Downtown Kitchener: City Centre and Warehouse Districts

[Cambridgite]

I have decided to start my own Waterloo Region photo series, showing various urban neighborhoods all throughout the region. For reference, Kitchener is the central city of a metro of about 500,000 and is one of the fastest growing in Canada. While it is technicially the central city, the "suburban" municipalities also have their own historic cores (1 in Waterloo, 3 in Cambridge). The region is located in Southern Ontario along highway 401 and is located an hour west of Toronto. It's also about 40 minutes northwest of Hamilton, which is where Flar is from.

For those of you who are familar with Flar's work on Hamilton, that was basically my inspiration for the idea. There are 4 main district in downtown Kitchener. First I will start off with the city center and warehouse districts of downtown Kitchener. Later, I will move onto other areas of downtown, the surrounding pre-war neighborhoods, and onto Waterloo and Cambridge. I also managed to score some good Toronto pics when I was there a few months back for my second cousin's wedding. Stay tuned!

City Centre district. Beginning with a distant "skyline photo" from the western suburbs, and then moving on from there.

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[Cambridgite]

And here is the warehouse district. A chunk of blight or a golden opportunity? I'll let you decide. :cool:

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Thanks. Hope you enjoyed!

[kcexpress69]

The warehouse district is definitely opportunity. In Kansas City, the West Bottoms is our big warehouse district. For many years it had been in decline due to factories and companies either closing down or building larger, more spacious buildings elsewhere. While many buildings are still eyesores, many empty nesters are buying the buildings and turning them into art galleries, and homes. I believe in the next 5 to 10 years, it will be the next hot spot since many of the buildings can be bought cheaper than downtown or the crossroads district. There are not tooo many buildings left downtown to renovate. Great job on the pics!!

[Cambridgite]

There are not tooo many buildings left downtown to renovate. Great job on the pics!!

Funny you mention it, because, rumour has it, a developer has already eyed out the Lang Tannery building and wants to convert it to mixed-use with retail on the bottom and lofts above. The Kaufman Lofts sold out within the first couple of weeks and they added another 2 floors onto the original building because of the demand. There have been a few other small conversions as well. Other that that, there are only a few more buildings left and they are north of the train tracks.

[flar]

Thanks for the photos Cambridgite. I like the Walper Hotel a lot. Is that an old highschool or something where Laurier is located?

[Jarrod]

Not what I thought it would look like... it looks better than what I was thinking it would look like.

[Cambridgite]

Thanks for the photos Cambridgite. I like the Walper Hotel a lot. Is that an old highschool or something where Laurier is located?

The Walper is easily one of my favourite buildings in Kitchener too. And yes, the Laurier social work campus you see used to be St. Jerome's high school. Unfortunately, most families have left the inner city and moved out to the outer suburbs, leaving singles, couples w/o kids, and empty nesters to take their place...the story of North America.

[denveraztec]

A ton of potential for loft development. Thanks for sharing.