OTIS | 6 fl | U/C

[Rainrider22]

Shopify folk would be much more likely to buy in Waterloo than in Kitchener, no?

Why ?  LRT will get them to work..

[panamaniac]

Shopify folk would be much more likely to buy in Waterloo than in Kitchener, no?

Why ?  LRT will get them to work..

Well, I don't want to be controversial, it may be different for the younger generation, and I don't agree with it, but it's not very common to hear about someone living in working in Waterloo and then moving to Kitchener.  Most Waterloo residents I know find ways to emphasize how seldom they go to DTK.

[Rainrider22]

Why ?  LRT will get them to work..

Well, I don't want to be controversial, it may be different for the younger generation, and I don't agree with it, but it's not very common to hear about someone living in working in Waterloo and then moving to Kitchener.  Most Waterloo residents I know find ways to emphasize how seldom they go to DTK.

Yes, I understand and you are not wrong, but the new people moving into the region for jobs don't subscribe to those same opinions.  Only people born and raised in Waterloo do. Additionally, I am sooo tired of the DTK negative comments.  It is becoming a lively vibrant area.   The people that are moving in and building there get it.  It is becoming the most sought after area to move to.

[jamincan]

Yeah, I think it's a pretty outdated opinion.

[taylortbb]

Shopify folk would be much more likely to buy in Waterloo than in Kitchener, no?

Downtown to uptown isn't a very long commute, especially with ION, and the number of condo projects to choose from downtown is a lot higher. I'm sure it's a factor in uptown's favour, but I wouldn't go to "much more likely".

As to people being Waterloo pretentious, as a 20-something techie, most people I know prefer downtown over uptown. A number of people I know have made the move, myself included. Downtown Kitchener is seen as tech central.

I also just used Shopify as one example, the same dynamic has played out with Google and other downtown employers. Uptown is pretty much just Shopify, while downtown has Google, Square, Netsuite, etc.

[tomh009]

Our building (in DTK) has a lot of people who work in Waterloo, including Shopify. And UW.

[tomh009]

Those are insane prices for that location

I am more impressed that there are people that can afford and want to live in that type of setting. I am wondering how much a detached home would go in that area -- mind you, you don't often see 'For Sale' signs.

I think $500-700K for a detached home in the Victoria Park area is a reasonable estimate. Friends bought a house recently about 100m from the park, and paid over $600K.

[panamaniac]

A piece in the Record describes this as the highest-priced condo in the Region ($625/sqft). No indication of a start date, but the interesting news that there will be a 2,000 sqft space in the basement that Litt would like to see turned into a live music venue or a wine bar.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/944...-be-built/

[tomh009]

An excavator at OTIS. Are they getting ready to start digging?

   

[taylortbb]

They dropped it off a week or two ago, it made a hole, and as far as I can tell hasn't moved since (I live next door). I'm guessing it's to serve some technicality of their building permit that they've started construction, but don't have quite enough units sold yet for financing to go through.

[Spokes]

Ya that's a good point, what constitutes having started? Haha

[tomh009]

They dropped it off a week or two ago, it made a hole, and as far as I can tell hasn't moved since (I live next door). I'm guessing it's to serve some technicality of their building permit that they've started construction, but don't have quite enough units sold yet for financing to go through.

They didn't qualify for the development fee exemption so there is no need to start construction on a specific date. (The development fee exemption does require something like "substantially under way" so I don't think a small hole would qualify for that anyway.)

Vive has active building permits for four (!) properties at the moment: OTIS, Queen St S, Market Flats and Margaret St. Queen St S won't substantially start until after ROOF moves out in late fall, and Margaret St needs demolition first, but I expect that the other three properties will be getting under way relatively soon, once they have the contractors scheduled. With the amount of construction going on in Kitchener at the moment, I expect that signing up the contractors may not be so quick!

[danbrotherston]

Why ?  LRT will get them to work..

Well, I don't want to be controversial, it may be different for the younger generation, and I don't agree with it, but it's not very common to hear about someone living in working in Waterloo and then moving to Kitchener.  Most Waterloo residents I know find ways to emphasize how seldom they go to DTK.

I think you'll probably hear this mostly from outspoken folks.

The "silent majority" probably don't care, and would consider living in DTK without flinching.

[tomh009]

They dropped it off a week or two ago, it made a hole, and as far as I can tell hasn't moved since (I live next door). I'm guessing it's to serve some technicality of their building permit that they've started construction, but don't have quite enough units sold yet for financing to go through.

It looks like there are some (green?) pipes embedded in the ground now? Can you tell from your apartment what's going on?

[taylortbb]

They dropped it off a week or two ago, it made a hole, and as far as I can tell hasn't moved since (I live next door). I'm guessing it's to serve some technicality of their building permit that they've started construction, but don't have quite enough units sold yet for financing to go through.

It looks like there are some (green?) pipes embedded in the ground now? Can you tell from your apartment what's going on?

My unit faces the other way so all I can tell is what anyone can see from walking by. But I'll try to see if I can see anything next time.

Edit: There's a green-ish metal bar sticking out of the ground, but that's all I can see that's pipe-like, and I think it was there before. The hole has been filled in and the equipment is gone (though not without doing a ton of damage to the asphalt).