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+--- Thread: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours (/showthread.php?tid=8)
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RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Spokes - 11-08-2014
I'm with KevinL on this one. The Market Square interior is a disaster. This allows a redesign. That being said, I'd obviously prefer that they were to stick around.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 11-08-2014
I'm not sure I see the connection between the Stantec office space and the retail portion of the mall, specifically its redevelopment. What am I missing?
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - The85 - 11-09-2014
(11-08-2014, 09:17 AM)Smore Wrote: Edit: how do I post a tweet? Can someone fix this? Thanks!
We will look into this.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Spokes - 11-09-2014
(11-08-2014, 11:40 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I'm not sure I see the connection between the Stantec office space and the retail portion of the mall, specifically its redevelopment. What am I missing?
I see it as the retail section being a very minimal and unimportant part of the mall, and that the Stantec space could be expanded.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 11-09-2014
I see. I suppose an office expansion might be possible, up to and including the entire complex (a la King Centre) if there were a client.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - KevinL - 11-09-2014
(11-08-2014, 11:40 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I'm not sure I see the connection between the Stantec office space and the retail portion of the mall, specifically its redevelopment. What am I missing?
Right now, walking onto the ground floor of the retail space you see massive openings to bring the atrium light to Stantec's basement garden area (surrounded by their office space). Nice as the garden is, I'd prefer to see the ground floor made into a solid whole and completely reconfigured to give better layout to retail space and hopefully make it street-facing (at least along Frederick). Stantec's departure would allow this to go forward, and I hope the mall's owners are considering it.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - TMKM94 - 11-10-2014
A movie theatre or a grocery store would do well IMO. I'm glad stantec is leaving market square, but I'm disappointed that it's completely leaving downtown.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 11-11-2014
Just to note that it was confirmed to me today that Stantec will be moving.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - REnerd - 11-11-2014
(11-11-2014, 02:15 PM)panamaniac Wrote: Just to note that it was confirmed to me today that Stantec will be moving.
Did you get confirmation where they are moving?
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 11-11-2014
(11-11-2014, 02:20 PM)REnerd Wrote:(11-11-2014, 02:15 PM)panamaniac Wrote: Just to note that it was confirmed to me today that Stantec will be moving.
Did you get confirmation where they are moving?
The source was impeccable, but all he said was that Stantec had been looking around and that empty Blackberry space was very attractive commercially. So I would say, no, no real confirmation of destination, other than Waterloo.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - 519 - 11-11-2014
(11-09-2014, 05:16 PM)KevinL Wrote: [quote pid='2362' dateline='1415504415']
Right now, walking onto the ground floor of the retail space you see massive openings to bring the atrium light to Stantec's basement garden area (surrounded by their office space). Nice as the garden is, I'd prefer to see the ground floor made into a solid whole and completely reconfigured to give better layout to retail space and hopefully make it street-facing (at least along Frederick). Stantec's departure would allow this to go forward, and I hope the mall's owners are considering it.
[/quote]
The owner of that building is Dundee REIT (aka DREAM) They also own 22 Fredrick and the Galleria at Frederick & Weber. Dream bought them from the previous owner a couple years ago.
From my experience working at the Galleria, the building hasn't been well maintain and there are a lot of issues. I'm not sure if it's the same for the other buildings, but judging by the major work that's being done to the parking structure at Market Square and the general "retro" look of the mall itself.. I would guess so. The constant noise and dust from the long term parking repair work might be one of the reasons pushing Stantec out.
Like Stantec, my work (150 +) is moving out of the Galleria next year and relocating to Waterloo. Losing us + Stantec will be a big hit for Dream and downtown in general. It was probably a bad call on Dream's part to purchase these assets from the previous owner. I hope they start investing way more money into these buildings.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 11-11-2014
Out of curiousity, what was the rationale for leaving Downtown and moving to (north end?) Waterloo?
By the way, the person who confirmed that Stantec was moving was quite sanguine about it, saying that we need to start thinking of the Region as a single city (no, it wasn't Carl Zehr.....).
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - 519 - 11-12-2014
(11-11-2014, 11:58 PM)panamaniac Wrote: Out of curiousity, what was the rationale for leaving Downtown and moving to (north end?) Waterloo.Northfield.
Aside from staying put, there was no viable option in downtown that would meet our parking requirement.
We're not a tech company with the live/work in downtown culture.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - nms - 11-12-2014
Remember that Blackberry reportedly released nearly 2 million square feet of commercial space within the last year which included everything from their buildings along Phillip Street, the one or two that were on the UW North Campus, the "Corporate HQ" at Westmount/Bearinger and the the large office complex next to Walmart at the north edge of Waterloo. I'm not sure if the Northfield/University properties were included. I expect that it will be a few years before the dust settles as various companies figure out if a former Blackberry space is for them.
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Spokes - 11-12-2014
(11-11-2014, 02:27 PM)panamaniac Wrote:(11-11-2014, 02:20 PM)REnerd Wrote: Did you get confirmation where they are moving?
The source was impeccable, but all he said was that Stantec had been looking around and that empty Blackberry space was very attractive commercially. So I would say, no, no real confirmation of destination, other than Waterloo.
I wonder if we'll start to see more movement with Blackberry space opening up. Some firms may see it as too good a deal to pass up on.