17 Benton St (Old Oktoberfest Building)

[taylortbb]

This project has had dozens of posts in the general updates thread, so I figured it was time for its own thread. Mods, can you move the previous discussion here?

[taylortbb]

The castle facade is mostly down now. The building underneath is nicer than I expected, I can't imagine why anyone ever wanted to cover it up. Especially bricking up real windows only to cover it with fake stucco windows.

   

[ac3r]

Wow. They sure used a lot of adhesive to glue that faux castle façade on. I didn't know the windows were bricked up too.

[jamincan]

What did they do in there?

[KevinL]

I believe that was already bricked over when Oktoberfest moved in during the 90s, and they just applied the castle features to replace an earlier facade.

[Coke6pk]

What did they do in there?

Meeting rooms and storage mostly.

That triangle shape on the front, was that a peaked roof that stuck out when it was a sports store, or am I making that architectural detail up?

Coke

[tomh009]

That triangle shape on the front, was that a peaked roof that stuck out when it was a sports store, or am I making that architectural detail up?

I do think that matches my recollection of the Riordan's roofline.

[panamaniac]

Correct re the triangle. I seem to recall that there was a childrens clothing store there prior to the Riordans makeover, but my memory may be off.

[cherrypark]

The building is up for leasing for the ground floor tenant, which looks to provide both ground and basement space together. Brightpath Capital to be leasing the upper two units.

[dtkvictim]

The building is up for leasing for the ground floor tenant, which looks to provide both ground and basement space together. Brightpath Capital to be leasing the upper two units.

Interesting take on the LRT route...

[Lens]

I always love Google as a "feature" in publications and maps like this, forgetting the fact that 99.9 percent of people can't and won't ever enter the building.

[cherrypark]

I always love Google as a "feature" in publications and maps like this, forgetting the fact that 99.9 percent of people can't and won't ever enter the building.

Well, for a potential restaurant/retail space, it is definitely a feature! And I would suspect the residential ads you see marking it as a landmark has more to do with inventory buyers wanting to know well paid tenants from the city's fastest growing employer are a block away than it being a landmark for potential owner residents.

[westwardloo]

They also have the LRT running down king st and weber, instead of charles and duke.

[nms]

"You had one job..."

I am always surprised that realtors neglect to get the details right in their ads. I have found blatant mistakes in local amenities descriptions that are attached to various property descriptions. The text is clearly copied and pasted from a general Waterloo Region realty portal.