General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Printable Version +- Waterloo Region Connected (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com) +-- Forum: Land Development and Real Estate (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Urban Areas (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5) +--- Thread: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours (/showthread.php?tid=8) Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
|
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - kidgibnick - 01-25-2019 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? RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - KevinL - 01-25-2019 That plaza is very ripe for redevelopment, and I would not be surprised to see it transform within 5 years, tops. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - rangersfan - 01-25-2019 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/9142754-plans-in-motion-to-demolish-vacant-buildings-in-kitchener-s-central-frederick-neighbourhood/ RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - tomh009 - 01-25-2019 (01-25-2019, 09:32 PM)rangersfan Wrote: Article in The Record about two vacant buildings on Samuel St. Who can afford to let buildings sit idle for so long? "There's some great beauty to the building if you'd care to look." :O RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - jgsz - 01-26-2019 (01-25-2019, 10:23 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(01-25-2019, 09:32 PM)rangersfan Wrote: Article in The Record about two vacant buildings on Samuel St. Who can afford to let buildings sit idle for so long? Especially after a couple of beers...... RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - tomh009 - 01-26-2019 (01-25-2019, 07:36 PM)kidgibnick Wrote: 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. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - urbd - 01-26-2019 (01-26-2019, 05:48 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(01-25-2019, 07:36 PM)kidgibnick Wrote: 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. 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. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 01-26-2019 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. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - KevinL - 01-26-2019 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? RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Spokes - 01-27-2019 I'd love to see a development with Queen and Charles streets having retail frontage RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - tomh009 - 01-27-2019 (01-26-2019, 11:46 PM)KevinL Wrote: I would leave the corner house out of it and use the Church St frontage for entry and exit driveways, etc. The parking lot at Benton and Charles is part of the church's property. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - tomh009 - 01-27-2019 (01-26-2019, 08:16 PM)urbd Wrote:(01-26-2019, 05:48 PM)tomh009 Wrote: 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. 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. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - KevinL - 01-27-2019 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. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - tomh009 - 01-27-2019 (01-27-2019, 08:39 PM)KevinL Wrote: 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. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - kitborn - 01-28-2019 The house at Church and Queen would be surrounded by a new building. Similar to what happened at Frederick and Weber. |