End of year update
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rdaner said:
Please tell me that Kitchener is getting a more urban feel after so much housing added!
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Downtown is unrecognizable compared to 15 even 10 years ago, the rest of the city does feel more urban too, they've reached the countryside line so sprawl has stopped, but its smaller buildings and infills.
 
prisecaru0 said:
Downtown is unrecognizable compared to 15 even 10 years ago, the rest of the city does feel more urban too, they've reached the countryside line so sprawl has stopped, but its smaller buildings and infills.
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Just a little nitpick but the countryside line hasn't been reached yet and won't for years. In Southwest Kitchener there's still 1000+ acres left to go, the vast majority of that is owned by Activa, some is owned by Branthaven, some is owned by Schlegel, then what is left is owned by Mattamy. Waterloo has a small amount of sprawl left in the Northeast and Northwest, Activa owns a bunch of it as well. Cambridge has a ton of land left but most of it is intended for industrial, the land that is intended for residential is in the North and owned by Madison. Then Breslau, Elmira, and New Hamburg all have additional sprawl expected and the lands there are owned by a large assortment but Activa, Madison and Catchet all have significant parcels.

Like prisecaru0 said Kitchener is unrecognizable, back in 2019 the tallest building in the city was 1 Victoria at 19 floors. Now you have Duke Tower, Charlie West, and Station Park C all over 30, TEK over 40 (864 King will also be), then around 10 buildings over 20 floors. The change has truly been remarkable, but much of that can be attributed to the city being very willing to allow density. The city is also upzoning significant swaths of the city to the point that entire corridors and nodes will be allowed buildings up to 28 floors, even outside of the LRT corridor.
 
ZEBuilder said:
Just a little nitpick but the countryside line hasn't been reached yet and won't for years. In Southwest Kitchener there's still 1000+ acres left to go, the vast majority of that is owned by Activa, some is owned by Branthaven, some is owned by Schlegel, then what is left is owned by Mattamy. Waterloo has a small amount of sprawl left in the Northeast and Northwest, Activa owns a bunch of it as well. Cambridge has a ton of land left but most of it is intended for industrial, the land that is intended for residential is in the North and owned by Madison. Then Breslau, Elmira, and New Hamburg all have additional sprawl expected and the lands there are owned by a large assortment but Activa, Madison and Catchet all have significant parcels.

Like prisecaru0 said Kitchener is unrecognizable, back in 2019 the tallest building in the city was 1 Victoria at 19 floors. Now you have Duke Tower, Charlie West, and Station Park C all over 30, TEK over 40 (864 King will also be), then around 10 buildings over 20 floors. The change has truly been remarkable, but much of that can be attributed to the city being very willing to allow density. The city is also upzoning significant swaths of the city to the point that entire corridors and nodes will be allowed buildings up to 28 floors, even outside of the LRT corridor.
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Thanks for the correction 😅 activa really does have room to expand, hopefully its less sprawl similar to williamsburg devolopments
 
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ZEBuilder said:
Just a little nitpick but the countryside line hasn't been reached yet and won't for years. In Southwest Kitchener there's still 1000+ acres left to go, the vast majority of that is owned by Activa, some is owned by Branthaven, some is owned by Schlegel, then what is left is owned by Mattamy. Waterloo has a small amount of sprawl left in the Northeast and Northwest, Activa owns a bunch of it as well. Cambridge has a ton of land left but most of it is intended for industrial, the land that is intended for residential is in the North and owned by Madison. Then Breslau, Elmira, and New Hamburg all have additional sprawl expected and the lands there are owned by a large assortment but Activa, Madison and Catchet all have significant parcels.

Like prisecaru0 said Kitchener is unrecognizable, back in 2019 the tallest building in the city was 1 Victoria at 19 floors. Now you have Duke Tower, Charlie West, and Station Park C all over 30, TEK over 40 (864 King will also be), then around 10 buildings over 20 floors. The change has truly been remarkable, but much of that can be attributed to the city being very willing to allow density. The city is also upzoning significant swaths of the city to the point that entire corridors and nodes will be allowed buildings up to 28 floors, even outside of the
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Also 50 Borden street condos 50 stories + 😳
 
AntonioDavid1 said:
Also 50 Borden street condos 50 stories + 😳
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That one isn't happening for a very long time, Woodhouse is the main proponent on that and they aren't going to move on it anytime soon (if ever). That site also doesn't have zoning approval yet so it is still part of the 85-1 zoning bylaw. Kitchener rezoned all the MTSAs through a project called Growing Together where roughly 25% of the MTSA lands have unlimited height, 25% up to 28 floors, 25% up to 8 and 25% up to 4, however that property was not considered as it had an active ZBA/OPA at the time, as such it still has the antiquated zoning.

Another thing to remember is that any development that is approved in KW that does not have a servicing agreement in place as of December 2025 will not be happening for the foreseeable future, this includes many of the buildings of similar height to TEK Tower and those that are taller. This is caused by KW having a substantial water capacity issue, I could go on about that mess but I'd rather not derail this thread more.
 
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