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Caroline St Private Residences | 22 fl | Complete
#91
144 Park is 19 stories and 155 will now be 22. They added 3 more stories in the turnover to Van Mar.
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#92
Holy crap. 144 Park looks like it's 3 blocks away in this render.

Seriously, follow the perspective line from the left end of the podium and tell me that other tower rests on it? I call shennanigans.


[Image: attachment.php?aid=819]
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#93
I think this is certainly an improvement over the original design which I liked. I should wish that the ground floor would be retail.
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#94
1993 called. It wants its architecture back.

Sigh Sad
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#95
What's with all the hate ok the buildings? Sure, they're talking them up way more than they should be, but I don't think they're bad at all. Wouldn't mind living in one, if the costs weren't so high.
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#96
Apparently there was a grand opening on the weekend. Anyone attend?
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#97
Apparently this development just reached 50% sold, and there's a rumour that one more floor has been added, bringing it up to 23 floors. That's pretty quick to get to half sold. I'm wondering if there will be shovels in the ground by this fall, or probably more likely, next spring.
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#98
There aren't so many condo developments in uptown -- most of the new construction is rentals -- so 155 might be tapping an underserved market in Waterloo.
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#99
The website for this development says construction begins in 2017.
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The developer is requesting increased height and density to make the project affordable but received some negative feedback from Waterloo city Council.

I personally have no issues with the request as the project is in an area that is pedestrian friendly and very close to an Ion stop. But the affordability aspect is interesting, even though I am not a construction designer/ pm seems hard to imagine.

Six years ago the cheapest unit at 144 Park was 217 K + 10 K for a parking spot, and there was one unit at this price. The units went steeply up in price from there. At that price it was still possible in a few areas of the city to buy a small detached house
For less than this.

It would be nice to see the project go ahead even though it is missing the aforementioned mixed use and improved street interaction.

http://m.therecord.com/news-story/674481...oo-council
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Despite councillors' song and dance, I don't think that there is any real doubt but that the project will go ahead. Apart from anything else, the residents in 144 are desperate and are not without influence at City Hall....
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Ah, the millstone around the neck of the Iron Horse...

The article mentions "less parking". I looked through the reports and found no mention of parking supply apart from the continued provision of 60 parking spaces for Bauer businesses. So I don't know whether the overall supply is lower, or the ratio of parking spaces is lower because of the extra floors' worth of units.

Obviously the developer's interest is to get this built with maximum return. The 144 Park residents' interest is likely to get this built, in order to get the shared facilities and "guest parking" they say is in the planned building (wonder how that plays with the whole less parking point I mentioned above.

And of course then there's the inevitable reroute of the Iron Horse through a concrete canyon. The land swap is done, hard to see how this is not going to happen.

If this project continues to be a thorn in Waterloo city council's side, then I admit to a small satisfaction. They allowed this project to mess with a major trail and institutionalize Bauer's parking mismanagement. I wasn't impressed.

But, we're reaching the point where I'd say just get it built. The area can support density, rapid transit will be coming online, and the long-suffering residents of 144 Park will benefit (except for those with interrupted views).
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I'll never understand this regions fear of allowing height to be build in downtown/uptown. "We want to attract more people to the core" but let's only approve of mediocre projects, which are now starting to not be worth the investment (if the developers are telling the truth). If you want people in the cores, build the homes required to permit that. Don't delegate them to being suburban developments. Toronto didn't become Toronto by limiting density height in the downtown and making people build elsewhere, for example.
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(06-29-2016, 10:11 PM)ac3r Wrote: I'll never understand this regions fear of allowing height to be build in downtown/uptown. "We want to attract more people to the core" but let's only approve of mediocre projects, which are now starting to not be worth the investment (if the developers are telling the truth). If you want people in the cores, build the homes required to permit that. Don't delegate them to being suburban developments. Toronto didn't become Toronto by limiting density height in the downtown and making people build elsewhere, for example.


That's an awfully big "if".  Perhaps if they offered to open their books as part of the claim .....
Personally, I think the proposed tower looks better than 144 and the extra height is fine.
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(06-29-2016, 10:11 PM)ac3r Wrote: I'll never understand this regions fear of allowing height to be build in downtown/uptown. "We want to attract more people to the core" but let's only approve of mediocre projects, which are now starting to not be worth the investment (if the developers are telling the truth). If you want people in the cores, build the homes required to permit that. Don't delegate them to being suburban developments. Toronto didn't become Toronto by limiting density height in the downtown and making people build elsewhere, for example.


That's an awfully big "if".  Perhaps if they offered to open their books as part of the claim .....
Personally, I think the proposed tower looks better than 144 and the extra height is fine.  The height/density has never been the main problem with this development, imho.
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