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+--- Thread: One Young (née Mayfair Hotel) | 5 fl | Complete (/showthread.php?tid=299)
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Canard - 06-07-2016
If that were true then why is the lot beside Manulife on the other side of the street empty?
People are complaining about the TPSS' placement for ion "robbing the region of real estate just prime for redevelopment" and "creating a hostile environment for cyclists and pedestrians", yet how is it ok that these two lots, right in the absolute centre of downtown, are ok to sit here as bare ugly dirt patches?
That's more what I was getting at...
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - panamaniac - 06-07-2016
(06-07-2016, 12:01 PM)Canard Wrote: If that were true then why is the lot beside Manulife on the other side of the street empty?
People are complaining about the TPSS' placement for ion "robbing the region of real estate just prime for redevelopment" and "creating a hostile environment for cyclists and pedestrians", yet how is it ok that these two lots, right in the absolute centre of downtown, are ok to sit here as bare ugly dirt patches?
That's more what I was getting at...
I doubt many people think it's OK for lots on the Regon's main drag to sit empty for years. I don't know who owns the old Ackers site (perhaps still the Ackers themselves), which became empty after a fire destroyed the furniture store, and I really don't know why it hasn't been developed - it perhaps needs to be consolidated with either the Manulife site for a future expansion, or with the building(s) between the site and the PUC building. I guess the same questions arise wrt the gap between the American Hotel block and the old TD Bank at Frederick. The market seems simply not to have needed these spaces, at least not at the prices the landowners have been seeking (if they are even for sale).
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Owen - 06-07-2016
(06-07-2016, 01:40 PM)panamaniac Wrote:(06-07-2016, 12:01 PM)Canard Wrote: If that were true then why is the lot beside Manulife on the other side of the street empty?
People are complaining about the TPSS' placement for ion "robbing the region of real estate just prime for redevelopment" and "creating a hostile environment for cyclists and pedestrians", yet how is it ok that these two lots, right in the absolute centre of downtown, are ok to sit here as bare ugly dirt patches?
That's more what I was getting at...
I doubt many people think it's OK for lots on the Regon's main drag to sit empty for years. I don't know who owns the old Ackers site (perhaps still the Ackers themselves), which became empty after a fire destroyed the furniture store, and I really don't know why it hasn't been developed - it perhaps needs to be consolidated with either the Manulife site for a future expansion, or with the building(s) between the site and the PUC building. I guess the same questions arise wrt the gap between the American Hotel block and the old TD Bank at Frederick. The market seems simply not to have needed these spaces, at least not at the prices the landowners have been seeking (if they are even for sale).
The trouble with the Ackers site is that it actually has two different owners. There was a narrow strip up one side that had a separate owner, and the other (lets call it two-thirds) has a different owner. You can actually see the remains of the foundation that marks the divide in Google satellite view:
![[Image: BwiJx9j.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/BwiJx9j.jpg)
...and from Kitchener's onpoint mapping tool:
![[Image: 7LeOHUx.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/7LeOHUx.jpg)
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Canard - 06-07-2016
So a private individual owns lot 227 and someone else owns lot 221?
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Owen - 06-07-2016
(06-07-2016, 04:01 PM)Canard Wrote: So a private individual owns lot 227 and someone else owns lot 221?
Correct.
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Canard - 06-07-2016
Why would you own a piece of land, and then not do anything with it?
(this may seem like a stupid question but honestly this baffles and confuses me, and I'm just trying to understand the situation)
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - mpd618 - 06-07-2016
(06-07-2016, 09:16 PM)Canard Wrote: Why would you own a piece of land, and then not do anything with it?
(this may seem like a stupid question but honestly this baffles and confuses me, and I'm just trying to understand the situation)
A few possibilities that come to my mind:
1) You think the property will be worth more in the future, either because the city will change or perhaps the zoning might change.
2) You want to redevelop, but think you will have better demand in the future and you can sell / lease for more when you do build. And in the meantime your property taxes are lower.
3) You're waiting for a lot consolidation opportunity, which could allow for a larger redevelopment than you can do on just your own property.
4) You want to redevelop but your capital and attention are deployed elsewhere.
5) You don't really care about maximizing your value, for whatever reason.
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - panamaniac - 06-07-2016
And the land has effectively cost you nothing, having been in family hands and paid for decades ago (I speculate).
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - MacBerry - 06-07-2016
(06-06-2016, 10:38 PM)panamaniac Wrote:Konig Panamaniac ist wunderbar ja ja ja(06-06-2016, 10:24 PM)tomh009 Wrote: When do we get to cast our votes for you?
Votes!? What do you think this is, a democracy! No, there will come a time, after I am acclaimed and anointed, when I just wave my magic development wand and Kitchener becomes just the way I judge that it should be. It will be wonderful!
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Viewfromthe42 - 06-08-2016
That tiny parcel is generating revenue right now. If you go look at it, it's being used by Manulife as a dumping zone for the massive interior refurbishing they're doing (lots of drywall coming down, and the hole in the wall there is not for new windows, but to let them dump things out and into the tiny lot. Construction fencing clearly shows that only the tiny lot is being used (and its owner paid) for use as a dump zone.
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Canard - 06-08-2016
So how is a dump right across from city hall ok, but using vacant land for a TPSS for ion is the end of the world, from an "intensification standpoint"?
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - Viewfromthe42 - 06-08-2016
Temporary dump
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - taylortbb - 06-08-2016
(06-08-2016, 11:55 AM)Canard Wrote: So how is a dump right across from city hall ok, but using vacant land for a TPSS for ion is the end of the world, from an "intensification standpoint"?
You're arguing against a position that doesn't exist. I think most of us that are upset about TPSS locations are just as upset if not more about the vacant lots on King St.
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - GtwoK - 06-08-2016
As well, vacant lots have potential that is yet to be made use of, TPSS lots have been made use of, but won't be able to have more than a TPSS on them.
RE: Mayfair Hotel | 0 fl | Complete - mpd618 - 06-08-2017
So, uh... is this gonna be a gravel lot forever?