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(07-24-2024, 01:58 AM)WLU Wrote: (07-21-2024, 11:51 AM)creative Wrote: Explain please?
"Bravado", Creative asked you to explain. Why not explain? I'm also curious.
When you severely limit the amount of buildable space on a lot with setbacks, parking requirements, weird ziggurat shadow laws, and dual-exit building codes, it turns out the only way to make money in that scenario as a developer is to build as many little shoeboxes as you can in the tiny sliver of buildable space that you can use.
Some fun links:
https://secondegress.ca
Bloomberg podcast: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...at-and-why
Related article: https://www.centerforbuilding.org/blog/w...th-america
Missing Middle podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpT0YDY8ejM
Arbitrary elevator rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF63Xj_QtjM
Setbacks: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017...h-setbacks
Since detached houses don't have to deal with any of this arbitrary garbage, they can build many bedrooms - just as long as you can afford it. The rest of us can get fucked.
You can tear down an existing 1000sq ft house and build a 2000 sq ft house with barely a peep from a municipality. If you replace that house with a duplex, you'll be in city hall hell for 5 years. This is enough of a common story to explain why we only seem to get 1br condos. Anything else is legislated out of existence (on purpose). You can't even add a backyard cottage without hiring a lawyer or two.
local cambridge weirdo
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It seems Spotlight may have fixed their financing issues since there's now more details available for the site on their website.
The floor count is 30-38 floors based on their website still 4 towers and a total of 1,890,358 sqft of space, the development itself will include 2323 units, from the renders they have posted the first two buildings will be 32 and 37 floors, the top two floors are partial floors so it could be a very well blended in mechanical penthouse but at this point no one really knows so I included it in the floor count but in the future if they are mechanical levels the buildings would really be 30 and 35 floors, the ground floor is double height indicating obvious commercial/office uses. These buildings appear to be the ones closest to Hayward because of the rendered driveway on the left of the towers but it could be a very bad rendering of Block Line.
The podium on this is 8 floors, similar to what it was when it was Vierra Village, if there is podium parking it is extremely well hidden by far the best we've seen locally. When this was Vierra Village they had 3 floors of underground parking which allowed for 1500 spaces (0.64 spaces per unit), this certainly seems reasonable however Spotlight could reasonable have 2 floors of underground parking closer to Hayward because of the grade change. From an engineering perspective it would be possible for their to be 2 floors of underground next to Block Line Station but you'd have an extremely interesting foundation design because the bottom of a raft slab would roughly be at the existing grade so you'd have to have some engineered fill placement under the raft slab to deal with the organics you'll have to remove by stripping the topsoil, so it is certainly possible for 2 floors of underground but 3 would make everyone's life easier.
Here are the renders:
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In spite of the lack of any interesting design elements, it actually looks decent, especially for (fairly?) affordable housing. Some colour variation, but not resorting to reds, greens or blues. And no hat at the top!
I do hope this one happens.
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This is so much better than the original design. While it is still a little bulky, I really like the consistent design from the ground floor to the mechanical penthouse. The podium is decent and the colour is not grey, black and white. This is a much needed win for architecture in the Region.
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(09-19-2024, 09:03 AM)westwardloo Wrote: This is so much better than the original design. While it is still a little bulky, I really like the consistent design from the ground floor to the mechanical penthouse. The podium is decent and the colour is not grey, black and white. This is a much needed win for architecture in the Region.
That's a bit of an understatement, imo.
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Yea the massing here ain’t great no doubt but this is a dramatic improvement over the original proposal.
If this gets built like the render it’ll be one of the best buildings in the city.
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Hahah. No complaints here, I'd hate to see any iteration of the various eyesores proposed - affordable housing be dammed.
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(02-25-2025, 09:19 PM)ac3r Wrote: Hahah. No complaints here, I'd hate to see any iteration of the various eyesores proposed - affordable housing be dammed.
Really? I actually liked the most recent rendition of the proposal. For affordable housing it actually looked pretty good. I highly doubt the next version of this development will look nicer then what was recently proposed.
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(02-15-2025, 09:28 PM)david77123 Wrote: Back up for sale once more! https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27692...e-waterloo
The listing no longer exists. Is it possible it was bought up that quickly?
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(03-07-2025, 04:05 PM)mastermind Wrote: (02-15-2025, 09:28 PM)david77123 Wrote: Back up for sale once more! https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27692...e-waterloo
The listing no longer exists. Is it possible it was bought up that quickly?
The short and simple answer is yes at least with respect to the receivership case.
In receivership cases it's relatively common for sites to be on the market for a very short amount of time. In this case all bids had to be in by December 2 2024. It was sent to various industry groups (approx. 6300), 10 parties ended up gaining access to the various reports and plans on the site, however there was only one bid that was submitted. This bid was submitted by CORFinancial whose intent was to enter into a development or joint venture agreement with Spotlight (effectively maintaining Spotlight as an owner just no longer owing anything to Marshall Zehr). For various reasons that fell through and thus the Stalking Horse Bid is the winning bid, which from my understanding has been completed (it's at least been authorized by the court). Here's the link to that document: CV-24-00717917-00CL-MARSHALLZEHR-v-SPOTLIGHT-ON-COURTLAND-AVO-Dec-16-24.pdf
A Stalking Horse Bid is the lowest bid anyone can provide such that the money owed (to Marshall Zehr) and all related fees (receivership fees/lawyers) can be paid for with limited loss, in this case that bid was for 22.75 million dollars. The Stalking Horse Bidder was Courtland Kitchener Inc (Vive).
If it was up for sale in February it would mean that Vive is trying to sell the property, I don't know if that's actually happened, but Vive is only the owner if everything went properly in the closing.
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05-06-2025, 07:08 PM
Ik this is off topic, but I hope this goes through, not only for the various benefits, but also because it might mean more customers for North Shawarma in the Talize plaza. Best shawarma I have ever had the privilege of tasting 
Galatians 4:16
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Haha true, that's a very popular place. They get soooo many customers through online delivery services though. Those guys must make a ton of money.
That whole plaza is funny. Everything is really off brand and super generic sounding. Hairclub Barbershop, Milk Convenience Fair Courtland Vape (huh?), Leaning Tower of Pisa Pizzeria.
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(05-11-2025, 09:11 PM)ac3r Wrote: Haha true, that's a very popular place. They get soooo many customers through online delivery services though. Those guys must make a ton of money.
That whole plaza is funny. Everything is really off brand and super generic sounding. Hairclub Barbershop, Milk Convenience Fair Courtland Vape (huh?), Leaning Tower of Pisa Pizzeria.
It has charm. Better than having big chains take it all up. I'm very pro small independant business
Galatians 4:16
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Looks like Vive has bought this property and is planning to build 5 towers up to 35 floors. Expect this to look a lot more like the original proposal then the one proposed by Spotlight. Seems like land prices for large parcels are dropping significantly. Vive purchased the property for $5.75 million less than Spotlight paid for it a couple years ago.
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