Station Park | 18, 28, 36, 43, 50 fl | U/C

[MidTowner]

800,000 square feet of residential; and 100,000 square feet each of retail and office. The article suggests that half of that might be built out in the first phase. It will be a very big deal for King West through to the municipal boundary to have those kinds of new residents. Hopefully a timeline for this will mean that proposals like the one at Wellington, and sites like the former McDonald’s, can go forward sooner, and have a stronger rationale for mixed-use.

[panamaniac]

800,000 square feet of residential; and 100,000 square feet each of retail and office. The article suggests that half of that might be built out in the first phase. It will be a very big deal for King West through to the municipal boundary to have those kinds of new residents. Hopefully a timeline for this will mean that proposals like the one at Wellington, and sites like the former McDonald’s, can go forward sooner, and have a stronger rationale for mixed-use.

Could it not also have the opposite effect, including for commercial development at the transportation hub (although that's probably for the 2020s in any event)?  The Kitchener market can only absorb so much, I would have thought.

[MidTowner]

Especially with existing proposals in the hopper, I'd imagine it would prompt developers to consider getting ahead of this, if they've already done some planning.

I have no idea about residential: in fact, if you had asked me, I would have assumed the market was saturated by One Victoria and City Centre, but other projects are going ahead. King's Crossing is largely residential, and 800,000 square feet of residential is a lot: if it goes ahead at half that scale in the first phase, that is a lot of new residents to be served by new commercial at the transit hub and elsewhere on the King West corridor.

[tomh009]

Consider how quickly 100 Victoria sold out, and I don't think DTK is saturated yet. There is also relatively little recent, high-quality rental stock. And downtown employment keeps growing.

400K sq ft (in the first phase) could be about 400 units, assuming a relatively low 800 sq ft average, and maybe 600-800 more people living downtown. That will in turn bring more customers for restaurants and stores -- and more users for the LRT.

[mpd618]

Considering all the new downtown employment, e.g. Google, Deloitte, Manulife as well as the start-ups - plus the LRT/transit hub - I don't think the market for residential here is at all saturated.

[nms]

How much of the condo purchasing is done by speculators hoping to cash in by selling their unoccupied and pristine units a few years from now, or using it for something like Airbnb?

[BuildingScout]

How much of the condo purchasing is done by speculators hoping to cash in by selling their unoccupied and pristine units a few years from now

There's a lot of talk about empty units, but very little evidence of that. Certainly in downtown Toronto the light patterns suggests most units are occupied.

[tomh009]

And if a "speculator" is renting out the unit but hoping to resell in a few years, I really don't have a problem with that. Empty units would be a different thing ...

[panamaniac]

How much of the condo purchasing is done by speculators hoping to cash in by selling their unoccupied and pristine units a few years from now, or using it for something like Airbnb?

Not likely.  Most of the units have been snapped up by investors looking to rent out the units, or so I've been led to believe.

[nms]

Either way, there is a certain segment that are crowding out others who, since they can't afford to purchase a condo unit, must rent from someone else who bought it instead.

[BuildingScout]

Either way, there is a certain segment that are crowding out others who, since they can't afford to purchase a condo unit, must rent from someone else who bought it instead.

This assumes a fixed supply of new buildings. In reality increased demand leads to increased construction. Who knows if One Victoria or City Centre would have gone ahead had it not been for real estate investors.

More specifically, according to anecdotal evidence, investors were crucial in getting the Kauffman lofts to fruition, at a time when demand for housing in DTK was still on the low side.

[tomh009]

Either way, there is a certain segment that are crowding out others who, since they can't afford to purchase a condo unit, must rent from someone else who bought it instead.

Some people actually don't WANT to own a condo and would prefer to rent. (I know some personally, too.)  And if rents are low relative to property prices, renting may be more financially attractive than buying, too.

[Markster]

This had an article in Daily Commercial News:
http://dailycommercialnews.com/Projects/...-1018486W/

It's your standard DCN puff piece, with the most actual information in the first paragraph:

Zehr Group is looking to break ground in early 2018 on a massive mixed-use development in downtown Kitchener, Ont. after acquiring the historic two-acre Ratz-Bechtel property.

[tomh009]

In order to do that, they'll need to get starting with plan approvals with the city ASAP. It will surely take more than six months.

[jamincan]

So will the train doors open on both sides there? It would be annoying for people not catching the bus and heading south from the station to first have to go to the crosswalk.