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Development Ideas
#1
Development Ideas
A thread to discuss ideas for development across Waterloo Region
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#2
I was driving along Weber Street today between Albert and King Street, and was thinking how crazy it is that most of the land on the east (?) side of Weber Street here is still vacant. This is the land behind Intelligent Mechatronics Systems (former Conestoga College Waterloo campus), the Waterloo Inn and Faith Life Financial.

I remember in the early 1990s there was a really shoddy plaza at the intersection of Milford Avenue and Weber Street that had an indoor glow in the dark golf place (Shot in the Dark it was called). The plaza was torn down in the mid 1990s and it's sat vacant since. Does anyone remember it?

Loblaws wanted to build a Real Canadian Superstore on these lands about 10 years ago, but that proposal was shelved.

I am surprised that with being such a central location in KW that this large swath of land is still vacant....some of it never developped (closer to the Waterloo Inn). It's close to Highway 85 and many of the KW's main roads.

What type of development would work well here?
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#3
Preferably something that would connect through to King Street / Blue Springs Dr.
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#4
Those two fields are still actively farmed, no?
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#5
They are. I've always wondered what the story is behind that field. Is the land owned by the Waterloo Inn?
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#6
I think the longer they wait, the lower the commercial value. The city has routed around it now and it is becoming its own isolated dead end. They should expand the Waterloo Inn, built ten office/apartment towers like the Barrel Yards with plenty of commercial space at ground level and a central court yard. It is also now nearly impossible to make it interact with either Weber or King St the way things are now.

As I said, the time to develop this was 15-20 years ago. Now the town has turned it's back on that empty corridor on both sides of King and both sides of Weber.
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#7
Interesting article in the Globe today. I'm wondering where KW sits in the smaller city condo glut? Being a somewhat more affluent city, I'm not sure how the change from 30 to 25 year amortization for insurance protection would adversely affect this region. Here's the link http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...e23165014/
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#8
I've been told that the K-W condo market has been dead for the past six months.
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#9
(03-02-2015, 11:03 AM)BuildingScout Wrote: I think the longer they wait, the lower the commercial value. The city has routed around it now and it is becoming its own isolated dead end. They should expand the Waterloo Inn, built ten office/apartment towers like the Barrel Yards with plenty of commercial space at ground level and a central court yard. It is also now nearly impossible to make it interact with either Weber or King St the way things are now.

As I said, the time to develop this was 15-20 years ago. Now the town has turned it's back on that empty corridor on both sides of King and both sides of Weber.

They aren't making more land.  Once the larger swaths of vacant land or brownfield land are developed in Waterloo, these parcels will become more appealing.  After all, the Barrelyards property sat vacant for nearly 20 years before something happened.
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#10
(03-02-2015, 01:23 PM)nms Wrote: They aren't making more land.  Once the larger swaths of vacant land or brownfield land are developed in Waterloo, these parcels will become more appealing.  After all, the Barrelyards property sat vacant for nearly 20 years before something happened.

The key difference is that the town grew towards the Barrel Yards (perimeter, seagram lofts, cigi, lrt, ccgg). Now that the LRT has skipped the Waterloo Inn zone the value of the land has been reduced permanently. Twenty years ago the LRT going north would have turned at Quiet Place, through Sugar Bush park, then next to the Waterloo Inn and finally Conestoga Mall under the expressway. Today the present routing to Northfield station makes the most sense, and has left the Waterloo Inn isolated.

I'm not saying the land is worthless. I'm saying it's value is much diminished.
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#11
(03-02-2015, 11:50 AM)panamaniac Wrote: I've been told that the K-W condo market has been dead for the past six months.

At The42 at least, there are 15-20% of units looking to change hands, out of ~55.
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#12
(03-02-2015, 01:51 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote:
(03-02-2015, 11:50 AM)panamaniac Wrote: I've been told that the K-W condo market has been dead for the past six months.

At The42 at least, there are 15-20% of units looking to change hands, out of ~55.

Prices falling to reflect the large number on offer?
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#13
(03-02-2015, 04:04 PM)panamaniac Wrote: Prices falling to reflect the large number on offer?

I don't know about the 42, but in many relatively new developments be them houses or condos, prices tend not to fall barring foreclosures. Why?  because people would owe money to the bank if they sold, so they simply stay put. I know of one specific overpriced development in which not a single house sold for seven years, even though the expected turnaround in that time span should have been on the order of a dozen sales.

Presently prices in that development have finally matched what they paid for twelve years ago, and suddenly there are 5 houses for sale.
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#14
Hazards of buying with less than a 20% down payment, I guess.
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#15
(03-02-2015, 01:51 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: At The42 at least, there are 15-20% of units looking to change hands, out of ~55.

To what do you attribute this high turnover at such an early stage?
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