General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[panamaniac]

$10M/acre is pretty high, but it's a good location and a decent-sized parcel. Development has clearly spread out to Weber, which makes me happy that downtown is not just the King St strip. Admittedly doing successful retail on Weber will be tougher.

Retail?  Very unlikely, istm.

[Acitta]

There is a community garden in the middle of that. This will make some gardeners unhappy.

[Spokes]

Wow. 14 million. Obviously the benefit of all parcels being assembled already is a big part of the cost. But still.

[BruceAshe]

$14,000,000

103 WEBER Street E
Kitchener

$14,000,000...yikes...

Any chance they get anywhere near that? Very interesting description. My first concern was for all the families that live there but it sounds like it's them that want to cash in...

The properties may be owned by a few people, but there are many renters there, a lot of whom are families with young children. A couple of kids in my child's class live in this area.

[tomh009]

$10M/acre is pretty high, but it's a good location and a decent-sized parcel. Development has clearly spread out to Weber, which makes me happy that downtown is not just the King St strip. Admittedly doing successful retail on Weber will be tougher.

As it turns out, the owner of the proposed condo building at Charles and Francis bought the land for $10.25M -- for about half an acre. So, maybe $10M/acre is reasonable at this location.

[ac3r]

Six or seven for sale signs at Weber and Cedar today.

"1.324 acres. Land development opportunity."

The wonderfully named Kramp Apartment.  I’ll be sad to see it go - it is where my maternal grandparents first lived when they moved the family to Kitchener, circa 1926.

I've always loved that building, as rough as it is in 2021. I'll be sad to see it go.

[KevinL]

There is a community garden in the middle of that. This will make some gardeners unhappy.

Just realized there's actually a small 'street' - May Place - bisecting this to access the properties and gardens in the middle there. Not sure if it's a private laneway or city property, but it does get a street sign off Cedar.

[kalis0490]

i'm torn about this dev. On one hand its a good dev site but on the other hand why would a developer pay 14M for a land, pay more to demolish the10 houses and pay even more to build a tower. Either way I hope they keep the red and yellow brick townhouse. Its one of the few old missing middle townhouses in kitchener

[tomh009]

There is a community garden in the middle of that. This will make some gardeners unhappy.

11 gardeners, to be precise. But the garden is private land, so the owner can develop or sell it as he or she chooses.

The laneway is also a private road so they can redevelop that as well.

[tomh009]

i'm torn about this dev. On one hand its a good dev site but on the other hand why would a developer pay 14M for a land, pay more to demolish the10 houses and pay even more to build a tower. Either way I hope they keep the red and yellow brick townhouse. Its one of the few old missing middle townhouses in kitchener

There are quite a lot of low-rise apartment buildings similar to this in Kitchener, just not so many in downtown core -- since the core was already mostly built up when such buildings were being constructed.

[ac3r]

Either way I hope they keep the red and yellow brick townhouse. Its one of the few old missing middle townhouses in kitchener

My absolute favourite are the ones at Queen and Benton. They're proper row houses that look as if they belong in Baltimore or Philadelphia. I hope they never, ever get rid of these things because they're an architectural treasure for this region.

[tomh009]

Either way I hope they keep the red and yellow brick townhouse. Its one of the few old missing middle townhouses in kitchener

My absolute favourite are the ones at Queen and Benton. They're proper row houses that look as if they belong in Baltimore or Philadelphia. I hope they never, ever get rid of these things because they're an architectural treasure for this region.

Sadly one of them (closest to Benton) was demolished when Benton was widened (decades ago).

[westwardloo]

Either way I hope they keep the red and yellow brick townhouse. Its one of the few old missing middle townhouses in kitchener

My absolute favourite are the ones at Queen and Benton. They're proper row houses that look as if they belong in Baltimore or Philadelphia. I hope they never, ever get rid of these things because they're an architectural treasure for this region.

100% agree, these are one of my favorite blocks of buildings in the region. I wish the downtown were surrounded with more of these stacked row townhouses. A modern version of This is the type of development I could see replacing the midrise buildings that were cancelled on Margaret Ave. See an example closed to were I lived in toronto. 

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.655966,-7...8192?hl=en

[GarthDanlor]

Either way I hope they keep the red and yellow brick townhouse. Its one of the few old missing middle townhouses in kitchener

My absolute favourite are the ones at Queen and Benton. They're proper row houses that look as if they belong in Baltimore or Philadelphia. I hope they never, ever get rid of these things because they're an architectural treasure for this region.

Ditto, I love these row houses.  Though as kids we used to call them the "Sesame Street houses" and we were quite mocking in our attitudes towards them.

[ac3r]

I wish the downtown were surrounded with more of these stacked row townhouses. A modern version of This is the type of development I could see replacing the midrise buildings that were cancelled on Margaret Ave.

I'd love to see more contemporary row house developments as well. There's a decent looking project just outside of downtown called Victoria Commons off of St. Leger Street. There's at least 30 blocks of row houses there along with a couple mid rise condos. It's the perfect kind of urban middle housing we desperately need.