The Metz (Schneiders site redevelopment)

[Viewfromthe42]

I would be in favour of demolishing most of it, the solid wall of brick facing courtland is particularly uninviting and makes for a rather dark street most of the time. There's not really any doors, windows or anything to interact with the street. Even though some of them are kind of old they are really bland red brick buildings. I also don't know what value there would be in saving any of the walkways or covered conveyors (I dunno what they are) and it would limit possibilities for building the site up.

Personally I'd get the first plans for the property at 83 Elmsdale (see this thread for pics) and tweak them to fit part of this site.

I'd love to see the creek opened up and re-naturalized... the city ought to take the opportunity to build a trail following Shoemaker creek all the way to Homer-Watson and connect it to the Iron Horse. I walked through the entire tunneled portion when I was in high school, there wasn't much of anything down there, we were hoping for a body or something exciting, lol.

Here's the google 3d view looking from a western view. Massive amount of opportunity for city building here. I hope it doesn't end up being too bland and banal.

It is indeed fairly uninviting, but i think there could be some serious push to restore an old industrial building.  You can see where there used to be windows, maybe with them back in it could look good like Kaufman or Arrow.

Is it safe to assume the office building stays as is?  I'd guess so.

This is weird, when I hit reply, no matter how I go to this thread, I'm always forced to have the above posts quoted in my reply.

Anyway, Consider that Waterloo was closed so that the intermodal hub could be the plot that it is today. If Palmer isn't deemed to be necessary to others outside of this site, or if alternatives are or are made available, it could become absorbed.

[Spokes]

Interesting perspective for the Schneiders site.

http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/Looplink/Pro...D=19550840&STID=CB0003&LL=true

Thanks for posting this.

I always thought that they owned some smaller parcels of land, but wasn't sure where/which ones.

[Viewfromthe42]

Now, if they made a corridor going down Kent, that'd be something. On one hand, a lot of what is generally seen as a redevelopable type of building southwest of Borden. On the other hand, that's my rock gym which I wouldn't want to see changed. But in terms of lower land values, less built up area, lower likelihood of neighbourhood opposition, and proportion of properties as legitimate opportunities for redevelopment, this is a good area.

[plam]

Now, if they made a corridor going down Kent, that'd be something. On one hand, a lot of what is generally seen as a redevelopable type of building southwest of Borden. On the other hand, that's my rock gym which I wouldn't want to see changed. But in terms of lower land values, less built up area, lower likelihood of neighbourhood opposition, and proportion of properties as legitimate opportunities for redevelopment, this is a good area.

There is a long list of climbing gyms in Toronto which have been booted by condo development. I've told the owners of GRR that they should really make an effort to buy out the property so that they can't be booted.

[jamincan]

And then they could boot out the Crossfit place and expand even further!

[Viewfromthe42]

And then they could boot out the Crossfit place and expand even further!

I kind of like the active annex that's going on there. Climbing, crossfit, multiple martial arts; seems like a good spot to go for fitness, and I'm curious what could develop if we stimulate that, rather than stifle it.

Certainly when you go during peak hours, GRR is plenty packed. Were they to expand into the full building, I can't imagine how busy the peaks would have to be to fund even more square footage during the lulls.

I'm also curious just where our gym rates in size when compared to other Canadian gyms. I've been to ones in Hull, Ottawa, Buffalo, Burlington, and Toronto, and I'm not sure that any are head and shoulders above GRR; it seems right around the max size for any of these.

[plam]

And then they could boot out the Crossfit place and expand even further!

I kind of like the active annex that's going on there. Climbing, crossfit, multiple martial arts; seems like a good spot to go for fitness, and I'm curious what could develop if we stimulate that, rather than stifle it.

Certainly when you go during peak hours, GRR is plenty packed. Were they to expand into the full building, I can't imagine how busy the peaks would have to be to fund even more square footage during the lulls.

I'm also curious just where our gym rates in size when compared to other Canadian gyms. I've been to ones in Hull, Ottawa, Buffalo, Burlington, and Toronto, and I'm not sure that any are head and shoulders above GRR; it seems right around the max size for any of these.

The climbing gym business model is a bit strange in that a lot of year-round revenue comes from birthday parties. Many members pay once a year, which is good when they pay, but then you can have more members and not that much more revenue. So building more space is nice for members but may not help the gym's bottom line, unless it gets too crowded that people get turned off.

I was surprised by how non-packed GRR was last Monday evening. Usually I go on Tuesdays and Thursdays (when not in Switzerland) and it is packed on those nights. Less on Mondays.

My impression is that GRR is about mid-sized in terms of gym size. There are certainly much bigger gyms out there, even in Canada. Horizon Roc and Allez Up in Montreal are larger, I think. The smallest gym I've been to is the one on campus at UBC. You can get about 12 climbers in there. Past that you have to wait outside for someone to leave.

[plam]

Turns out my impression is mistaken. I checked with a friend in the industry and GRR has one of the largest climbing terrain square footage numbers in the area. Other gyms have different distributions of terrain (e.g. same # of routes but shorter, or more bouldering, or ...).

[rangersfan]

The deadline for bids by prospective buyers was on February 26, 2016.

http://m.therecord.com/news-story/636773...-kitchener

[ibuildstuff]

I vote for this area to be re-named into the Meat Packing District. Hopefully whoever develops it makes it something along the lines of the meat packing district in New York/ distillery district in Toronto/ hess village in Hamilton.

[panamaniac]

I vote for this area to be re-named into the Meat Packing District. Hopefully whoever develops it makes it something along the lines of the meat packing district in New York/ distillery district in Toronto/ hess village in Hamilton.

Surely if the area is to have a name, that name should incorporate "Schneider", no?  We still don't know whether enough of the industrial buildings will be preserved to justify the name you are suggesting.

[GtwoK]

Heard from my girlfriend that apparently her cousin, who owns a housing development company, has purchased half of the Schneider's property. Supposedly, there was also a struggle with CN about some long-forgotten property ownership. I know no further info than that.

[Smore]

Heard from my girlfriend that apparently her cousin, who owns a housing development company, has purchased half of the Schneider's property. Supposedly, there was also a struggle with CN about some long-forgotten property ownership. I know no further info than that.

sounds legit!

[GtwoK]

Indeed!

I figure nothing of consequence, so why not post it. Whether it's true or not. At any rate, it's 1 step up from "Something's gonna happen at Charles and Gaukel, probably".

[KevinL]

It certainly seems possible that there was once a rail spur serving the plant, long since removed, that officially had its property belong to CN that Schneiders just assumed was theirs despite title never changing hands.