02-13-2024, 05:04 PM
(02-13-2024, 11:24 AM)tomh009 Wrote: Both the Victoria site and the old one on Charles are repurposed buildings. There are lots of warehouses and industrial buildings that can be used for climbing gyms (when they become vacant). Climbing doesn't need any special zoning, just a fairly large space with high ceilings. And a reasonable cost for the land/building--which implies a location away from the downtown core.
New community hockey rinks aren't being built downtown, either. Waterloo Rec Centre is the last one that I'm aware of, and that was thirty or more years ago.
I've seen climbing gyms struggle to find locations for 20 years. Used to be Toronto where all this was happening, now it's KW. KW didn't have a gym for years between Higher Ground closing and GRR opening. The locations are also usually kind of crappy and sometimes pretty inaccessible to climbers without cars. It is true that it doesn't need special zoning, but somehow it seems difficult.
And then you have golf courses...