87 Regina St S | 81m | 25 fl | Proposed

[ac3r]

Waterloo city council approved rezoning this land to allow the development (which is surprising), but I haven't heard any news from the developer itself (Torgan Group) as to whether or not they'll actually build this. Additionally, BDP Quadrangle, the architecture firm who designed it, delisted it from their portfolio long ago. Your guess is as good as mine.

Wait quadrangle designed this? That would have to be one of the more high profile architects to do a project in this region no?

Yeah they were hired to do the building back in 2017. They're definitely one of the more high profile architecture firms to do work here, though certainly not the only one. Here is the site plan itself: https://www.waterloo.ca/en/government/re...ctives.pdf

[nms]

I wouldn't be so quick to place the lack of development in Uptown Waterloo solely at the feet of City Council. There isn't a block between Central St and Union St that has not seen some form of change or development in the last five years. Unless someone has an inside track on why 87 Regina hasn't happened, all we can do is speculate. (but then again, that's really all that we're doing on most of WRConnected anyway)

[tomh009]

I wouldn't be so quick to place the lack of development in Uptown Waterloo solely at the feet of City Council.  There isn't a block between Central St and Union St that has not seen some form of change or development in the last five years. Unless someone has an inside track on why 87 Regina hasn't happened, all we can do is speculate. (but then again, that's really all that we're doing on most of WRConnected anyway)

What would you say has been the key factor in the lack of recent development in downtown Waterloo? There have been some projects, yes, but since the Shopify build and 1877, there really haven't been any significant constructions starts in the core. Is it just the attraction of Kitchener drawing developers away, then? Or developers prefer Northdale to central Waterloo? Why?

[ac3r]

In my experience in architecture, it's getting approval to do anything that really slow things down. You've got to put up with the City of Waterloo and their hyper-conservative vision of the city, then if you're lucky enough to get approval for a project, you then need to deal with NIMBYs that come out in force to stop any change. When I was working for Teeple Architects we ran into a lot of walls while doing the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute and that was not exactly a controversial project in any way. Boomers just can't get over the this belief that uptown Waterloo is and always shall be this quaint, tiny urban area with a small town feel.

In contrast, Kitchener is doing all they can to encourage new development and they are not afraid to push the boundaries of what has traditionally been built downtown, from pedestrian street zones, a massive new train station, cultural venues to 40-50 floor skyscrapers. Kitchener knows it is becoming a large and significant Canadian city that needs to evolve and we aren't afraid of embracing that.

[ijmorlan]

If Waterloo isn’t careful, we’ll end up amalgamating as “Kitchener”!

[jeffster]

In contrast, Kitchener is doing all they can to encourage new development and they are not afraid to push the boundaries of what has traditionally been built downtown, from pedestrian street zones, a massive new train station, cultural venues to 40-50 floor skyscrapers. Kitchener knows it is becoming a large and significant Canadian city that needs to evolve and we aren't afraid of embracing that.

Kitchener wasn't always that way. I mean, for the longest time, Waterloo was having the largest builds. Not saying that the mayor of Kitchener changed all this, because it started changing before he came in, but certainly having Berry as mayor hasn't hurt.

[Spokes]

In contrast, Kitchener is doing all they can to encourage new development and they are not afraid to push the boundaries of what has traditionally been built downtown, from pedestrian street zones, a massive new train station, cultural venues to 40-50 floor skyscrapers. Kitchener knows it is becoming a large and significant Canadian city that needs to evolve and we aren't afraid of embracing that.

Kitchener wasn't always that way. I mean, for the longest time, Waterloo was having the largest builds. Not saying that the mayor of Kitchener changed all this, because it started changing before he came in, but certainly having Berry as mayor hasn't hurt.

Mayor Zehr deserves a ton of credit as he was the one that first created the EDIF (?) and tucked away ~$100 million I think to use on downtown development.  It's what helped get the UW school of pharmacy and the Tannery going and I think we can all agree, those are two of the projects that really started building momentum in dtk.

[tomh009]

Mayor Zehr deserves a ton of credit as he was the one that first created the EDIF (?) and tucked away ~$100 million I think to use on downtown development.  It's what helped get the UW school of pharmacy and the Tannery going and I think we can all agree, those are two of the projects that really started building momentum in dtk.

Kudos to Zehr also for bringing in the annual blues festival, which has brought more people to the outdoors and downtown (even if only for a weekend) and has since spawned a number of other events. And some to Dom Cardillo, too, for making the current city hall a reality.

[nms]

I wouldn't be so quick to place the lack of development in Uptown Waterloo solely at the feet of City Council.  There isn't a block between Central St and Union St that has not seen some form of change or development in the last five years. Unless someone has an inside track on why 87 Regina hasn't happened, all we can do is speculate. (but then again, that's really all that we're doing on most of WRConnected anyway)

What would you say has been the key factor in the lack of recent development in downtown Waterloo? There have been some projects, yes, but since the Shopify build and 1877, there really haven't been any significant constructions starts in the core. Is it just the attraction of Kitchener drawing developers away, then? Or developers prefer Northdale to central Waterloo? Why?

If I had to guess, it would be that Waterloo got started earlier in the downtown industrial conversion game than Kitchener did and there isn't much "easy money" anymore. Off the top of my head these early projects include:
- the City Centre (former CN Railway lands, circa 1988)
- the Regional Public Health building across the street (mid 1990s?)
- 55 William Street apartment building (early 2000s)
- Terrace on the Square and the townhouses (Labatt's, circa early 1990s)
- Seagram's properties (vacated late 1990s)
- Perimeter Institute (late Memorial Arena, early 2000s)
- Waterloo Rec Complex, Luther Village and Barrelyards (ongoing over the past 25 years)
- Waterloo Town Square (rounds 1 and 2, plus all the ones that were stillborn in between)
- The Brighton School Co-op (20+ years ago)
- Alexandra School Condos (15+ years ago?)
- Bauer Lofts (late 2000s)

The construction that begat 144/155 Park and its immediate neighbours around King and Allan are probably the last gasp of big construction for a while unless the new owner of the SunLife property gets their project off the ground.

As I said earlier, beyond the Barrelyards parcel, there really isn't any large parcel of land left in the Uptown with the exception of the City-owned parking lots along Caroline St. As well, for the sake of comparison, "Uptown Waterloo" is really only the stretch from William to Central along King, with one block on either side.  Even if you stretch it down to Union, the total area is really only equivalent to the Downtown Kitchener "block" that is Victoria, Charles, Cedar and Duke, and even then, not the area on the "outside" of those streets in Kitchener.  Yes, there has been some construction in Kitchener in that similar space, but nothing of the scale of what is going on along Victoria Street West with the only exception possibly being the building at Charles and Gaukel.

Finally, don't underestimate the challenge of Laurel Creek. Between the high water table and the updated rainfall intensity statistics that affect construction (ie "how often will this area flood"), it makes new build construction a challenge when you have to consider the limits of the 100-year flood line in your planning.