The evolution of KW

[DHLawrence]

Mid-00s? Amazing; Cambridge was actually ahead of the pack on this one. Holiday Inn Drive had bike lanes in the late 90s.

[nms]

The stretch of University Ave in question was generally in front of the University of Waterloo, possibly stretching as far east as King.

[jgsz]

The evolution of Kitchener as a high tech hub is, for me, an unexpected development.  

When I came to this area many years ago, Kitchener was an industrial city and Waterloo was a university and insurance city.  As technology developed, Waterloo was the place to be.  Kitchener was rusting.  The downtown was dead and many of the old industries closed, downsized or moved.  

All the tech companies and startups were in Waterloo.  RIM was the most obvious example.  And when Google opened a small facility in Waterloo I was certain that Waterloo would become the place for high tech research and development.

Today, that is not the case.  I don't know if Kitchener has eclipsed Waterloo in high tech research, development and employment but it is sure starting to look like it has.

[tomh009]

Indeed. When we were working in a tech startup in the 90s (when there were not many of them yet!) a Waterloo address was definitely one to have, there was practically nothing happening on the Kitchener side. A very different situation today: while the UW R&D park is very successful, the Kitchener downtown has become a huge tech magnet, while there is little activity (by technology companies) in uptown Waterloo.

Definitely unexpected.

[BuildingScout]

All the tech companies and startups were in Waterloo.  RIM was the most obvious example.  And when Google opened a small facility in Waterloo I was certain that Waterloo would become the place for high tech research and development.

Today, that is not the case.  I don't know if Kitchener has eclipsed Waterloo in high tech research, development and employment but it is sure starting to look like it has.

Part of the problem is that the R&T park was such an architectural failure, so Google couldn't wait to move out of there. Additionally, there was a premium for an R&T address which is exactly the opposite of what a startup needs.

I know the university tries to foster a startup ecosystem in the entire region and overall they don't much care if they are in R&T park, Northfield, Innnovation District  or Cambridge.

[MidTowner]

I know the university tries to foster a startup ecosystem in the entire region and overall they don't much care if they are in R&T park, Northfield, Innnovation District  or Cambridge.

And nor should they. As you say, companies need very different types of facilities and locations depending on their stage of growth. If the desire is for start-ups to scale, they need to be able to move to bigger facilities (which doesn't necessarily mean outside of the centre, but often does) and still feel like they'll receive contact and support.

[nms]

It will be interesting to see how companies move up and down the LRT corridor depending on their stage of growth:
- Either the Accelerator Centre or Velocity Garage for the early stages
- Either downtown Kitchener or subletting something up along Phillip
- Then moving into larger premises as necessary

I would wonder what will happen if some of the larger companies (eg Google, Desire2Learn) continue to grow. Will Kitchener office real estate be able to keep up, or will the companies have to shift elsewhere?

50-60 years ago, each community (not to mention Galt/Preston/Hespeler) had a vibrant, downtown industrial core that allowed workers to walk or transit to work. Tech and services are now moving into those spaces and I foresee various tech clusters popping up. Uptown Waterloo may lag behind Kitchener due to a current lack of office real estate, but I wouldn't be surprised if future developments begin to pop-up once the easy industrial/commercial land/buildings in downtown Kitchener has been developed/converted.

[panamaniac]

It will be interesting to see how companies move up and down the LRT corridor depending on their stage of growth:
- Either the Accelerator Centre or Velocity Garage for the early stages
- Either downtown Kitchener or subletting something up along Phillip
- Then moving into larger premises as necessary

I would wonder what will happen if some of the larger companies (eg Google, Desire2Learn) continue to grow.  Will Kitchener office real estate be able to keep up, or will the companies have to shift elsewhere?

50-60 years ago, each community (not to mention Galt/Preston/Hespeler) had a vibrant, downtown industrial core that allowed workers to walk or transit to work.  Tech and services are now moving into those spaces and I foresee various tech clusters popping up.  Uptown Waterloo may lag behind Kitchener due to a current lack of office real estate, but I wouldn't be surprised if future developments begin to pop-up once the easy industrial/commercial land/buildings in downtown Kitchener has been developed/converted.

In the case of D2L, they should, with continued growth, be looking into a move into their own Downtown HQ building, imo.

[tomh009]

There is still plenty of opportunity to create more office space in downtown, whether by renovating old factories or by building new in one of the parking lots.

[Viewfromthe42]

There is still plenty of opportunity to create more office space in downtown, whether by renovating old factories or by building new in one of the parking lots.

The choice to leave the Tannery building to be developed on the west side of Joseph at its existing size, and not add any height or remove any parking, should show a bit of how little appetite there still is for certain changes in downtown, at least on the side of many developers. It took the richest country in the world for new (as opposed to refurbished) office space to be created in Downtown, with UpTown seeing the first space, a few floors on the south side of Willis ways, in maybe a decade or more.

[rangersfan]

I was thinking this week with the announcements of the new Downtown grocery store, Catalyst137, and the purchase of the Budds department store building the amount of change the tech industry has brought to Waterloo Region over the past 10 years has been incredible. If you took photos of the University area a decade ago compared to today, the differences would be drastic.

[Spokes]

I think the Region deserves a ton of credit for doing things that promoted growth. This can be particularly seen with the city of kitchener's EDIF, without that, I can't help but wonder where downtown would be right now. Certainly not where it is.

[panamaniac]

EDIF - Economic Development Investment Fund.

[tomh009]

There is still plenty of opportunity to create more office space in downtown, whether by renovating old factories or by building new in one of the parking lots.

The choice to leave the Tannery building to be developed on the west side of Joseph at its existing size, and not add any height or remove any parking, should show a bit of how little appetite there still is for certain changes in downtown, at least on the side of many developers. It took the richest country in the world for new (as opposed to refurbished) office space to be created in Downtown, with UpTown seeing the first space, a few floors on the south side of Willis ways, in maybe a decade or more.

I don't really have an issue with refurbishing space.  I would rather have old buildings being used, and integrated into the downtown, than new buildings being built and the old ones vacant, crumbling down and boarded up.  (Doing both is not really realistic as additional office space doesn't automatically create additional demand, and there was substantial commercial space vacancy downtown.)  There will be more new office space built as well, just give it time.  Multi-modal hub, King's Crossing, 55 King W phase 2 (yes, I do think it'll happen), Charles/Gaukel redevelopment.  I have confidence there will be plenty of new builds as well within 10 years.

[BuildingScout]

The town becomes a city; ca. 2010

There are various working definitions of a city, for example site of a dioceses in the UK or over 100K people elsewhere. Another common definition is a combination of population, services and density. In this case I'll use the last one. Three things are needed >100K population; at least two full blown malls, commercial cinema, concert hall, sports arena, university, airport, sports team, and so on; and a high density area or district. This last one has just been achieved with the high rises in Northdale, likely to be followed within the next 10 years in DTK. High density areas offer a combination of jobs, housing and services within walking distance typical of a city.