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General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours
The Walper Hotel is now temporarily closed for renovations. Last I heard, the renovations could take six months, although the basement restaurant will, I'm sure, open before then.
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(01-02-2015, 03:55 PM)panamaniac Wrote: The Walper Hotel is now temporarily closed for renovations.  Last I heard, the renovations could take six months, although the basement restaurant will, I'm sure, open before then.

The restaurant entrance has been boarded up for a while now, but I didn't know they were doing a full hotel reno as well.

It's probably overdue, though.  With the much more intense hotel competition now (new Delta, renovated Crown Plaza, new HEX, new Homewood, plus all the hotels at the south end) it's not enough to just be a hotel, you also need to provide good-quality rooms.  And Walper's rooms have been getting tired, I think the big renovation was about 30 years ago.
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The boarding at the Walper is over the window next to the street entrance to the downstairs space. The announcement last year was that the new owners would undertake $3 million in renovations on the hotel (the previous owner had also apparently spent considerable money on fixing the place up). I hope the end result is good - I love an old style hotel.
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Has Coffee Culture in the Walper also closed as part of the renovations?
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No, Coffee Culture is still open. I believe that the hotel lobby will remain on the Queen St side, but I've heard that the women's hair salon will be closing, so I wonder if that might not mean an expansion of the lobby.
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(01-04-2015, 10:45 AM)panamaniac Wrote: The boarding at the Walper is over the window next to the street entrance to the downstairs space.  The announcement last year was that the new owners would undertake $3 million in renovations on the hotel (the previous owner had also apparently spent considerable money on fixing the place up).  I hope the end result is good - I love an old style hotel.

Old-style hotels add presence to a downtown but often staying there is not actually as "nice" as newer hotels (which are, on the other hand, sometimes sort of antiseptic). I did stay at the Walper before moving to KW, in 2007, and it definitely showed its age. So does the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, though. Rooms are historic (i.e. small).
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Is the Barber shop still open? That place is iconic.
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Yes, the barbershop (my barbershop!) will stay.
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(12-19-2014, 09:16 PM)BuildingScout Wrote:
Quote:Under such a standard, very few of our churches, or any other kind of structure, would quality.


For a born conservationist reactionary, this a nightmare vision.

On the other hand if anything mildly remarkable can never be torn as de Groot suggests then landlords will only build the most mediocre of structures lest they loose a chance to redevelop in the future.

So that's the excuse for all of the mediocre new builds?

I wouldn't classify Trinity's building as "mildly remarkable".  It has heritage value and is not simply a mediocre a mass of glass and concrete which is what I fear will end up replacing it.  Calgary's Hillhurst United Church recently held a competition for repurposing a portion of their land while maintaining the older portion of the church.
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(01-05-2015, 02:57 PM)nms Wrote: I wouldn't classify Trinity's building as "mildly remarkable".


You are right. It is an outright ugly pastiche of styles. My mistake.
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I can't remember which thread had posts about the closing of the TBS on King St E (likely by end of January).  In any event, an article in today's e-Record quotes a spokesperson of the owner as saying they already have "a tenant" for the space and that they have a couple of months of work to get it ready for the tenant.  At 16,000 sq ft, with a basement, what's it going to be?  A huge new microbrewery/pub?  A supermarket?  A decent LCBO?  A guy can always dream..... Smile .  I still think it would make a good location for a Giant Tiger.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5245...its-doors/
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We'll have to wait to find out, but two Downtown merchants have told me (unhappily) that they have heard that the new tenant for the TBS space will be a high tech company.

I really need to start an "Unconfirmed Rumours" thread....
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That's unfortunate, im glad another high tech company is possibly opening in Downtown Kitchener, but that is such a wasteful location for an office.
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There's a lot of available commercial space in downtown, so no biggie. In fact I'd rather we first increase the employee and resident count, and then let the businesses follow.
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I'd rather not lose prime retail space to offices, but it seems inevitable.  I admit that I can't see anyone taking up 16,000 sq ft for retail in the near future. 
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