144 Park, Waterloo

144 Park is a condo development in Waterloo that has been selling pre-construction for a couple years – and construction looks like it will finally get underway this fall.

Second 144 Park Tower?

144 Park is a 19 floor tower at the corner of Park & Allen, adjacent to the Bauer Lofts (which features the Bauer Kitchen, and is just across the street from the to-be-built RED Condos in Waterloo), and the rumour on the street is that there will be a second tower added to 144 park.

This has not yet been approved by (or come before) City of Waterloo’s Council, so it is speculative at this point.

The first mention we heard of this was from user Floor2012 at WonderfulWaterloo:

“The second tower would be located on the block of land bounded by Caroline, Park, the Sun Life garage and the 144 Park. If you google map the satellite view you can see that the total piece of land is really a rectangle once the Iron Horse Trail is rerouted. And no I don’t know exactly how the rerouting will happen but I understand that the City favours Mady redeveloping the whole block. Maybe the trail would just run along between the Sun Life garage and the second tower, hooking up again on Caroline Street.

Obvoiusly there must have been alot of discussions and negotiations in recent months between Mady, The City and the group that owned the second piece of land. I heard at one point that this group (some of which were involved with the Bauer) were planning their own condominium on this site.

Now Mady expects to build a second building that will be compatiable architecturally with the 144 Park. I don’t have all the answers. I’m just one of the over 135 people who have purchased at 144 Park and received an update from the developer this week.”

Interested in a Condo at 144 Park?

If you’re interested in a condo here, send us an email or give us a call.

For pricing & availability of the condos at 144 Park in Waterloo - the remaining units in the first tower, or in the rumoured second tower - , call me at 519-772-4376 or email me directly at Benjamin AT BenjaminBach DOT com.

If you are interested in other Waterloo Condos, let us know what you are looking for. We have a selection of condos available under $200,000, as well as other pre-construction developments.  Whatever type of real estate investment you’re looking for, we can help you with it.

(Images courtesy of 144 Park.)

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The Record has a great article this morning talking about limits on development in Waterloo Region, the City’s new Official Plan for growth, and the provinces desire to see fewer farms converted into subdivisions:

Waterloo Region on the front line in province’s battle against urban sprawl

At the front line of the issue is the Region of Waterloo’s new Official Plan, which has established a countryside boundary beyond which no new subdivisions can be built for the next 20 years. In coming weeks the region’s Official Plan will get final approval from the province and then be open to appeals from developers.

If the countryside line withstands appeals to the Ontario Municipal Board, the provincial tribunal that rules on land-use disputes, other municipalities in the horseshoe may establish hard lines over which no suburb can sprawl.

The countryside line surrounds Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. Lines are also etched around Ayr, New Hamburg, St. Agatha, St. Jacobs and Elmira. The region does not want any new residential construction outside these lines.

…

After four decades of suburban growth, Waterloo Region now leads the province in meeting targets for reducing the construction of new suburbs on old farms.

In 1991 about five per cent of residential construction in Waterloo Region was infill, building in previously developed areas. In 2001 it was about 15 per cent. Now, between 35 per cent and 45 per cent of new housing occurs in built-up areas.

Recent examples of re-use & intensification in existing residential areas would be the City Centre condos & Kaufman Lofts in downtown Kitchener, 144 Park & the Bauer Lofts in Waterloo.

Commercial office infill projects such as The Breithaupt Block & The Tannery stand in stark contrast to an urban office campus like the Research & Technology Park at UW. From another article in this morning’s Record:

The Perimeter Development Corporation is transforming the former rubber company into office space. The history of the Breithaupt buildings goes back to the 1902 founding of the Merchants Rubber Co., by Jacob Kaurmann and T.H. Rieder. The block consists of several old industrial buildings with about 176,000 square feet of space at King and Breithaupt streets. David Gibson, the developer, said he is excited about the potential for the site and the kind of companies it can attract.

…

Another piece of history that’s experiencing a remarkable rebirth is the former Lang Tannery complex on Charles Street. Some offices and a pharmacy have opened there, as well as Communitech’s hi-tech space for emerging technology. The Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre doubled its space by moving to the Francis Street area of the complex. I got a glimpse inside that space when I spoke at workshop for the Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener-Waterloo.

Click through to read the whole article – they covered the Box 10 art show which my wife & I attended.

Letting more people live and work in the historic downtowns of cities is a good thing, and I’m glad to see the level of re-use in Waterloo Region increasing.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know !

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Fresh off our discussion of the new Condos, Hotel, and Commercial real estate coming toWaterloo -  the Barrel Yards, here is some information about a new development going in donwtown Kitchener at 30-40 Margaret Ave.

I happen to think it’s a great addition to the area!  Read the article from today’s Record, and leave a comment below!

Condo development approved for site of old mansions on Margaret Avenue

Kitchener Condo development approved for site of old mansions on Margaret Avenue

By Terry Pender, Record staff

KITCHENER — Over the continued objections of many nearby homeowners a developer cleared a critical hurdle in the decades-long story to redevelop 30-40 Margaret Ave.

The city’s Official Plan and zoning regulations will be changed to accommodate a six-storey building containing 210 condominiums and underground parking.

“It is really quite a massive building taking up most of the land there,” said Laura Gorman, who lives on Ellen Street.

Opponents of the proposed development say it comes too close to their backyards off Ellen Street; the front of the new building will be too close to Margaret Avenue; larger trees should be planted to replace the loss of the mature trees that now shade the area, which lies between Queen Street North and Victoria Street North.

When Christine Runstedtler moved into 11 Margaret Ave. in 1974, historic mansions graced the lots across the street.

Those historic buildings, owned at one time by the Kaufman family, were allowed to deteriorate and finally demolished in 1988 along with some other buildings on that stretch of Margaret Avenue, which forms part of the city’s oldest neighbourhood.

Runstedtler said she’s enjoyed using the heavily treed lots as a park.

“But we always knew that had to come to an end and the end appears now,” Runstedtler said in a presentation to the city’s development and technical services committee on Monday.

Added Bryan Kaufman of Ellen Street: “I moved into the neighbourhood in 1989 and I, like a lot of my neighbours, got used to a nice empty lot.”

Even with the approvals granted on Monday the development is not a sure thing. More agreements and permits are needed from the city and if the economy tanks again the project could easily go on hold.

Even though the empty lots sit among some of the most attractive residential streets in the old city, close to Centre in the Square and the main library, they have not been redeveloped in more than 22 years.

But Denis Pellerin of Louisa Street hopes that changes now. Pellerin attended the meeting to speak in favour of the development that will bring more people to live in the central neighbourhood.

“This project is every important,” Pellerin said. “It needs to go forward.”

Community Expansion Inc. and Melloul-Blamey Construction have been working on this project since 2007.

There is near-unanimous support for the development among city councillors.

“This is a good development for this property,” Mayor Carl Zehr said.

Added Coun. Geoff Lorentz: “I think this is a good proposal. I think it was a long time in coming.”

The City of Kitchener spent years preparing the studies and background work to establish its fourth heritage conservation district, called Olde Towne Berlin, that is roughly bordered by Weber, Victoria, Lancaster, Ellen and Queen streets.

City council passed the enabling bylaw for the new heritage conservation district in 2008, but that was immediately appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), a provincial tribunal that rules on land-use disputes.

Community Expansion Inc. appealed to the OMB. The city expects the developer will drop the appeal once the two parties have a site plan agreement in place that details how the Margaret Avenue development will take place.

What do you think?

(photo from: Wonderful Waterloo forums)

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The Record has an article in this morning’s paper about a major development underway in Waterloo, Ontario – The Barrel Yards – which will bring the Kitchener Waterloo real estate market some very high quality product over the next few years

When completed, the Barrel Yards – located at the corner of Erb Street and Father David Bauer Drive in uptown Waterloo, Ontario – will be home to a hotel, condos, rental apartments, commercial real estate (office & retail space)  and townhouses.

Uptown goes upscale: Barrel Yards development will transform Waterloo’s core

The 28 dump trucks assigned to the job must carry 25,000 loads of dirt from the site, where 10 highrise buildings containing 1,200 residential units will be built over the next five years.

The $350-million project includes a hotel, a seniors’ residence, condos, apartments, live-work units, townhouses, street-level retail, office space, a park and an underground-parking garage with 2,400 spaces.

“This is going to completely change Waterloo’s downtown,” said Dave Coulter, the project manager.

When construction is finished the 5.1 hectares (12 acres) will contain the densest collection of tall buildings in the core and surrounding area. The buildings will range in height from an eight-storey hotel to a pair of 25-storey condominium buildings.

Coulter has divided the work into stages, the first being the hotel and the underground parking to support it. Concrete should be poured for the foundations in about a month. The hotel should be finished by September 2011.

This hotel is going to be a high end property and is eagerly anticipated by the residents of Kitchener Waterloo

University students living south of Erb and west of Euclid will be able to walk through the Barrel Yards on their way to campus, stopping for a coffee or snack along the way in some of the mixed-use buildings at street level.

“We tried to integrate the community as best as we can,” said Stephen Litt, special projects manager for Auburn.

Litt, a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s program in systems design engineering, says the Barrel Yards project is the biggest brownfield redevelopment now underway in the province.

A few small parking lots will be scattered on the surface, but at the City of Waterloo’s insistence, a two-level underground garage will be built to create a pedestrian-oriented environment above.

“Parking is kind of ugly — get it underground and maximize the landscaping above,” Litt says. “The more landscaping you can provide, the more attractive the buildings.”

Waterloo transformed

The Barrel Yards development is one of the final chapters in the transformation of Waterloo from a blue-collar factory town into a creative city.

Waterloo’s old industrial heart stopped beating in 1992, when the Seagram Distillery closed after more than 130 years in business. Not long after that, Canbar closed. The SunarHauserman plant on Father David Bauer Drive also shut down. The Labatt brewery was shuttered.

About 20 hectares of land became vacant in a short period of time. It has taken nearly 20 years to redevelop the former industrial sites.

It is a testament to the brains, heart and determination of our community in Waterloo Region (Kitchener, Cambridge, and all the surrounding towns and villages are an important part of our area too!) that KW had this much industry dissapear, and instead of turning into another depressed area (think: Detroit after it’s heydey) has really thrived and become a major player on the global stage.

Growing up in Kitchener and Waterloo, Litt remembers what the city core looked like when it was dominated by industrial buildings — the distillery, brewery, barrel factory and warehouses.

Now the 27-year-old marvels at the changes and sips a coffee in the Casa Mia deli on Father David Bauer Drive.

“That was the spark that ignited the fire in this area,” Litt says gesturing at the Seagram Lofts nearby.

Even at the height of the recent recession, a 1,300-square-foot Seagram Loft fetched $375,000.

The Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics soon followed the lofts. The Centre for International Governance Innovation was established. A school of international affairs is being built across the street from the Barrel Yards development. A seniors’ residence was built on the former Sunar property and another on part of the old Labatt property.

The City of Waterloo played a critical role in all this. City councillors and bureaucrats stood firm in the face of widespread criticism in 1997 and paid $3.9 million to buy the Seagram lands so the city could control the redevelopment of the sites.

“All of the pieces are coming together today and they are all fitting in,” says Ryan Mounsey, an urban planner for the city who worked on the Barrel Yards file for years. “Difficult choices are controversial, no question, but look at how they are fitting in.”

The city also built the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex on Father David Bauer Drive. It leased the land to the Perimeter Institute for 99 years for a dollar. It sold the Seagram Museum at about half its assessed value to a trust for the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

“It’s a tremendous time to be here,” Mounsey says. “It is exciting. It is challenging.”

A world class location, right in Waterloo

The Barrel Yards development will be surrounded by think-tanks, universities and high-tech companies.

“Now we have intellectual industries and we are building to support that,” Litt says.

There are few, if any, five-hectare sites available for development in any downtown and even fewer with the mix of land uses around this one.

“We have great partners and neighbours, Perimeter, the Recreation Centre, CIGI and the Seagram Lofts,” Coulter says.

I’m excited to see Auburn complete the Barrel Yards, I think it’s going to be a great addition to Kitchener Waterloo.

What do you think?

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So, what is going on with the residential real estate market in Canada? Let’s turn to my friend Jay Papasan, with this month’s update

This Month in Real Estate – Keller Williams International

Canada’s economy continues to remain stronger than many other major national economies, and is affirmed by the Bank of Canada’s first rate increase since the beginning of rate cuts in 2008.Cana

As rates begin to rise, experts believe the housing market is poised to soften. Incomes rise at a relatively constant rate, while the housing market tends to rise in steps with periods of stability followed by periods of more rapid appreciation. The past decade has been one of appreciation following the 1990s (when prices were fairly flat). Thanks to a solid mortgage market, prudent lending, and responsible borrowing, experts anticipate the market will generally remain more balanced and prices will stabilize. This is a positive indicator for the long-term health of the market and for the wealth accumulated by homeowners.

While it’s important to keep in mind that the country’s commodity-based economy leaves it somewhat more susceptible to external forces such as global demand, currency rates, and commodity prices, things continue to look up for Canada from a year earlier.

Housing Market:

Home Sales

Existing home sales activity totaled 42,078 units in April, up 20.1% from last year and down 2.6% from last month. Experts believe there will be a gradual calming of the recently “hot” home sales activity over the next year, citing rising interest rates and a change in mortgage regulations that may have encouraged some buyers to push their timeline forward to purchase before the regulations took effect on April 19.

Average Home Price

Low supply and strong demand continued to boost prices. The national average home price was $344,968 in April, up 12.2% from April 2009 and up 1.2% from March. Experts anticipate home price appreciation will slow, but prices will remain stable – a positive sign for the long-term health of the housing market.

Inventory

Sales-to-Listings Ratio

In April, 79,678 new homes entered the market. Presently, buyers continue to have a wider variety of options as the uptick in new listings draws the market back into solidly balanced territory on a macro level. As is always the case with real estate, the micro level of locations differ from place to place.

Mortgage Rates

Average for: 25-Year Amortization, 5-Year Term
In April, the Bank of Canada lifted its conditional commitment to keep rates steady until July and made its first increase at the beginning of June. Rates are expected to continue rising but are anticipated to stay within a range that will leave homeownership in reach for many buyers.

(see: Whats going on with Mortgage Interest Rates in Canada?)

Sources: Conference Board, The Canadian Real Estate Association, Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Bank of Canada

 
Notable News:

Canadian Borrowers Well Prepared for Rate Hikes

As interest rates are trending upward and housing activity is expected to cool down, a survey by the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) shows that Canadians are in a strong position to weather the new mortgage market condition.

•Increasing home equity is easing consumer concern about rising mortgage rates.
•Many Canadians have used cost savings from historically low rates to make higher-than-required payments and will now have more breathing room as rates increase.
•Mortgage debt is a priority for Canadians with the vast majority, 93%, having never missed a payment.
•Many mortgages were renegotiated at significantly lower rates, one percentage point or more on posted interest rates.
•A high percentage of Canadians remain positive about the housing market and are bullish about house prices.

Sources: Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Pro

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On Monday, Waterloo councillors approved conceptual plans to expand the research and technology park north of the current campus, and also to develop nearby vacant lands in the northwest corner of the campus.

Council also reviewed a university proposal to launch construction of a first phase in its northwest corner. The lands could be used for research, academic buildings, and housing for students or faculty.

“It’s pretty much doubling the size of the university footprint,” Coun. Mark Whaley said. “It’s remarkable stuff.” (originally from The Record)

I was close to UW’s campus this morning, and I had the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the development projects underway on campus.

Here is a sampling:

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Since 2005 a lot of student housing has been built.  Like, thousands of beds. An investor represented by Keller Williams purchased over 500 newly built bedrooms, and there have been other groups just as active. 

Just down from a 380+ student property, there is a new 500+ student investment property under construction: 

(Waterloo Student Apartment Building under Development)

This is not the only building going up right now – there are many other properties slated to come online in the next few years.

So – will there be a long term demand for this much housing around the Universities?

Right now, there are approximately 30,000 full and part time students at the University of Waterloo (UW) and about 15,000 attend WLU’s Waterloo campus.  Lots and lots of tenants ready to rent your rooms.

Looking forward to the future, things look bright for people investing in Student Housing in KW:

UW campus poised to double in size over 40 years

By Jeff Outhit, Record staff

WATERLOO — Plans are taking shape to double the built size of the University of Waterloo campus over 40 years.

On Monday, Waterloo councillors approved conceptual plans to expand the research and technology park north of the current campus, and also to develop nearby vacant lands in the northwest corner of the campus.

Council also reviewed a university proposal to launch construction of a first phase in its northwest corner. The lands could be used for research, academic buildings, and housing for students or faculty.

“It’s pretty much doubling the size of the university footprint,” Coun. Mark Whaley said. “It’s remarkable stuff.”

He praised the university founders for creating the school in the 1950s and buying up all the vacant land now proposed for development. “What an amazing foresight these guys had,” he said.

The current research park is expected to expand north onto vacant lands over 15 years, adding as many as 4,000 more employees.

The vacant northwest corner of the campus, between Westmount and Fischer-Hallman roads, is to be developed in phases over 40 years. It could see another 13,750 employees added to the campus payroll.

We’ve seen rents and values of student rental properties steadily increase over the years.  With the planned expansion from UW, it looks like this trend will continue for a long time.

If you have any questions about the student real estate investment market in Waterloo, or for a list of properties that produce cash flow in the region, email me at Benjamin@BenjaminBach.com

KW Commercial is your one stop shop for commercial, investment, retail and multi family advice and brokerage in Waterloo Region.

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So, last time we looked at the investment property under construction on King Street it was just a hole in the ground, with some preliminary foundation in place.

Well, I was showing an investment property to a group of real estate investors across the street yesterday, and I snapped another shot of the construction site.  They’ve made a lot of progress!

 This is going to be one big property…  over 500 bedrooms for students.  It will probably be completed in the next 12-18 months.

If you have any questions about the student real estate investment market in Waterloo, or for a list of properties that produce cash flow in the region, email me at Benjamin@BenjaminBach.com

KW Commercial is your one stop shop for commercial, investment, retail and multi family advice and brokerage in Waterloo Region.

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Click play to watch:

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