Locally, a lot of the parking lots within Waterloo Region - especially in the urban cores - are owned by the city or region, so that's one reason it's easier for a developer to simply purchase an existing lot with a building. I'd love to see the parking lots get redeveloped as well, but it becomes a hassle to deal with the bureaucratic red tape of acquiring the property of a parking lot from the city or region, applying for a building permit, getting that rezoned, dealing with cleanup costs (parking lots tend to have a lot of gasoline and oil runoff) and so on. The region would then need to ensure they have other parking available, although I suppose that's a bit of a moot point when we have an abundance of parking, much of which is underutilized. Q Condos won't have any parking included for example, so instead residents will have the option of renting a spot in the neighbouring multilevel garage for a fee since the garage on Duke Street barely gets used.
Also, redeveloping an existing heritage or older building tends to look nice (even if it's just a façade that is retained) so that helps developers financially. It sucks to lose things like the property Q Condos will be taking over however, but I will concede that it gives the building a nice façade nonetheless. Likewise with this one.
Also, redeveloping an existing heritage or older building tends to look nice (even if it's just a façade that is retained) so that helps developers financially. It sucks to lose things like the property Q Condos will be taking over however, but I will concede that it gives the building a nice façade nonetheless. Likewise with this one.