2980 King Street East | 32 & 12 fl | Proposed

[ac3r]

A developer is proposing a 32 floor residential and commercial tower at 2980 King Street East, currently the site of the Charcoal Steak House.

At 32 floors, it would contain a total of 436 residential units along with 2 ground floor commercial spaces which would have a total of 692 square metres of space. 339 parking spaces are proposed. Indoor and outdoor amenity spaces for residents would be included. The architecture is by Reinders + Law.

[ac3r]

On that note, I wonder what will happen with The Radisson long term. It's a pretty old, outdated and frankly trashy hotel these days despite the renovations it underwent in I think early-mid 2023 after the homeless community was put up there and utterly wrecked the inside of the building. I can't imagine they'd knock it down, but I wonder if they'll ever sell it then just reconfigure it to be a residential building. Since this tower would require the demolition of essentially the entire parking garage on the site - shared by both the hotel and the restaurants - that immediately means the hotel would lose the majority of its parking units (sans a few surface spots around the building) which obviously impacts the hotel operations. Now while I don't have any information on their business, it never did seem to be doing well over the last 15~ years. It became rather infamous for many reasons, including hosting a clandestine child sex brothel a few years ago along with other problems like it being used by gangs and dealers, which helped seal its reputation as being not much different than the high class motel across the street.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future they look into the prospect of just turning it into a cheap rental building. There's a pool in and gym, so it would have amenity spaces already and most floors are already set up as hotel rooms, meaning they've got fairly adequate plumbing and electrical conduits all throughout the building. It would be a pretty easy building to flip from dumpy hotel to rental project.

[neonjoe]

The Raddison was closed for a period of time for renovations. It’s been a Courtyard by Marriott for at least a year.

[Acitta]

The Raddison was closed for a period of time for renovations. It’s been a Courtyard by Marriott for at least a year.

The reviews on Tripadvisor are mostly positive. It is labelled a 3-star hotel on Google Maps.

[taylortbb]

The reviews on Tripadvisor are mostly positive. It is labelled a 3-star hotel on Google Maps.

A "3-star hotel" just means the hotel has certain specific amenities, without any regard for the quality of said amenities.

The Tripadvisor reviews however would support that it's currently a reasonable hotel. Also, the fact it's allowed to continue operating in the Marriott family. They have a number of standards that franchisees are required to uphold.

[CP42]

The reviews on Tripadvisor are mostly positive. It is labelled a 3-star hotel on Google Maps.

A "3-star hotel" just means the hotel has certain specific amenities, without any regard for the quality of said amenities.

The Tripadvisor reviews however would support that it's currently a reasonable hotel. Also, the fact it's allowed to continue operating in the Marriott family. They have a number of standards that franchisees are required to uphold.

I heard they fully gutted in when they renovated on transition to a Courtyard.

[Acitta]

Charcoal Steak House site in Kitchener called ‘ideal location for more housing’

The Charcoal Steak House property in Kitchener is “an ideal location for more housing and for intensification,” a consultant said during an information meeting Wednesday night.

“It’s a very well-connected and very well-serviced location,” said Jonathan Hann of planning firm MHBC, on behalf of Charcoal Properties Limited.

Charcoal Properties has applied for official plan and zoning bylaw amendments that would permit the construction of a 32-storey mixed-use tower at the corner of King Street East and Fairway Road South.

[ac3r]

I won't be surprised if this will just be another zoning flip. They aren't exactly in the property redevelopment business. Getting it rezoned for high density then selling the land for a shit load of money, which could then be used to buy a new property and reopen elsewhere, seems more probable.

[plam]

Charcoal Steak House site in Kitchener called ‘ideal location for more housing’

The Charcoal Steak House property in Kitchener is “an ideal location for more housing and for intensification,” a consultant said during an information meeting Wednesday night.

“It’s a very well-connected and very well-serviced location,” said Jonathan Hann of planning firm MHBC, on behalf of Charcoal Properties Limited.

Charcoal Properties has applied for official plan and zoning bylaw amendments that would permit the construction of a 32-storey mixed-use tower at the corner of King Street East and Fairway Road South.

I'm surprised that the location comes up with a walkscore of 70. Being next to the intersection of two stroads with fast moving traffic really doesn't feel very walkable.

[tomh009]

I don't think the walkscore considers the quality/pleasantness of the sidewalks, only the presence thereof and the distance to places you might want to walk to.

[ac3r]

Walk Score is pretty useless. It's run by a massive real estate company that sells mortgage services and stuff and was only ever meant to be a tool for home buyers to use (it was founded by venture capitalists, after all). But that's what makes it bad. It mostly calculates walkability based on distance alone, not how nice a walk will be. Maybe it has chanced in recent years but for the longest time it didn't even take into account whether there are sidewalks or paths, just whether something is close to an address/home. I don't know where they pull data from though I assume it's from numerous sources since they now have transit/crime/walkability scores, but it's basically like just taking Google Maps info either way. It is barely capable of differentiating between similar data sets either (are the grocery stores near you high end stores, or discount stores?).

[ZEBuilder]

City staff are recommending approval of the ZBA/OPA for this site. The only change that comes from the ZBA/OPA process is the maximum building height, the applicant wants 32 floors however the Region of Waterloo will only allow for 27 floors given the proximity to the airport, from the staff report it appears that the applicant has been receptive to the comments and is willing to proceed only with 27 floors (however this is a longer term plan by the owners so we won't see anything for years).

This is the regional comment regarding the height:
The Region has received and reviewed a copy of the Aeronautical Assessment, prepared by IDS, dated April 25, 2024. The development is located outside the Airport
Zoning Regulation limits, but within the obstacle protection area of the Runway 08 approach paths and Runway 26 departure paths. Nav Canada has provided a maximum elevation of 1,350ft ASL at this location before the Runway 08 LNAV is impacted.

The Aeronautical Assessment is based upon a proposed building elevation of 1425.5 feet ASL (which does not include any related constructure crane height). The report notes an impact to airport operations at 1,370 feet ASL and proposes mitigation by redesigning the Runway 08 LNAV approach.

In accordance with policy 5.A.20 of the Regional Official Plan, the Region does not support land uses that would be incompatible with airport operations and is not able to support the redesign of the Runway 08 approaches and Runway 26 departures as proposed in the Aeronautical Assessment. As such, the proposed Zoning By-law Amendment for the subject lands must limit the proposed building height (and any related construction cranes) to a maximum of 420m (1,378 feet) ASL.

Required wording is as follows:
"The maximum height of the proposed building and related construction cranes on site shall be 420m (1,378 feet) ASL. Any crane used for the
construction of this development (e.g. towers, rooftop HVAC, communication towers/antennas) must be below the maximum height of 420m ASL."