[Branden Simon]

210-226 King Street East in Cambridge - A proposed 40-Storey residential building with 475 units and commercial space on the ground floor, this would be the tallest building in Cambridge, developed by ABS Space Investments Corp. Located in Preston neighbourhood of Cambridge.

@Matt.R and @ZEBuilder need to discuss this

@Paclo

 

[Koops65]

That will get chopped down to a more manageable size if Cambridge has anything to do with it...

I like the height though.

 

[ZEBuilder]

This isn't going to be developed anytime soon and is awfully likely to be a zone a flip. The proponents behind it haven't built anything to my knowledge and this is a massive project to start on. The proponents (ABS Space Investments) are comprised of some Shopify executives (both past and present) so there's money but I wouldn't expect it to go anywhere.

As for the scale it's out of place now but phase 2 of the ION will have a station directly behind it so it does make some sense, however if this is what becomes precedent there is definitely going to be issues in the future with the road network, right now there won't be. The problem comes from the fact that the area only has 2 main arterials Eagle and King, both of which can get heavily congested depending on the time of day as is and that's without the 6 approved buildings at King and Fountain being built out. When those get built out and if this height becomes precedent for the rest of the area there are going to be significant issues with traffic. In Kitchener you can get away with height like this since you have multiple different routes for traffic to disperse on (bus routes, pedestrians, cyclists), but this area of Cambridge only has King and Eagle so everything gets funneled onto the same roads, there's little way to provide additional capacity so I can definitely see staff having some issues with it. The driveway will have a Right In Right Out restriction, there is no way Regional or City staff will let LT movements happen across King there so that could cause some issues as well.

As for the public this is going to bring out the pitchforks but that is pretty normal for anything of height in Cambridge, especially when it comes to something this tall. The public was pretty against the two projects just down the road at King and Fountain and those were shorter than this. However I can see staff wanting this shorter entirely because of the potential issues for setting that height as precedent.

Documents also aren't public on this one (Cambridge has become a pain and requires one to email the planner on file), when I get around to getting the files I will provide them and provide additional details.

 

[ZEBuilder]

The proposed development has 475 units, of which 129 are 2bdrm and the remaining 346 are 1bdrm units. There are two ground floor commercial units proposed for a total of 151 sqm (1626sqft) of commercial space. Overall there is 166 sqm (1790sqft) of indoor amenity space proposed, it is split between the first and 7th floors of the building. Outdoor amenity is provided through a POPS on Queenston Rd as well as the 7th floor roof where 85 sqm is provided. Parking is provided entirely within the 6 floor podium, for a total of 182 spots. Bicycle parking is also provided in a tiny bike room on each floor of the podium. The building is also being proposed with only 2 elevators (1 elevator per 237.5 units) which is going to be disastrous.

Now onto the weird portions of this proposal that make it seem more and more like an up zone type of situation. The developer is proposing a pedestrian bridge across the future LRT tracks to connect the Queenston POPS to the rest of the project, this bridge connects into the third floor parking area. I understand the intent behind wanting the bridge but with some simple coordination with the Region it isn't out of the question to have this occur through the ground floor and interconnect directly with the LRT platform which frankly seems like the logical thing to do. Also keep in mind that the LRT has yet to undergo detailed design so there is no way to know the exact elevation and really location of any of its infrastructure yet (catenary/platform canopy) so good luck getting those proposed bridge piers in place. The next weird portion of the proposal is how close it gets to the proposed LRT tracks, obviously this is the Region and not a Metrolinx/CN/CP owned track so they may be okay with the proximity. However I'd still expect the Region to want some kind of buffer between the tracks and the building but in this case there is barely any.

Ground Floor Plan (see the proposed LRT right of way in blue):

The LRT platform as I've mentioned before is going to cut this block in half, the only publicly available design plates are from the EPR, so a couple of years old but nothing has changed that significantly in this area since then. The King Street portion of this development are the two properties to the north west of the shaded purple ones, while the Queenston portion is between the Preston label and the purple shaded property to the north west.

Render of the ridiculous bridge:

 

[DavidJamesTO]

Bad spot for it. Put it on Hespeler Road; there's nothing with the faintest historic or architectural merit on there, so they can go hog wild. The old downtowns should be missing middle territory.

 

[interchange42]

The building is also being proposed with only 2 elevators (1 elevator per 237.5 units) which is going to be disastrous.

We highlighted that fact in our front page story. Now Cambridgers need to raise a stink in that regard with their Councillors, Mayor, planners, etc, to browbeat some changes in that regard. The building should have 5 elevators, but could get away with 4. Or the building should be shorter.

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