General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[kidgibnick]

What is happening with the plaza beside Northern Thai (91 Queen)? It appears to be dying a slow death. It seems like a great opportunity beside the LRT stop to create new storefront density, up to the sidewalk - made of brick, like nearby buildings, at 3-5 stories.

On a related note, I would like to point out that almost all the buildings built in the old style in Neumarkt Square (Dresden, Germany) have been built since ~2005.
Whilst the style wouldn't fit the local architecture in K-W, I never understood why we don't consider to build in older classical styles - to create an 'old town' feel?
Yes, the construction takes longer, but it really helps to define the street-scape with style. Can this only work in Europe? Would it look too fake in North America?

[KevinL]

That plaza is very ripe for redevelopment, and I would not be surprised to see it transform within 5 years, tops.

[rangersfan]

Article in The Record about two vacant buildings on Samuel St. Who can afford to let buildings sit idle for so long?

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/914...hbourhood/

[tomh009]

Article in The Record about two vacant buildings on Samuel St. Who can afford to let buildings sit idle for so long?

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/914...hbourhood/

"There's some great beauty to the building if you'd care to look." :O

[jgsz]

Article in The Record about two vacant buildings on Samuel St. Who can afford to let buildings sit idle for so long?

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/914...hbourhood/

"There's some great beauty to the building if you'd care to look." :O

Especially after a couple of beers......

[tomh009]

What is happening with the plaza beside Northern Thai (91 Queen)? It appears to be dying a slow death. It seems like a great opportunity beside the LRT stop to create new storefront density, up to the sidewalk - made of brick, like nearby buildings, at 3-5 stories.

The plaza has been struggling for years, nay, decades. But Beesan Halal Market is a relatively new tenant (just over a year) and is occupying a decent chunk, and bringing in some much needed customer traffic now.

The future will surely be a taller redevelopment, there is not much value in tearing it down and rebuilding it next to the street with the same two-storey height. With residential bonusing, they could easily build a 10-12 storey mixed-use building, literally next door to an LRT stop (and only a block away from the westbound stop). But I don't expect to see this in the next five years. Maybe ten, though.

[urbd]

What is happening with the plaza beside Northern Thai (91 Queen)? It appears to be dying a slow death. It seems like a great opportunity beside the LRT stop to create new storefront density, up to the sidewalk - made of brick, like nearby buildings, at 3-5 stories.

The plaza has been struggling for years, nay, decades. But Beesan Halal Market is a relatively new tenant (just over a year) and is occupying a decent chunk, and bringing in some much needed customer traffic now.

The future will surely be a taller redevelopment, there is not much value in tearing it down and rebuilding it next to the street with the same two-storey height. With residential bonusing, they could easily build a 10-12 storey mixed-use building, literally next door to an LRT stop (and only a block away from the westbound stop). But I don't expect to see this in the next five years. Maybe ten, though.

Nope, I'm sure it will be another 25+ storey tower. If they consolidate a few properties they can assemble land a bit larger than Charlie West. It's perfect, with 3 street frontages! And yes, I know about the church at the corner of Church and Queen... not sure if its designated heritage or not. 

[panamaniac]

Not sure what relevance you see in St Paul’s, as it is across the street from the site in question. I would be astonished if it is not a designated heritage building. IMHO, the old house at Queen and Church also needs to be designated and incorporated into any future redevelopment.

[KevinL]

I would leave the corner house out of it and use the Church St frontage for entry and exit driveways, etc.

I am curious about the rest of the parking. It's adjacent the the church on the hill; is it their property, or part of the plaza's parcel?

[Spokes]

I'd love to see a development with Queen and Charles streets having retail frontage

[tomh009]

I would leave the corner house out of it and use the Church St frontage for entry and exit driveways, etc.

I am curious about the rest of the parking. It's adjacent the the church on the hill; is it their property, or part of the plaza's parcel?

The parking lot at Benton and Charles is part of the church's property.

[tomh009]

The future will surely be a taller redevelopment, there is not much value in tearing it down and rebuilding it next to the street with the same two-storey height. With residential bonusing, they could easily build a 10-12 storey mixed-use building, literally next door to an LRT stop (and only a block away from the westbound stop). But I don't expect to see this in the next five years. Maybe ten, though.

Nope, I'm sure it will be another 25+ storey tower. If they consolidate a few properties they can assemble land a bit larger than Charlie West. It's perfect, with 3 street frontages! And yes, I know about the church at the corner of Church and Queen... not sure if its designated heritage or not. 

Ahhh … so I checked this, and it's actually not so simple. Apart from the church at Charles/Benton, there are six separate properties. And more than that, the parking lot in front of the plaza is actually owned by the city. 

If someone bought the plaza and convinced the city to sell the parking lot, those two would add up to 0.23 ha, a bit larger than Charlie West (0.22 ha). Northern Thai, the one small house at 10 Church St and the vacant lot would increase that to about 0.33 ha, even without the house on the corner of Queen and Church, which is a 0.05 ha property.

   

[KevinL]

So that fits my proposal above: leave 103 Queen (the heritage house) alone and use Church street for driveway access. Have retail frontage along Charles and that bit of Queen, a parking podium just above that, and a nice prominent tower up above. Would fit in well, I think.

[tomh009]

So that fits my proposal above: leave 103 Queen (the heritage house) alone and use Church street for driveway access. Have retail frontage along Charles and that bit of Queen, a parking podium just above that, and a nice prominent tower up above. Would fit in well, I think.

Yes, I do like your proposal. And the 103 Queen property is big enough that leaving the house doesn't look totally goofy.

That said, I still don't expect to see this in the next five years, because there are easier options than this one, and no one has (as far as I know) assembled the required properties yet.

[kitborn]

The house at Church and Queen would be surrounded by a new building. Similar to what happened at Frederick and Weber.