New development planned for downtown Kitchener, includes townhomes a daycare and a grocery store

A two-tower project was fully approved this week. Downtown Kitchener will see a 33-storey tower and a 37-storey tower be built next to stacked townhomes on the site, which is set to have a daycare and grocery store.

The planned location for the project encompasses a large space consisting of properties at 787-851 King St. E., 432 Charles St. E. and 5 Stirling Ave. S., which sit across from the First Mennonite Church and cemetery.

The mixed-use development will host 932 residential units. It’s set to have 651 parking spaces with 464 bicycle spaces.

The development will also be near a major transit station area with the LRT’s Borden station just steps away.

It was fully approved November 21 by Kitchener city council after a meeting about minor variances for the site plan that included reducing parking spaces and whether a daycare could be built on a location designated as a floodplain.

Dave Aston with MHBC Planning represented Lindvest, who is overseeing the project at the council meeting.

“We are all here in support of the recommendation and we want to thank staff for working with us, it’s been some time we’ve been looking at options to redevelop the site, looking at the site plan, working through the minor variances,” said Aston.

The stacked townhomes are set to face King Street with the daycare planned for the second floor.

Currently, the lot on Charles Street is vacant but the lots on King Street and Stirling Avenue contain an auto service business and an empty commercial building that is recognized in Kitchener as the painted black building with colourful circles.

The entire site plan is located within the Schneider Creek floodplain, but city staff reported the flood line only affects the southeasterly part of the property.

Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) requires residential buildings in the region to be floodproofed and in instances like a daycare they recommend it be located outside of natural hazards like a floodplain. GRCA saw no concerns with the application this week.

The project was approved back in June with full conditional approval set for this month. It was fully approved unanimously by council on Tuesday.