Manulife (King Centre) redevelopment project

[Momo26]

Not sure which thread this belongs in, but given the nature of the companies in the innovation district - tech, start ups, software etc., any word on who is coming I to the soon to be Manulife employee free massive brown building next door to Charlie West? I wonder if that will undergo major renos.

[Quadcities34]

Not sure which thread this belongs in, but given the  nature of the companies in the innovation district - tech, start ups, software etc., any word on who is coming I to the soon to be Manulife employee free massive brown building next door to Charlie West? I wonder if that will undergo major renos.

That entire (now vacant) site is under consideration for redevelopment. Manulife proposed a two phase project earlier this year on one of their parking lots, but are now in the midst of planning a mega redevelopment or selling their land, plans, and rezoning to a new developer, similar to what happened with SIXO.

[robdrimmie]

FWIW there's been nothing communicated internally about this project. I mention it every now and then when the topic of construction comes up, and people are pretty consistently unaware.

Do you think this is because it's unlikely to happen, or because it's just kept hush hush

Mostly it's just a result of many divisions doing things largely unrelated to each other and standard large corporation communication issues. Manulife Real Estate is fairly separate from Canada Division so in terms of direct impact on staff locally there's very little, which means generally that there isn't a need for anyone here to know about the state of the project. It's less that it's intentional, and more that it's not something around which there are plans that will affect the workforce in the next year or so.

[BruceAshe]

Do you think this is because it's unlikely to happen, or because it's just kept hush hush

Mostly it's just a result of many divisions doing things largely unrelated to each other and standard large corporation communication issues. Manulife Real Estate is fairly separate from Canada Division so in terms of direct impact on staff locally there's very little, which means generally that there isn't a need for anyone here to know about the state of the project. It's less that it's intentional, and more that it's not something around which there are plans that will affect the workforce in the next year or so.

I would agree that a lot has to with the fact it won't end up affecting too many employees. By the time this project gets started most, if not all, employees will have moved out of the building at 25 Water St. 

I'm more surprised that this idea is still going ahead and the lot isn't going to be part of whatever the future holds for the building itself.

[robdrimmie]

No announcements about the fate of 25 Water have been made that I've seen internally or externally. I'd be shocked if there weren't a fairly large number of conversations underway for both potential sale or leasing opportunities. I'll be somewhat surprised if they outright sell, Manulife Real Estate owns and manages $23 billion (CDN) worth of property globally and downtown Kitchener seems like a pretty good bet for a good while yet.

They did buy the property when it was practically a fire sale around here though, so if they do end up selling I'm pretty sure they'll have made a significant profit off of that investment.

[dgoh0]

I heard that Google is interested in leasing the manulife office space once they vacate, until phase 3 of Breithaupt block is completed. Perhaps the property is more valuable as rental if it includes a massive parking lot.

[robdrimmie]

A request for admins: We've gone off-topic in this thread. It is for the development project in the lot bounded by Water, Joseph, Francis and Charles.

This current vein of discussion is focused on the Manulife-owned building at 25 Water (at Charles).

I think either the thread needs to be expanded to something like "Manulife's DTK presence" or this portion of the thread needs to be moved elsewhere.

Edit for clarification: This post was originally in a different thread, and was migrated to the on-topic thread by admins.

[creative]

Isn’t the thread called Manulife KING CENTRE development?

[tomh009]

Isn’t the thread called Manulife KING CENTRE development?

That last post was part of the discussion in the Manulife (parking lot) development project … and I have now moved those over to this thread. Sorry for the confusion!

[tomh009]

Education announcement discussion now moved to the Market Square thread.

[Square]

So what will happen here, now that the college is going to Market Square?

[jeffster]

So what will happen here, now that the college is going to Market Square?

Hopefully another "public" school of higher education along with a heavy hitting tech company. Or anything that brings more people to DTK.

[TMKM94]

Maybe it could become a Mall again LOL? It's Probably wishful thinking for Market Square or King Center to become a successful Mall again even with all the new Residential buildings and Offices being built.

[jamincan]

King Centre doesn't bother me as much, as I don't think it's quite as hostile a presence on King Street. Market Square really ought to be razed to the ground. It is an awful barrier to the south part of the downtown core.

[panamaniac]

Maybe it could become a Mall again LOL? It's Probably wishful thinking for Market Square or King Center to become a successful Mall again even with all the new Residential buildings and Offices being built.

I could see the main floor off King St being a mall - haven't there always been businesses in there?