The Hub | 44m | 14fl | Complete

[urbd]

And does anyone have any info on the retail units? anything interesting opening up?

[Spokes]

Is it officially done?

[Markster]

Judging by other developments, it will likely be several months before we start to see notices in the windows.

[Memph]

I don't live in Southern Ontario anymore, so curious to know how this turned out since it looks like it's been finished for a little while now.

[bgb_ca]

I don't live in Southern Ontario anymore, so curious to know how this turned out since it looks like it's been finished for a little while now.

Here is one I just took a few minutes ago

[Lens]

I don't live in Southern Ontario anymore, so curious to know how this turned out since it looks like it's been finished for a little while now.

Here is one I just took a few minutes ago

YIKES YIKES YIKES

[Rainrider22]

So it wasn't just me ? !

[Memph]

Here is one I just took a few minutes ago

YIKES YIKES YIKES

lol, yeah, it does look rather copy & pasted. 

How do the businesses seem to be faring? Is there any foot traffic in that pedestrian mews type thing between the buildings or is it totally deserted? I think that aspect of the development is a nice idea in principle, but based off streetview, the execution could've been better, and I don't think the location is very good either.

If you look are the residential square footage of the project and the retail square footage, it's probably fairly balanced and similar to the ratio of residential to retail square footage in Waterloo Region as a whole, but a development like that won't be self contained. Obviously the local residents are likely to use the businesses but the development won't have the full range of businesses they need, or maybe there's a Chinese restaurant but a particular resident would prefer Indian, or w/e. So the residents will obviously do some of their retail spending outside the development which means the development still needs to draw customers from the areas outside the development.

I think a pedestrian mews that functioned as an extension of either Balsam or Hickory connecting to UW would've attracted a lot of foot traffic, since it would have been a shorter route than University or Columbia for Northdale students headed to a lot of the buildings on the UW campus, and also more pleasant and sheltered and quiet than walking on University. So a pedestrian mews there could've supported some small businesses imo.

However, the neighbourhoods north of Columbia aren't as student heavy or dense, and are getting to be beyond walking distance, so I think there's less foot-traffic, not to mention that passing through The Hub isn't really shorter than just taking Albert + Columbia (in fact a bit longer?).

The other thing about the execution is that if you're walking or driving by on Columbia or Albert, it doesn't look like there would be retail in there. From Albert is just looks residential, and from Columbia it not only looks residential but also very utilitarian, like just a driveway leading to a parking garage. Like it's not even clear that you wouldn't get in trouble for trespassing. Architecturally, they could've made it look nicer and more enticing to draw people in, but also should've put up more signs to advertise that there's shops in there, as well as the individual shops having signs that face E/W rather than just signage on the windows (ie facing N/S) to draw people further and further in by letting them know that yes, there's still more businesses.

The renderings had some fairly high visibility signage to advertise that there would be shops in there but I don't see any on streetview. Has that changed?

[Wingers19]

The HUB has filed a new development application with the City of Waterloo with proposed zoning changes to help attract more commercial tenants to The Hub in Waterloo.


https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...c197e.html

[Acitta]

The HUB has filed a new development application with the City of Waterloo with proposed zoning changes to help attract more commercial tenants to The Hub in Waterloo.


https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...c197e.html

I think that I would like to live in a development like that. The pedestrian promenade is nice. I think that one of the problems with the commercial spaces is that they are hidden from the street, so people passing by who don't live there don't know what is there. I only discovered the place by reading a review of one of the takeout restaurants there (now gone) which I went to a couple of times.