Many Mount Hope residents were happy to read the article in The Record about the city finally offering this building up for sale. That article was published on January 11, 2016 and on September 6th, 2016 the building is still not up for sale. Interesting.
In the past I have met with our councillor Sarah Marsh to discuss this property and over the summer I've asked for updates several times. Councillor Marsh assures me she has been advocating with staff regularly to move forward on the steps required for the sale.
The latest information is that there are "several interested parties" and that the city is putting together some kind of "package" for potential buyers to understand the issues with the property and the options that exist for Brownfield incentives.
The property is expected to go on sale "sometime in the fall".
Even if the property is purchased it will take some time to fulfill the Ministry of the Environment's requirements so cleanup and new construction would be at least a few years away.
Certainly this property is in a prime location with the Transit Hub, Google, the Tannery and all the other development happening in our area. It is also situated amongst a lot of really nice people!
On the other hand, its primary redevelopment purpose will be for condos and townhouses and we already have City Centre, One Victoria and the Midtown Condos either completed or in development. There will also be the "100 Victoria" development, a proposed rebuild of the current King's Crossing Plaza and the Transit Hub is also planning on having condos as part of its plan. How many condos will we need in downtown Kitchener before the market is saturated?
We will post any more updates on this Blog and for background information on this property please read the posts here and here.
Ted Parkinson
CoChair MHBPNA
4 comments:
Thanks for the update and your continuing work on this. I hope they consider multi-media, not just condo units. Do you know of any plans for the New Dawn School now that it is closed?
I meant multi-use, darn autocorrect
The city insists the multi-use is out of the question, since they zoned the whole area as residential. One would think that some amenities for the community would be considered, given that we have all had to look at this eyesore for 20+ years
The city insists the multi-use is out of the question, since they zoned the whole area as residential. One would think that some amenities for the community would be considered, given that we have all had to look at this eyesore for 20+ years
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