General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours

[tvot]

People will say victim of LRT I'm sure. Saw it during Doors Open and it was beautiful, absolutely. Of course, my mind immediately goes to wonder about ownership of the building and its surrounds, and what this might mean for that iconic corner.

I lived in the apartments around the corner at 3 Regina (former Waterloo Music building) for a few years about 10 years ago. While I was there the owner of the apartments and the hotel decided to retire and sold off to a new owner. The new owner ran things through a property management company and the general feel of things and posted notices to the tenants got more hostile. Various rumours flew around from people who knew the staff of the commercial tenants (Hannah's Bella Bistro, Symposium, Waterloo Music, Erban Corner) about attempts to find loopholes to charge for things on top of the rent contracts. Rumours were that the new owner had re-development plans for the block but the owner of the convenience store between the hotel and the Spur/Chainsaw wouldn't sell.

Back in 2009 everyone in the apartments got notice that the hotel was expanding into the apartment building so we were all being kicked out. As soon as people looked into the law and asked for payments due for notice & time vs. # of units, suddenly the plans changed and people were no longer kicked out. Of course a lot had already signed for other accommodations. Various people had different mediations with the Landlord Tenant Tribunal, and I don't know all the terms, but at least one neighbour who I worked with at the time never got their payment and just gave up after they moved out of town. Apartments were never converted to the hotel, they're still apartments, likely with much higher rent.

Given the silence in the media from the current owners of the hotel, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same owners still. My experience with them makes me suspicious of whatever their plans are. Who knows, maybe they've finally got an awesome redevelopment idea that maintains the building heritage, or maybe they're selling to someone with good plans, but I remain skeptical as long as they're involved.