09-30-2025, 09:36 PM
This is now finally a public facing application.
As expected it is VanMar leading the application but Urban Legend is also involved. All the consultants, to the suprise of no one, are the usual suspects for VanMar/Urban Legend, Kirkor is the architect, MHBC is doing planning, Paradigm is doing traffic, WalterFedy is doing civil works, and CVD is doing the geotech.
The towers are 37 and 33 floors as I stated a couple of months ago with a maximum height of 123m (bylaw allows for 81m), they will be the second and third tallest in Uptown proposed (for now...), the development will be entirely 1 and 2 bdrm units. There will be a total of 834 units, 238 will be 2 bdrm (29%), 596 will be 1 bdrm (71%). It will be a phased development with phase 1 fronting Caroline being the 37 floor building, phase 2 will be 33 floors and front King. The 37 floor building will have 4 elevators meaning 1 elevator per 109.5 units and the 33 floor building will have 3 meaning 1 elevator per 132. Best practice is 1 elevator per 100 units, but this isn't completely horrible.
In order to make this work they will be moving the heritage building to a different portion of the site but maintaining it on site.
In total there will be 790.68 sqm of retail space, this will all front King, it will be regular units and the historical building will become a restaurant. There will be 758.97 sqm of indoor amenity space all within tower 1 and 1182.46 sqm of outdoor amenity space on top of the podium.
As for parking there will be 403 spots, good for a ratio of 0.48 per unit. For bike parking there will be 256 good for 0.3 per unit, City of Waterloo bylaw is 0.5, Kitchener bylaw is 1.0 (bad ask by VanMar). All of the parking within the building will be above ground in the podium which makes for a rather unpleasant street presence.
VanMar is asking for relief from setbacks along King and Caroline particularly for the upper podium parking levels which will extend to the property line (very bad ask), bylaw requires a 4-5m setback, for context the property line is effectively the edge of the existing sidewalk so it will be an imposing podium, if they matched Circa 1877 next door which roughly abides with the bylaw it would be more reasonable, it also isn't that difficult to do.
Urban Design Brief: Z2523_167-171KingStS_Urban_Design_Brief_20250819.pdf
Arch Set: Z2523_167-171KingStS_Plans_Pack._Site_Plan_and_Floor_Plans_20250819.pdf
Engage Page: 167-171 King St S | EngageWR
Renders: Z2523_167-171KingStS_Buiding_Renderings_20250819.pdf
King Podium:
Towers:
As expected it is VanMar leading the application but Urban Legend is also involved. All the consultants, to the suprise of no one, are the usual suspects for VanMar/Urban Legend, Kirkor is the architect, MHBC is doing planning, Paradigm is doing traffic, WalterFedy is doing civil works, and CVD is doing the geotech.
The towers are 37 and 33 floors as I stated a couple of months ago with a maximum height of 123m (bylaw allows for 81m), they will be the second and third tallest in Uptown proposed (for now...), the development will be entirely 1 and 2 bdrm units. There will be a total of 834 units, 238 will be 2 bdrm (29%), 596 will be 1 bdrm (71%). It will be a phased development with phase 1 fronting Caroline being the 37 floor building, phase 2 will be 33 floors and front King. The 37 floor building will have 4 elevators meaning 1 elevator per 109.5 units and the 33 floor building will have 3 meaning 1 elevator per 132. Best practice is 1 elevator per 100 units, but this isn't completely horrible.
In order to make this work they will be moving the heritage building to a different portion of the site but maintaining it on site.
In total there will be 790.68 sqm of retail space, this will all front King, it will be regular units and the historical building will become a restaurant. There will be 758.97 sqm of indoor amenity space all within tower 1 and 1182.46 sqm of outdoor amenity space on top of the podium.
As for parking there will be 403 spots, good for a ratio of 0.48 per unit. For bike parking there will be 256 good for 0.3 per unit, City of Waterloo bylaw is 0.5, Kitchener bylaw is 1.0 (bad ask by VanMar). All of the parking within the building will be above ground in the podium which makes for a rather unpleasant street presence.
VanMar is asking for relief from setbacks along King and Caroline particularly for the upper podium parking levels which will extend to the property line (very bad ask), bylaw requires a 4-5m setback, for context the property line is effectively the edge of the existing sidewalk so it will be an imposing podium, if they matched Circa 1877 next door which roughly abides with the bylaw it would be more reasonable, it also isn't that difficult to do.
Urban Design Brief: Z2523_167-171KingStS_Urban_Design_Brief_20250819.pdf
Arch Set: Z2523_167-171KingStS_Plans_Pack._Site_Plan_and_Floor_Plans_20250819.pdf
Engage Page: 167-171 King St S | EngageWR
Renders: Z2523_167-171KingStS_Buiding_Renderings_20250819.pdf
King Podium:
Towers: