Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 13 Vote(s) - 3.85 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours
(01-30-2023, 09:45 PM)ac3r Wrote: The entire block sans the 2 houses are owned by BentallGreenOak which is the Sun Life real estate investment firm, one of the largest on the continent. They primarily develop malls and office and/or residential towers around the world.

So does that mean we could look forward to King Centre 2.0 on this block? ;-)
Reply


Ugh. Don't even....
Reply
(01-30-2023, 09:45 PM)ac3r Wrote: The entire block sans the 2 houses are owned by BentallGreenOak which is the Sun Life real estate investment firm, one of the largest on the continent. They primarily develop malls and office and/or residential towers around the world.

I didn’t realize those still had separate ownership. I always assumed SunLife just hadn’t wanted the space yet.

Incidentally, do you happen to know if Mutual Dr. is still an actual city street? Google Maps shows it as such, but it seems weird for SunLife not to have taken ownership since it has no use whatsoever other than providing access to their parking lot and it is laid out like part of a parking lot, not like a street.
Reply
(01-31-2023, 07:49 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Incidentally, do you happen to know if Mutual Dr. is still an actual city street? Google Maps shows it as such, but it seems weird for SunLife not to have taken ownership since it has no use whatsoever other than providing access to their parking lot and it is laid out like part of a parking lot, not like a street.

It is not owned by either city nor the Region, according to their data sets.
Reply
(01-31-2023, 07:49 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(01-30-2023, 09:45 PM)ac3r Wrote: The entire block sans the 2 houses are owned by BentallGreenOak which is the Sun Life real estate investment firm, one of the largest on the continent. They primarily develop malls and office and/or residential towers around the world.

I didn’t realize those still had separate ownership. I always assumed SunLife just hadn’t wanted the space yet.

Incidentally, do you happen to know if Mutual Dr. is still an actual city street? Google Maps shows it as such, but it seems weird for SunLife not to have taken ownership since it has no use whatsoever other than providing access to their parking lot and it is laid out like part of a parking lot, not like a street.

It's not an actual street. Was it ever one? I'm unsure but many someone knows. If you pull it up on the City of Kitchener OnPoint Map Viewer there is no indication of it being a street, just 1 major parcel of property (again with the exception of the 2 houses). There isn't any signage that says Mututal Drive, just some new signs that show the address and lights to indicate how full the lot is.
Reply
(01-31-2023, 09:08 PM)ac3r Wrote:
(01-31-2023, 07:49 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: I didn’t realize those still had separate ownership. I always assumed SunLife just hadn’t wanted the space yet.

Incidentally, do you happen to know if Mutual Dr. is still an actual city street? Google Maps shows it as such, but it seems weird for SunLife not to have taken ownership since it has no use whatsoever other than providing access to their parking lot and it is laid out like part of a parking lot, not like a street.

It's not an actual street. Was it ever one? I'm unsure but many someone knows. If you pull it up on the City of Kitchener OnPoint Map Viewer there is no indication of it being a street, just 1 major parcel of property (again with the exception of the 2 houses). There isn't any signage that says Mututal Drive, just some new signs that show the address and lights to indicate how full the lot is.

It appears so:

https://nucloud.com/1855-map-of-waterloo/#iLightbox[postimages]/0

But according to this map it was just part of Caroline St. I assume that Mutual Life expanded across the street and bought out the street from the city immediately north of Union, and at some point the portion between Union and Mt. Hope St. was renamed to Mutual Dr. But I don’t know the actual history in detail.

It’s also possible this map shows only what was surveyed, not necessarily what was ever built (I assume they re-purposed the plot shown as Mount Hope Cemetery into the hospital before anybody had actually been buried there, although again I don’t know the actual history). I know even within my memory there used to be many more houses on Park St. along that block; I don’t recall there being anything on King or Mutual Dr. itself.

I wonder where Google Maps got their information from?

https://goo.gl/maps/XaHxpeqMogT6FKjz9
Reply
Here is the area in 1963 with the road highlighted with green. The insurance company was of course there already but I wonder whether it was going by the name Caroline or was actually renamed to Mutual Drive at that point. Looking at the aerial photos from 1930, the road was there as well so I assume it was indeed there as far back as 1855 as your map shows.

Looks like the hospital had quite a nice garden where the parking garage is as well.

[Image: 0UNTM0y.png]
Reply


(02-01-2023, 02:02 PM)ac3r Wrote: Here is the area in 1963 with the road highlighted with green. The insurance company was of course there already but I wonder whether it was going by the name Caroline or was actually renamed to Mutual Drive at that point. Looking at the aerial photos from 1930, the road was there as well so I assume it was indeed there as far back as 1855 as your map shows.

Thanks for that aerial view. I wonder at what stage their parking lot project was at that time? I don’t see any parking lot at all in those 2 blocks, but possibly some gaps which could be where they already bought and demolished some houses.
Reply
I'm totally guessing but I want to say the 1990s perhaps. The office tower was opened in 1987 and I believe it has some underground parking as well in addition to that parking structure across the street on John Street. I would assume that they probably ran out of parking at some point after the opening of the building and decided to buy up that lot (or redevelop it, if they already owned it) as a very long term investment under their real estate investment arm (which would have predated BentallGreenOak, which they only formed in 2019) and paved it over to use for parking for now.
Reply
I remember that block (or pair of blocks) was already a parking lot in the mid-’90s. But there were more buildings still standing along Park and Mount Hope. Maybe even along Union although I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure King and Mutual were already completely cleared out.
Reply
Speaking of parking lots, looks like earlier this month the 4 acre parking lot at 150 Strange St. was listed for sale. A welcome reduction in parking land use if this can be converted to something better and could substantially liven up that part of town around the AirBoss factory. Currently zoned M-2, so would likely need a change unless its gets updated for a similar use to the rest of the industrial lands its attached to.
Reply
I think that the Strange St Parking Lot is currently used as overflow staff parking forGrand River Hospital and Sunlife (pre-Covid).
Reply
Correct, sort of. In fact, that lot was actually purchased by 2 maintenance employees of Grand River Hospital a while back so they could offer more parking for hospital staff. Those two employees then sold it to Precise ParkLink who is the company that manages the rest of the parking for the hospital. Since that Strange Street lot is a bit of a walk, Voyago runs a van and minibus shuttle between the hospital and that parking lot throughout the day.

During the pandemic, hospital staff were able to use the Sun Life parking lot but the insurance company ended that agreement recently from what I hear, so now they've got to return to using the garage and whatever other lot they are able to use, including the one over on Strange Street.
Reply


Which leads one to wonder what is going to happen if that lot does get sold. I knew there was some Sun Life / GRH overflow off Glasgow but didn't realize this lot was also used for that. Seems like a larger parking structure to return some land back to better use would be worthwhile for the hospital...
Reply
Trends for Men going into the old Ballet's building.

New signage up outside.

   
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 19 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links