Has Katz group ever mentioned what their plans were with the McDonald building? Or have their ever been rumours?
 
In their original plans you can see on Page 1 of this forum they do recognize it as a historical building and claim they want to restore it, it can be seen in the renders. In more recent plans you can see on Page 6 they again recognize it as a historic building. Of course when we do get something built here it will likely lose elements of the original plans, hopefully the MacDonald building isn't one of them.
 
IanO said:
Way back when it was planned to be converted into character lofts.
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That would still be a great idea even today. Hope this great building see's some life breathed back into it.

Sometimes I wonder how developed phase two plans are. There's times I wonder whether there is something truly monumental and game changing that will be proposed here or is there some haphazard, half assed plan to figure it out when its feasible and try to whip out generic condos to cash out.
 
IanO said:
To their credit, what we have seen to date is high quality and substantive, but phase 2 was always far more of a stretch and vision given its location, existing challenges and market fundamentals.
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On the flip side, phase II does have the potential to do something that is not quite common, and become a market-maker. They have the liquidity, firepower, know-how and understanding of the city's dynamics for this. The big question mark is Katz's risk aversion, to be honest.
One thing I would bet money on is that the day phase II is announced we'll see a development rush Downtown.
 
ChazYEG said:
On the flip side, phase II does have the potential to do something that is not quite common, and become a market-maker. They have the liquidity, firepower, know-how and understanding of the city's dynamics for this. The big question mark is Katz's risk aversion, to be honest.
One thing I would bet money on is that the day phase II is announced we'll see a development rush Downtown.
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You're last sentence is partly why of all the proposed or rumoured projects that have come and gone over the years, this is the announcement I'll most eagerly wait for. Katz is pretty much the only large scale group that can truly undertake a mega project here because of their national influence, business know how's and actual connection and understanding of the dynamic in the city.

If phase II is a major success (and that's one major if) only then will we see a new era in downtown and bring confidence from elsewhere to invest here.
 
Katz also got very VERY lucky with timing, interest rates a city funded arena and Stantec.

They totally missed the mark on their condo offerings, what 4 sales centres and product type... leading to conversions to rental suites and many units coming back onto the market.
 
Who knows maybe timing could work out and get lucky again here in the next year or two if interest rates go down a little bit, the city offers some sort of incentive for units to get started, & population growth continues to lower vacancy. The area however slowly is improving.
 
BASE said:
Who knows maybe timing could work out and get lucky again here in the next year or two if interest rates go down a little bit, the city offers some sort of incentive for units to get started, & population growth continues to lower vacancy. The area however slowly is improving.
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Well the province has hinted at some support - maybe before 2027 election.
 
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