26 King St E | 3 fl | U/C

[Momo26]

Pictures?

[panamaniac]

Yeah. No pics, it didn't happen!

[ac3r]

They've got the entire frame of girders up now. It looks even skinnier than before! Sorry, no photos though, I was rushing to get a Vietnamese sandwich.

[mastermind]

I saw that too, this thing is tiny!

[Joedelay Highhoe]

I keeping meaning to check this out when I drive through downtown, but it's so dang narrow that I miss it every time.

[ac3r]

Yeah it's honestly so skinny you can barely notice it. Looks more like a support structure used in building renovation than the frame of a building itself. I feel like I'm tall enough that if I laid down horizontally I wouldn't even fit haha.

[CP42]

[ac3r]

It would be so nice if they could get rid of that little parking lot. If they tore that up, put down some grass, planted some trees and put up benches and shade structures it would be a nice little parkette to sit in. It would be really nice because that intersection is a busy place with a lot of people, but nowhere comfortable to sit around. I imagine Conestoga students would love something like that for a place to have lunch. If Kitchener put some public wifi coverage there it would even be an okay place to study, albeit a bit noisy.

[taylortbb]

That parking lot is privately owned by Europro, so I doubt they'll voluntarily give up their revenue to build something for the city.

[ac3r]

Oh I didn't know they owned it. Well yeah I can't see them giving that up. While they own a boat load of parking across the street in the old mall, street level parking like that can bring in a lot of easy money. Parking garages are a lot less desirable to most drivers, so they'll opt for a parking lot they can easily drive in and out of over having to take stairs or an elevator. It's a shame heh, because their attempt at renovating the office tower was a total flop and are turning it into housing anyway.

[ac3r]

They've made more progress on this cute little project.

[Rainrider22]

This project is so intriguing. I have to look at it everytime I am DTK... There is also a neat little rebuild on King across from the Kitchener Market

[SF22]

Are they building this with no windows on the exposed side, presumably so another building could be adjoined in the future?

[ac3r]

Correct, there are no windows to be placed on the side. However, I'm not sure if the adjacent property (the parking lot) will get redeveloped anytime soon. If I recall, Europro owns that property and I'm not sure what they'd want to do it. I can't see it becoming commercial because there's already so much vacant space downtown, but who knows.

[SF22]

Europro was going to convert 22 Frederick from office to residential, before it got picked up by Conestoga, so it's not completely impossible that they might choose to build residential on that lot. It's a good bit of land right next to an LRT station, it has to be worth more than just a surface lot.