3241-3247 King Street East and 108 Cameo Drive | 24, 23, & 19 fl | Proposed

[KevinL]

Three rental towers set for King Street East in Kitchener near Heffner Toyota

A proposed three-tower development on King Street East near Heffner Toyota received approval from Kitchener’s committee of adjustment on Tuesday to move ahead.

Property owner and Vive Development developer Stephen Litt plans to build three rental towers on King Street and Cameo Drive.

The high-density apartment buildings will stand at 24, 23, and 19 storeys with a total of 946 apartment units.

The project at 3241-3247 King St. E. and 108 Cameo Dr. will have two levels of underground parking and two levels above grade.

[bravado]

Not shocked that people are concerned about the small setback for the “streetscape”. There is no streetscape, this stretch of road is a soulless abomination.

[neonjoe]

With this kind of density coming at this node it almost seems like iON Phase two should have included a River Rd stop. (Just a shame that the LRT will be on the other side of highway 8 rather than on the old rail parallel to king)
With a pedestrian path through Hofstetter to the proposed River Road Extension the intersection of the iON and River Rd  380-400m away from this development via a Hofstetter ped path and bridge across highway 8. The bridge across the highway would be large barrier///

[ac3r]

Lol why would they write it's "near Heffner Toyota"? It's as near to the Toyota plant as it is to the Lowe's on Ottawa Street - in other words, not near it at all. It's nearly a 5.5 kilometer drive.

Also, this is such typical NIMBY BS:

“This building will stick out from the streetscape quite significantly. I’m not happy with that,” McColl said.

There are already a number of apartment buildings on this street ranging from 3 to 11 floors. 24, 23 and 19 are certainly higher but it's not as if this is already a low rise neighbourhood. There are a lot of old age trees around there as well which do a really good job obscuring the buildings, so these shouldn't be too obvious. If they ever get around to extending River Road as they planned to, that should help with traffic flow as well.

[neonjoe]

Heffner Toyota is the dealership that is 500m away from the site in question

[ac3r]

Ahh, right, I forgot about that dealership. I thought it was a reference to the factory in Cambridge. It would have made more sense to say something like "a proposed three-tower development at the base of Chicopee Ski Hill" or the Grand River because those would be a more well known landmark in the region as opposed to a random car dealership.

[bravado]

Ahh, right, I forgot about that dealership. I thought it was a reference to the factory in Cambridge. It would have made more sense to say something like "a proposed three-tower development at the base of Chicopee Ski Hill" or the Grand River because those would be a more well known landmark in the region as opposed to a random car dealership.

Didn’t you know? World class cities generally orient themselves around historical landmarks like car dealerships.

[ac3r]

True. People think TEK Tower pricing is expensive? I am sure people will be willing to pay even higher prices to live minutes away from Heffner Toyota. All those acres of asphalt holding used cars...god I'm starting to feel things just thinking about it.

Edit: Speaking more seriously though, I wonder if we'd ever see anything happening at the location of the dealership. You can see how much space there is, yet much of it isn't even being used...it's just grass lots and parking lots for the most part. It's in a really good location with highway access, Fairway Station, numerous important bus routes and a lot more (nearby retail, recreation etc). If the dealership ever decided to shut down or move, they could make a good amount of money and a developer could easily build a massive project here.

The development this thread is about shows the potential for this area and I'd like to see some stuff happen around here. It's a pretty ugly part of the city in terms of awful roads and poor development. There's a lot of space that can be used, however. If you take Hidden Valley just on the other side of the bridge as well, you could easily build a large project there as well. I believe a lot of it is protected wetland, but much of it is still just farm fields that could easily be rezoned while still protecting the wetlands.

Maybe one day, once the LRT line to Cambridge gets started. We're already seeing quite a lot of dense proposals happening along King East/near Sportsworld.

[rangersfan]

Nice to see a project proposal along this stretch, really seems like a forgotten section of the city.
An example of what I mean:
A few years ago when the garden center right near the Grand River closed it is now used as a vehicle dumping ground for the Honda dealership across the street. Really a terrible use for that land.

[ZEBuilder]

Construction activities appear to be starting up on this site, there's still no approved building permits yet but there were trucks from both Zehr and Musselman Excavating on site, Musselman also had a bulldozer and excavator moving dirt on site. It still appears to be a Vive Project though so Zehr might just be the project management firm.

[ZEBuilder]

Shoring is on going on the site by HCM. Zehr is confirmed to be the construction manager while Vive is still the developer.

Render of the first tower (24 floors fronting King) from Zehr's Instagram 

   

[SF22]

Drove past this site yesterday, and wouldn't you know it, there's ANOTHER new gas station popping up right across the street! Esso has got a canopy up already, I believe in the empty space beside the car detailing shop. My pet theory is that they've getting ready for the eventual River Road connection to the highway, although all the new residents that will move into these towers are likely a draw, too.

[ac3r]

That definitely looks like a Vive project heh.

[cherrypark]

Not fully convinced Roblox hasn't secretly funded all the pre-cast panel companies.

[jeffster]

Drove past this site yesterday, and wouldn't you know it, there's ANOTHER new gas station popping up right across the street! Esso has got a canopy up already, I believe in the empty space beside the car detailing shop. My pet theory is that they've getting ready for the eventual River Road connection to the highway, although all the new residents that will move into these towers are likely a draw, too.

To be honest, when I was driving by that skeleton build, I thought it looked like a fast (DC) charging station. I thought it was part of the initiative that Joe Biden has for EV charging in the US and Canada.