General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[Canard]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-...65?cmp=rss

[panamaniac]

Smile Tiger is the owned by the same people who own DVLB Espresso and Whiskey in uptown Waterloo.

This will be their main roasting location.

Smile Tiger Coffee is also served at Google and a number of other locations

Theme will be different than DVLB here with more of a Scandinavian look.

Plans are for a licensed patio out back too.

Opening is set for sometime in the Spring.

I was surprised to see the glass brick front of 100 Ahrens St blown out the other day, so I stopped to have a look.  The building seems to be nearly fully occupied.  The maple floors of the Smiling Tiger location have been refinished and look great.  I'm assuming that the new street front will be mostly glass, which will make for a nice space.

[panamaniac]

New canopy/signs going up today at the Weber Chambers building on King St W - "The Chambers" at 144 (apartment building entrance), "San Francisco Panini" at 146 (former Casablanca). and "King West Fine Men's Grooming" at 150 (former Bead Boutique). Sad at the moment to see this building sandwiched between the siding-clad convenience store and the old Mayfair site, but perhaps someday ....

[panamaniac]

The Record has a piece on the renovation of 5 Michael St (most recently home to the Beckett School of Music) into space (31,000 sqft) for high tech offices. The project is to be completed by the fall.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6370...h-offices/

[Spokes]

New canopy/signs going up today at the Weber Chambers building on King St W  -  "The Chambers" at 144 (apartment building entrance),  "San Francisco Panini" at 146 (former Casablanca). and "King West Fine Men's Grooming" at 150 (former Bead Boutique).  Sad at the moment to see this building sandwiched between the siding-clad convenience store and the old Mayfair site, but perhaps someday ....

Thanks for the update.  Unique tenants which is nice to see.

[BuildingScout]

The Record has a piece on the renovation of 5 Michael St (most recently home to the Beckett School of Music) into space (31,000 sqft) for high tech offices.  The project is to be completed by the fall.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6370...h-offices/

This is excellent news and another key piece in Kitchener downtown revitalization.

[panamaniac]

The Record has a piece on the renovation of 5 Michael St (most recently home to the Beckett School of Music) into space (31,000 sqft) for high tech offices.  The project is to be completed by the fall.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6370...h-offices/

This is excellent news and another key piece in Kitchener downtown revitalization.

Next up, I suspect, will be the Huck Glove factory.  At least I hope so.

[GtwoK]

This is excellent news and another key piece in Kitchener downtown revitalization.

Next up, I suspect, will be the Huck Glove factory.  At least I hope so.

I want to see more done with that one, though, being on a main street and centrally downtown. Especially next to what will be One Hundred. Would love to see the W&W property bought up by whomever owns Huck, and incorporated into an extension somehow.

IMO, downtown needs to be built UP, not just have building repurposed.

[panamaniac]

Next up, I suspect, will be the Huck Glove factory.  At least I hope so.

I want to see more done with that one, though, being on a main street and centrally downtown. Especially next to what will be One Hundred. Would love to see the W&W property bought up by whomever owns Huck, and incorporated into an extension somehow.

IMO, downtown needs to be built UP, not just have building repurposed.

I don't disagree.  In the case of the Huck Glove building, there seems to be enough land behind and beside the structure to incorporate a larger/taller redevelopment, with or without the neighbouring property.

[Markster]

IMO, downtown needs to be built UP, not just have building repurposed.

Step 1 is always renovation of existing buildings.
In Toronto, most of the new office space downtown in the 2000s was in renovated warehouses/factories. It was only once that space started to become more scarce, and momentum on downtown offices really picked up that we started to see new skyscrapers.

[panamaniac]

IMO, downtown needs to be built UP, not just have building repurposed.

Step 1 is always renovation of existing buildings.
In Toronto, most of the new office space downtown in the 2000s was in renovated warehouses/factories.  It was only once that space started to become more scarce, and momentum on downtown offices really picked up that we started to see new skyscrapers.

I would think that at this stage, any new development incorporated into something like the Huck Glove property would be a residential component.  How likely that is in the short term, I couldn't say.

[Viewfromthe42]

The issue being that downtown Toronto is large and has been thought of as urban for long enough that they don't have what we have, which is 1/3 of downtown being heritage, both from the perspective of you can't change any of it, to you can't build anything near it.

[panamaniac]

The issue being that downtown Toronto is large and has been thought of as urban for long enough that they don't have what we have, which is 1/3 of downtown being heritage, both from the perspective of you can't change any of it, to you can't build anything near it.

How common is that?

[Viewfromthe42]

Sometimes, it's how UpTown is, where you can't build higher than 4 storeys on King, unless you are far enough back that you can't see the building from the opposite side of King as a pedestrian (try looking at the Princess condominiums from the east side of king, you almost can't see the top above any existing or theoretical 3-4 storey streetfront).

Other times, it's pressure from neighbours, such as those who pushed hard (unsuccessfully) to declare the 6-storey Red condos as being too tall for King Street, due to the people who lived behind the lot. Established neighbourhoods, especially heritage ones, exert not only a development freeze on their internals, but outwards towards any neighbour they could theoretically see or hear.

[Owen]

Sometimes, it's how UpTown is, where you can't build higher than 4 storeys on King, unless you are far enough back that you can't see the building from the opposite side of King as a pedestrian (try looking at the Princess condominiums from the east side of king, you almost can't see the top above any existing or theoretical 3-4 storey streetfront).

Other times, it's pressure from neighbours, such as those who pushed hard (unsuccessfully) to declare the 6-storey Red condos as being too tall for King Street, due to the people who lived behind the lot. Established neighbourhoods, especially heritage ones, exert not only a development freeze on their internals, but outwards towards any neighbour they could theoretically see or hear.

As long as tall buildings have proper setbacks they shouldn't be an issue - the trouble starts when you try to squeeze a tall building onto a small lot.  We were all thoroughly educated at the 100 Vic OMB hearing: Light, Skyview and Privacy are universal principles that create positive dwelling environments for humans - setbacks provide for these elements in tall residential buildings.

On the topic of the OMB hearing, the owner of the Huck glove building attended several days of the hearing - and the city planner let it slip at one point during cross examination that they had been talking to him - seeming to suggest that something is in the works, but no idea what.

Overall, I wouldn't stress about not seeing enough tall building developments downtown Kitchener - we still have the entirety of the Brahm st (former) city works yards to be redeveloped, along with the old warehouse and parking lot between the pharmacy school and 72 Victoria (and those are squarely in the 'innovation district' which the OP designates for intensification, whereas 5 Michael is not), never mind whatever is going up at the transit hub and whatever takes shape at King's Crossing.