Whitney Insite Q3 2022

Q3 2022

WHITNEY INSITE

Commercial Real Estate and Community News from Waterloo Region

Welcome to our Q3 2022 Insite Report. As we head into the fall season, it sounds like Oktoberfest is in the air… seems like years since we could celebrate! It’s so refreshing to see things returning to normal. Kids, young and old are once again in the classrooms and cars are in the parking lots of our office buildings.

Waterloo Region’s Official Plan

Great news to hear that Regional Council has voted to adopt the growth components of a proposed amendment to the Regional Official Plan. The Region is making changes to the Waterloo Region’s Official Plan (ROP) for the first time since 2015, partly in response to projected population growth.

The Buzz in this update is around 15 minute neighbourhoods. This plan envisions a new approach to community building and growth through intensification and strengthening neighbourhoods. The Region has shown we will need 150 HA of residential land and 456 HA of employment area growth. Council adopted an official plan amendment on August 18th which adds 121,000 housing units to the ROP. The Region is hoping the ROP will go to the Province of Ontario later this fall for approval.

Onward we go to 2051 where the population in Waterloo Region is forecasted to be 923,000 people!

John Whitney

Broker of record, ceo, sior

Q3 2022

In this edition

WHITNEY Chosen for Factory Square >

Waterloo Region 30 Year Plan >

Revised Plan for Schneiders >

Boathouse to Reopen in Kitchener >

417 King Street West Sold >

Mill Street LRT Transformation >

Uptown Waterloo Steakhouse Transformed >

Highrises Proposed for South Kitchener >

Waterloo Neighbourhood Grows >

Waterloo Tech Update >

King Street Redevelopment >
Try Something New >

Whitney & Company Selected to Provide Leasing Services for Factory Square

We are pleased to announce that WHITNEY & Company has been selected to provide leasing services for the Factory Square Campus in Waterloo. Factory Square is located at 440, 451, 455 Phillip St and is comprised of 3 buildings, 530,000 SF and companies such as eSentire, Auvik, McAfee, MCAP and Arctic Wolf, to name a few. Montez Corporation recently purchased the properties for $122.8 M. Kipling Group Inc. is the property manager.

Currently there are 3 spaces for lease ranging from 4,447 – 14,499 SF.

440 Phillip – Unit A200

440 Phillip – Unit B200

451 Phillip – Unit 160

Waterloo Region’s 30-year growth plan is a ‘Goldilocks Official Plan’

Source – The Record

Regional council approves plan that includes 15-minute neighbourhoods, more intensification and protection of the countryside line.

Region of Waterloo councillors approved a 30-year growth plan that will see 15-minute neighbourhoods, higher-density housing and protection of the countryside line.

Regional Chair Karen Redman described the intensification plan that will dictate the region’s growth to 2051 as a “Goldilocks Official Plan” with no winners and no losers. “This plan will meet the needs of the region,” she said at a committee meeting at which councillors voted in favour of the proposed plan.

“Competing interests have been heard and staff has given due consideration,” said Coun. Tom Galloway, who is chair of the planning and works committee. “On balance, we have a very good report.” The Region is planning for growth because it projects Waterloo Region to grow to just shy of a million people by 2051. That’s a population increase of 306,000 people in 30 years.

Revised plan for Schneiders site in Kitchener includes 2,400 rental apartments in 12 new buildings

Source – The Record

A revised plan for the former Schneiders site includes more than 2,400 rental apartments in a dozen new buildings ranging from six to 38 storeys tall.

Representatives from the City and the developer held an information meeting Wednesday night to discuss the plan to revamp the 27-acre site that was home to the meat processing plant for 90 years.

Fronting onto Courtland Avenue East between Stirling and Borden avenues, the massive mixed-use project called The Metz would include 2,436 rental units in 12 new buildings; parks and open plazas; and commercial space in three repurposed buildings remaining on the site. The project is still being reviewed by City planning staff; required official plan and zoning bylaw amendments would need council approval.

London-based Auburn Developments — behind other local projects including The Barrel Yards and Arrow Lofts — intends to build The Metz in phases. Three eight-storey buildings near Courtland Avenue would likely be built in 2024 and 2025, with work on the commercial buildings occurring between 2025 and 2028.

Boathouse in Kitchener could reopen as live music venue, restaurant next spring

Source – The Record

The shuttered Boathouse in Victoria Park could reopen to live music lovers next spring. City staff have identified a preferred proposal from Walkinshaw Holdings Inc. that would see the city-owned venue’s revival as an entertainment spot and restaurant, with paid local live music at least two nights a week and locally-sourced food and drink.

The report was presented to Council; future Council approval will be required for a lease agreement. The Boathouse has been closed since 2019.

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SOLD - 417 King St W in Kitchener

This exceptional property is located in the Innovation District and steps away from proposed Transit Hub and a variety of Downtown amenities.

WHITNEY & Company is pleased to announce the sale of 417 King St W in Downtown Kitchener. This 0.68 Acre redevelopment site is located at “centre ice” in the Innovation District and positioned steps away from the planned Transit Hub. The Transit Hub will be a central location that will integrate major transportation lines such as GO, VIA Rail, ION LRT and Grand River Transit.

We are excited to see what the future brings for this property at the corner of King and Francis St. One more great example of intensification.

Mill Street plan would transform area around LRT station with six towers, up to 1,500 units

Source – The Record

Commercial space, public plazas also part of Polocorp proposal.

A proposed development in Kitchener would transform the area around the Mill LRT station with six towers, commercial space, and up to 1,500 residential units.

The new complex would take shape at 455-509 Mill St., just in from Ottawa Street and right next to the transit station. The properties are currently home to a few buildings, including detached homes and Delta Elevator’s head office.

“From our standpoint, this represents a very important new community that would be integrated with the existing community from the ground up,” said Joseph Puopolo, co-chief executive officer of developer Polocorp Inc.

Polocorp want to build six highrise buildings on five podiums — with total heights ranging from 11 to 32 storeys — with the three tallest alongside the LRT line.

Steakhouse Streak Ending in Uptown Waterloo

Source – The Record

Former Lot 88 being pared down into 3 units.

The building that was last home to the Lot 88 Steakhouse (126-130 King St. S) is being transformed to accommodate three ground-floor commercial units.

Lot 88 replaced the former Wildfire Steakhouse in 2018, but didn’t last long, and the building has sat vacant since 2019. It was previously known as the Baton Rouge Steakhouse, and before that, the Ali Baba Steakhouse, which occupied the second floor that has since been converted to apartments.

The current main floor space had been outfitted for a single tenant and is now being broken out into three units between 1,800 and 2,400 square feet.

Things to Do in Waterloo Region - Fall Edition

Three highrises, more than 500 rental apartments proposed for vacant plot in south Kitchener

Source – The Record

Two phases of construction likely for project, which would also include commercial space.

Three highrise buildings, more than 500 rental apartments and commercial space would be included in a proposed development on a vacant plot of land in south Kitchener.

The site — about 3.4 hectares (8.4 acres) in size — is at the southwest corner of Huron and Strasburg roads, with frontage onto both roads.

The proposal, detailed in a planning justification report compiled by MHBC Planning on behalf of the landowner, a numbered company, would see three residential buildings, 13 and 17 storeys tall, constructed on the property.

Initial plans show five standalone commercial buildings constructed along the Huron and Strasburg frontages, but the report notes the design of the commercial portion of the project will continue to evolve.

looking for office or industrial space?

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Six-storey building to replace three houses as central Waterloo neighbourhood grows higher

Source – The Record

New building on Hickory Street would further intensify the youngest, tallest, and fastest-growing neighbourhood in the region.

City Council has been asked to allow another taller building in the Northdale Campus area of central Waterloo. The new building at 34-38 Hickory St. W. would be a six-storey development with 47 apartments, and would replace three detached houses. It would further intensify the youngest, tallest, and fastest-growing neighbourhood in the region.

All units would have one bedroom. The building is next to Waterloo Collegiate Institute. It would include commercial space on the ground floor, a ground-level patio and balconies. Plans include 16 surface parking spaces and 13 bicycle parking spaces.

Waterloo Region Tech Update

Source – Waterloo EDC & Waterloo Tech Highlights

Mappedin has signed portfolio wide rollouts with two more shopping centre groups – Klépierre and Taubman. Mappedin is the leading platform for indoor spatial data management, digitizing venues, and building best-in-class indoor mapping experiences. Built for scale, their flexible platform and enterprise grade tools enable them to work with leading operators and developers around the world.

iGUIDE, an industry leader in 3D tours and floor plans for Residential Real Estate, has grown to reach a market share of 20% in homes sold in Canada and 37% in homes sold in the province of Alberta, which has mandated Residential Measurement Standard for reporting square footage. This growth in the use of 3D Tours comes as the National Association of Realtors 2021 Profile of Homebuyer and Seller report found that buyers who used the internet during their home search found virtual tours (77%) and floor plans (85%) to be useful.

Vena Medical announced their first in human surgeries, successfully presenting a new platform for stroke surgeries and filed for US FDA approval. The medical device first used at London hospital reverses stroke symptoms in minutes as the device rapidly removes a blood clot, preventing permanent damage to the brain.

Geeq obtained access to up to $25M of opaque funding for opaque purposes from Global Emerging Markets (GEM) who funds different utility blockchain tokens. The Geeq platform is designed to address real-world problems with a sharp focus on the mission-critical factors of security, cost and ease of implementation.

Intellijoint is expanding its geographic footprint and launched in its 7th US city in St. Louis, Missouri. Intellijoint Surgical® offers solutions to orthopaedic surgeons using technology that’s free of needless complexities. They build with surgeons, for surgeons, to create versatile devices that provide important information in a variety of use-cases. They partner with clinicians and surgical staff to improve patients’ lives using efficient and cost-effective technological solutions.

eSentire outed the Golden Chickens malware threat actor and shared his identity with law enforcement authorities. He has worked closely with Russian hackers and online extortion organizations for years. Joe Stewart and Keegan Keplinger, security researchers with eSentire‘s Threat Response Unit (TRU), authored the research. The report, unveiled at Black Hat USA reveals how eSentire identified the malware operator.

SSIMWAVE was awarded a patent related to banding detection in streaming video. US Patent No. No.63/008, 257, ‘Image and Video Banding Assessment,’ is intended to help live and VoD streaming services detect and eradicate one of the most difficult-to-solve video quality impairments in OTT streams. The solution is already deployed in production by some of the top streaming platforms to optimize for Banding across billions of hours of viewed content.

Plum continues to drive adoption with customers Sitel and OLX renewing on multi-year deals and expanding throughout the entire company. They’re going to start raising their Series A in September.

Plan would see ‘underutilized’ King Street property redeveloped with two buildings, 372 rental units

Source – The Record

Tallest building, at 24 storeys, would also have retail space.

A proposal from Vive Development would see two buildings, 372 residential rental units and commercial space built on an “underutilized” King Street East property.

The property — 1251-1253 King St. E. and 16 Sheldon Ave. S. — stretches down to Charles Street East, and currently houses a single-storey commercial building and a surface parking lot on the Charles Street side.

The site, near the Rockway Centre and about a five-minute walk from the Borden LRT station, is “very well connected, very well located, and … within an identified intensification area within the city,” said Pierre Chauvin of MHBC Planning, during an online neighbourhood information meeting held Thursday night.

As rents continue to increase, “we have a massive, massive, massive shortage of all sorts of housing,” noted Vive’s Stephen Litt. “There’s many things that we can do to ease that pressure, and the one that we can do as a private developer is help on the supply side. We want to build more rental housing.”

Try Something New

Odd Duck is a local pop-up restaurant located at Unit 1 – 20 Hurst Ave, Kitchener and is a social enterprise offering unique wines and provisions.

Tasty Deli is a new Eastern European Deli located at 60 Charles Street W, Kitchener providing a new outlook on European eats in Kitchener-Waterloo.

The Charcuterie Bar is coming to the Fat Sparrow Block in the St. Jacob’s Village this fall serving all things charcuterie!

Eby Street Bodega is a neighbourhood grocery shop carrying carefully selected cheeses, charcuterie, produce, pantry staples and more. They are located at 16 Eby St N in Kitchener.

Hakka Aroma opened just four months ago located at 200 Lorraine Ave, Kitchener serving Hakka Indian Cuisine and some Thai Foods.

Bellissima is a local bakery that sells true European decadent cakes and pastries located at 2-105 Oak Park Dr, Waterloo.

John Whitney

Q3 2022

In this edition

Whitney & Company Selected to Provide Leasing Services for Factory Square

Waterloo Region’s 30-year growth plan is a ‘Goldilocks Official Plan’

Revised plan for Schneiders site in Kitchener includes 2,400 rental apartments in 12 new buildings

Boathouse in Kitchener could reopen as live music venue, restaurant next spring

Get property listings, reports, newsletters and more sent to your inbox

SOLD - 417 King St W in Kitchener

Mill Street plan would transform area around LRT station with six towers, up to 1,500 units

Steakhouse Streak Ending in Uptown Waterloo

Things to Do in Waterloo Region - Fall Edition

Three highrises, more than 500 rental apartments proposed for vacant plot in south Kitchener

looking for office or industrial space?

View our latest property listings

Six-storey building to replace three houses as central Waterloo neighbourhood grows higher

Plan would see ‘underutilized’ King Street property redeveloped with two buildings, 372 rental units

Try Something New

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