General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[rangersfan]

Not really a project but the Region is selling a number of properties along Benton St next month. I wonder if these properties will attract interest from developers.

December 7, 2014





For sale: Five lots on Queen, Benton in Kitchener
July 9, 2014 | Paige Desmond | Cambridge Times | LINK

WATERLOO REGION — The region will sell a handful of properties on Queen and Benton streets that it has owned for at least 30 years.

Ownership of the properties was obtained by the region in 1975 and 1984 from the City of Kitchener for the Queen/Benton diversion project.

The project was shut down after resident pushback.

The properties make up about half of the Benton block between Courtland Avenue East and Mitchell Street and include 152, 156, 176 and 180 Benton St. and 533 Queen St.

Coun. Tom Galloway said he isn't aware of any expressions of interest on the project, though he wouldn't be surprised if there was interest from developers.

"I'm not aware of any development intent," he said. "As far as I know, we're not co-operating with anybody with respect to any assembly of land or anything."

In 2012, the region sold 168 Benton St. to Polocorp for about $280,000, according to property records. The company owns two large properties that front on Queen Street and back onto some of the Benton properties.

Polocorp president Paul Puopolo said he couldn't comment on whether the company is interested in the land.

"At this stage, we have no comment on it," Puopolo said.

Regional staff is completing appraisals on the properties prior to listing them for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, as approved by regional councillors when they declared the land surplus in June.

Three of the properties are vacant. Two have tenants.

Galloway said the region decided to sell the land after years of renting out the homes and using them for regional housing. "It's really a matter now of we're not really in the business of being landlords and holding properties indefinitely if there's no future purpose for them."

The region also acquired 20, 24, 30 and 34 Mill St. for the Queen and Benton diversion but has not sold the properties.

The region assumed a number of roads from local cities after it was formed in 1973.

As part of that, several parcels of property along Benton, Mill, Mitchell and Queen streets were also transferred to the region so Queen and Benton could be connected.

That plan was abandoned in the late 1990s with the widening of Victoria Road South.

"The die was cast quite a number of years ago that the Benton/Queen diversion project was not going to go ahead as planned," Galloway said.

Only now are they being sold as the region re-evaluates the properties it owns.

"We've been renting out those properties. I don't think they cost the taxpayer anything, I think they've paid their way and they've been maintained to a certain level to allow for rentals," Galloway said. "But I think it was just a rationalization that took place with a variety of properties."

It cost the region about $60,000 annually for utilities, taxes, repairs and management fees for the homes, but rent costs covered most of that.