and underutilized at a prominent corner of Downtown for well over a decade. Meanwhile, the city of Victoria is experiencing mounting pressure on its hotel infrastructure that threatens our ability to sustain regional tourism. Located steps from the emerging Industry, Arts, and Innovation District, Westholme would add meaningful visitor capacity to a growing part of our city.

We also envision Westholme serving the local community as much as it does visitors. The site is at a natural gathering point downtown—we want to turn this fenced-off corner of downtown into somewhere that invites local life through third spaces, a reinvigorated streetscape, and an architectural landmark the community can be proud to see in their downtown.

Redbrick has been a resident of the neighbourhood surrounding 603 Pandora for all of the 15 years we’ve been in operation. As business owners and as locals, we’ve walked past the fenced-off site at the corner of Pandora and Government maybe a thousand times.

This is our community. This is where we live and work and where we’ve shared major milestones in the growth of our business. As local residents and business owners, this development matters deeply to us. We’re excited to bring Westholme back to Victoria—as an operator, employer, and strong believers in the community we call home.

What’s next? If our track record over the last 15 years is any indication, we never stop building—so stay tuned. As for Westholme, it’s currently in the preliminary stages of development, with full project details to be shared in the coming months. You can sign up for our newsletter on Westholme to be the first to hear about any updates or ways you can engage.