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General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours
There is construction fencing at the Ish&Chips lot next to the old post office. Anyone know what's going on there?


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Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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Two days in a row of some large geotechnical drilling on the lot at willis an Regina (beside the regional building and across from the parkade entrance).
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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[/url]I keep meaning to post this listing at 153 Union Street East.

[url=https://www.realtor.ca/Commercial/Office/17786472/153-Union-Street-E-Waterloo-Ontario-N2J1C4]I posted sometime last year (it may have been erroneously in the Urban Kitchener thread- this is on the borderlands, just barely in Waterloo) that trees at the back of the lot adjacent to the Spur Line Trail were being cleared, and I heard the rumour that it was to build new office space behind the existing.


Quote:2.0 acres high profile redevelopment site in Waterloo on Union Street East near Weber Street North. New Official Plan proposed zoning is C-2 allows for high density residential/mixed use neighbourhood commercial. Within minutes of Conestoga Expressway (Hwy 85). Ideal for main floor commercial and up to 12 storeys residential at density up to 242 bedrooms per acre. 11,500 sq ft vacant professional office building currently on site. Located on public transit route and few blocks from two future ION light rail transit stops.


The price tag of $5.5 million seems extremely steep to me considering the fact that the existing office building reads as an afterthought. There have been 'for lease' signs on the building for some time.

It would be nice to think those few one-floor office plazas and their seas of parking out front could one day be redeveloped to something more urban; 12 storeys residential above commercial is a beautiful dream. But that price boggles my mind for a redevelopment lot. Maybe I'm the one off base-but the description of the location in relation to Ion is a little generous.
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There is a for lease sign up in the parking lot of the Imagine Communications building on Peppler. Around 30000 square feet are available.
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(03-14-2017, 07:28 PM)MidTowner Wrote: The price tag of $5.5 million seems extremely steep to me considering the fact that the existing office building reads as an afterthought. There have been 'for lease' signs on the building for some time.

I agree that price seems steep. I expect there would be resistance to any large building there as well. Just as a rough comparison, this listing, while a lot smaller, has also been on the market for a while. No commercial zoning though.

It will be encouraging to see some more intensification down union street though.
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It's a high price at $2.75M/acre. But two-acre properties are not easy to find (or assemble) so the size of the lot will probably merit some premium.

The location is actually pretty nice in my opinion, and not so far from the LRT -- but halfway between stops, so it's a 1.2 km walk to the nearest stop (GRH).
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It's probably a bit less than a kilometre to GRH, especially if there is eventual access from the site to the Spur Line Trail. That is walking through the cemetery (I know- online mapping tools don't give that as a walking route, unfortunately), rather than Union all the way to King.

Andy, out of curiosity, from whom do you think resistance would come to a big building here? The occupants of the neighbouring single family homes are already living on a four-lane road with commercial on it- in the case of the homes on the south side, they've been adjacent to parking lots and industrial uses for quite a while.

Anyway, I agree with you that it would be nice to see some intensification on Union. Maybe a twelve storey building is not so far-fetched.
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I've resigned to just expect opposition to everything. In this case, all the single family homes that are between Dover/Weber. Also I'm sure Mt. Hope residents would complain of increased traffic off Roger through the rear entrance, especially given their recent experience with construction. Personally, I live nearby in a detached home and wouldn't have a problem with it.

Off topic, but I'm hoping at some point for a lane reduction on Union street, since the 4 lanes is overkill. You really notice how useless the side lanes are in the winter. I've been under the impression it's targeted as a cycling thoroughfare for the future.
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We might be neighbours- I'm nearby, too, though (just) on the Kitchener side. I generally give our neighbours more credit than that, but there might be a few on Union who would be opposed to something higher. I might be missing something about Roger- were there complaints about Roger receiving more traffic during the construction? It does get some traffic, but I wouldn't have thought any more lately.

My thoughts are the same as yours about Union being too wide through there. Really, how could it be necessary as, west of Moore, it's just two lanes? I had read something about a City of Waterloo redesign coming at some point, but I can't remember where.
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It would be interesting to find a traffic engineer (or their reports) that would explain some of the high density stubs that exist. For instance, this four-lane section of Union; a similar-sized section Albert between Weber and Columbia etc. Where were they expected to connect, and to what type of development plans?
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(03-16-2017, 12:55 PM)nms Wrote: It would be interesting to find a traffic engineer (or their reports) that would explain some of the high density stubs that exist.  For instance, this four-lane section of Union; a similar-sized section Albert between Weber and Columbia etc.  Where were they expected to connect, and to what type of development plans?

My impression was that these roads were simply from the era of "moar lanes ALWAYS better" traffic planning.
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I suspect there was a plan (way back, 40-50 years ago) to get those streets to handle more through traffic. But like the Benton St extension, they were never completed so we ended up with these little stubs of four-lane road.
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I think I recall complaints from Ambrosia about equipment parking...but interestingly the equipment was parked on the very lot now for sale
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Ambrosia's complaint was that all the equipment was parked on *Ambrosia's* property one Saturday (which is the only day they're open to the public), blocking access to their business.
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