Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
My first thought in reading this was that residential would be great - I'd be right across the street from Obladee, which would be cool; close to a lot of other useful things... but then I thought about what it might be like to live there. It would be noisy as hell, especially if the building wasn't air conditioned and you had to have operable windows. There is no real greenspace within any short distance. It seems like a pretty limited location for residential over the long term, though I can see it being OK for short-term or part-time residents like the old Canada Permanent building across the street above Starbucks. But I don't know if the lifestyle it offers would be very attractive as a permanent residence.
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Well it's not going to be an attractive residential location for anybody who wants a backyard and we're not New York City so there are few people who see raising kids in apartment type structures as desirable. Still, I think there is an upscale market that it can tap. University students (some of them like law students have cash), young professionals, chidless couples or old people whose kids are raised and gone and are looking to downsize. The noise from Barrington might be a real nusiance on the lower levels, but up high in the tower, it might not be a big deal. It's amazing the way sound quickly spreads out and dilutes. Access to green space isn't that bad. Citadel Hill is only a few blocks up and the waterfront, although it doesn't offer greenspace, has plenty of places to sit and relax. I don't see this location as all that different in terms of surrounding amenities from what's on Spring Garden.
Hopefully this residential element will be the first of many. If the Roy goes through, it would be nice to have it switch to residential. The age of the Downtown as the office centre is slipping by because the number of business that really have to or want to be Downtown is diminishing. The idea of an all office CBD is kind of dead. Time to adapt and sell our Downtown as a mixed-use destination. The Downtown office market may be limited, but people still want to live down there. The same thing is kind of happening across North America. With a few exceptions, most new large buildings in Downtowns across the US and Canada have been condos (boomtowns like Calgary excepted of course!)