199-205 Albert St | 81m | 24 fl | U/C

[Pheidippides]

"24-storey mixed-use building, with 179 units (179 bedrooms) and 450sq.m. of commercial and office uses"

"The purpose of the proposed Zoning By-law Amendment is to maintain the existing Multiple Residential (MR-25) Zone on the Site while establishing site specific regulations to permit:
1. A maximum of 750 bedrooms per hectare, whereas the Zoning By-law permits a maximum of 250 units per hectare;
2. A minimum of 0.25 parking spaces per bedroom; whereas the Zoning By-law requires a minimum of 1 parking space per unit; and,
3. 450 square metres of commercial and office uses; whereas the Zoning By-law does not permit commercial or office uses. "


Current site conditions: https://goo.gl/maps/Fmxa1BCrTF22

Planning justification report: http://www.waterloo.ca/en/contentresourc...df#page=14
Site plan: http://www.waterloo.ca/en/contentresourc...e_plan.pdf

[Lens]

Will these towers EVER stop??

[Markster]

Maybe with this tower up, and the 200 bus replaced by ION, we’ll be able to get GRT to move the 202 stop to King and introduce one at Albert.

[BuildingScout]

Will these towers EVER stop??

Why would you want them to? We need increased density and having more students live closer to campus reduces traffic. It also lowers the rent for the rest of us living in apartment complexes further away from the universities.

Lastly, they lower the rent to student themselves. Over the last decade, student rents increased much faster than inflation which is a sign of lack of supply.

[insider]

The podium portion is quite good... the tower not so much. I've seen more recent renders of this one, I'll see if I can find them...

[mpd618]

Will these towers EVER stop??

Why would you want them to? We need increased density and having more students live closer to campus reduces traffic. It also lowers the rent for the rest of us living in apartment complexes further away from the universities.

Lastly, they lower the rent to student themselves. Over the last decade, student rents increased much faster than inflation which is a sign of lack of supply.

This. And to really funnel growth into dense, urban, central areas, we need to be willing to build a lot of supply. I'm OK with unremarkable supply as long as it is functional as part of the city fabric. (We certainly as a community are mostly OK with unremarkable supply that is suburban and is not part of the city fabric!)

[Lens]

Will these towers EVER stop??

Why would you want them to? We need increased density and having more students live closer to campus reduces traffic. It also lowers the rent for the rest of us living in apartment complexes further away from the universities.

Lastly, they lower the rent to student themselves. Over the last decade, student rents increased much faster than inflation which is a sign of lack of supply.

That was somewhat of a rhetorical question. But to address your point, we haven't seen rents lowered much if at all across the region and we already have an oversupply in the Uni area. The rents SHOULD be coming down but they aren't yet, but maybe after all the proposed stuff gets completed we'll see a shift.

[BuildingScout]

But to address your point, we haven't seen rents lowered much if at all across the region and we already have an oversupply in the Uni area. The rents SHOULD be coming down but they aren't yet, but maybe after all the proposed stuff gets completed we'll see a shift.

My sources say the opposite. One and sometimes even two months free rent are starting to pop up. All you need to do is ask. This is equivalent to an 8% discount. Having said that rents should pull back about 25% to get back in line with inflation.

But as I said, we need even more supply so that prices get back to reasonable levels. There is no reason why one should pay more than $420 for a bedroom in a five unit apartment.

[Spokes]

The podium portion is quite good... the tower not so much. I've seen more recent renders of this one, I'll see if I can find them...

I agree, I like the podium, particularly given it's location.  The rest.  Not thrilled about, but I'll reserve judgement as of right now.

[eizenstriet]

This. And to really funnel growth into dense, urban, central areas, we need to be willing to build a lot of supply. I'm OK with unremarkable supply as long as it is functional as part of the city fabric. (We certainly as a community are mostly OK with unremarkable supply that is suburban and is not part of the city fabric!)

Raise your sights. Demand (or wait for) better. If you are OK with unremarkable urban supply, stuck with unremarkable suburban supply, and freely support the erosion of anything remarkable by the unremarkable,  you will end up with a city fabric that will be shunned by anyone who can find higher quality cloth elsewhere.

[mpd618]

Raise your sights. Demand (or wait for) better. If you are OK with unremarkable urban supply, stuck with unremarkable suburban supply, and freely support the erosion of anything remarkable by the unremarkable,  you will end up with a city fabric that will be shunned by anyone who can find higher quality cloth elsewhere.

Are you saying the same thing for the suburban subdivisions that are still being built? That's what I view cheaper, faster urban developments as competing with. I'd love to see higher design standards, but not arbitrarily high standards for new urban development (while there's effectively no standards for suburban ones).

[rangersfan]

I like the slim profile of this one.

[KevinL]

That three-storey gap above part of the fifth-floor terrace is quite the design statement. Makes it memorable.

[Smore]

is the middle building of current conditions a fairly new build?

[ac3r]

Pretty standard design, but for a pop-up apartment block in a student ghetto the use of glass is nice compared to some of the other buildings I've seen when I'm in the region.

It's good to increase the density in this area for reasons stated but the one thing I hate now more than ever is taking the bus anywhere near the schools. Depending on the time of day, there are so many people crammed into a single bus it's crazy and I live in downtown Toronto... I usually just Uber it if I'm in the city now because the transit is awful everywhere in KW haha...