The Grand Condominiums | 12 m | 3 fl | Sales

[UrbanWaterloo]

The Grand Condominiums
Water Street & Concession Street, Cambridge
Website (www.thegrandlofts.ca) | Blog (http://thegrandlofts.wordpress.com/)

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[UrbanWaterloo]

Cambridge factory joins condo rush
Old CMC plant may be joined by Royal and Overland hotels
December 1, 2007 | Kevin Swayze | The Record | Link (http://news.therecord.com/article/276900)


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The old CMC factory at Concession and Water streets in Cambridge could be redeveloped into luxury loft condominiums.

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The former Royal Hotel in Cambridge could be redeveloped with luxury condos upstairs and retail units at the street level.

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Amir Klein holds his plans for converting Cambridge's old CMC factory into loft condos. He has also purchased the former Royal Hotel and plans luxury condos upstairs and retail at street level.


Amir Klein plans to celebrate the history of Cambridge's old CMC factory building near the Grand River by turning it into luxury loft condominiums.

But immediately across Concession Street, Jim Litster is busy working to erase the tawdry history of the Overland Hotel. Damaged in a fire last December -- three weeks after he bought it -- the low-rent hotel has been gutted to the walls, making way for student bachelor apartments upstairs and street-level retail space.

Dreary additions have been stripped away. The long-hidden four-square building now wears a bright coat of yellow paint.

"I don't want it to look like it did before: it's to revitalize it. It's going to be totally renovated," Litster said. He's also looking for ideas to rename the rejuvenated building. E-mail ideas to jlitster@bellnet.ca.

The brick hotel dates from the 1860s, when it was called the Western. It was a stagecoach stop and was 50 metres from the long-gone Great Western Railway station to the south.

By the 1980s, the Overland was a rough-and-tumble bar, where drunken brawls, assaults and murders weren't uncommon. Most recently, it housed 30 cheap rental rooms, with common washrooms.

Litster said he bought the tired building to renovate within five years, but the $100,000 fire pushed his plans forward. By the time he's done, he figures the renovations will cost him $600,000.

When work is done in February, Lister said 12 apartments will take tenants on the second and third floors. He hopes to rent the renovated main floor to a laundromat and restaurant.

Across the street, Klein has no plans to paint over the stone building to hide its history. The open beams, high ceilings and stone walls will be selling features for the Grand Condominiums.

Along with that $10-million project, Klein has also purchased the former Royal Hotel from the city for conversion into condominiums and street-level retail space. That $115,000 deal closed Nov. 14. Work on that project won't start until later next year, he said.

While commonly called the CMC building, the factory was first owned by Cant Gourlay & Co./Galt Machine Works, from 1875. That changed to MacGregor Gourlay Co. in 1986, then Canada Machinery Corp. in 1910. It was owned by Megael Ltd. from 1988 until this year, and was rented in part to Florsheim Shoes.

The main building facing Concession will house 38 units. A smaller stone carriage house behind it will have another 11 units.

In the main building, condominium units will range from 623 square feet to 1,230 square feet on the main floor, and 1,050 to 1,870 in two-level units upstairs. Prices range from $189,000 to $550,000.

Details for the smaller building haven't been finalized, Klein said.

A common balcony is planned for the first floor, giving every unit exterior doors. The second floor will be reached through a small addition with stairs, an elevator and a short bridge to reach a common interior hallway.

A sales office opened last weekend. More than 150 people dropped in and eight units were reserved, Klein said.

He expects to start conversion work by spring, with units ready for occupancy within two years.

Klein and his wife, Alona, are owners of AAK Developments, based in Kitchener. They live in Cambridge, after immigrating from Israel four years ago.

The company bought 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) of the former factory site for redevelopment. Klein said he's also eyeing the remainder of the site.

After seeing how renovation of the Eaton Lofts in Kitchener stalled and left condominium buyers in an incomplete building surrounded by lawsuits, Klein promised a different approach. Nobody will move in until the building is done. And he won't run away from problems. "I don't live in Toronto," he said. "I'm a local guy. I'm here. You can come knock on my door."


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From the developer:

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Model Suite Photos: http://www.thegrandlofts.ca/gallery.html

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[UrbanWaterloo]

June 4, 2010

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[jay]

That old building shown above will be the parking garage.

This project is real nice.. The bigger units have there own private elevator and the exposed wood beams look real classy. The only downfall is the location.

[DHLawrence]

Galt will grow south as the denser areas get built out. It won't be remote forever!

[jay]

I didn't mean it that way. I meant that nothing is really around it. The whole point on living in a condo is to walk to things (in my opinion).

This location is sorta far to downtown Galt and there is nothing around it other then that, other than Southworks.

[DHLawrence]

That was my point--once this development goes in, that end of Galt will become a little more appealing for retailers because they'll actually have customers for a change. Just give it time and it will start to perk up from the strip of bland that it is now.

[brocks]

Since this posting, does anyone know the status the Grand ---- units sold (by type), selling price per unit type?

[UrbanWaterloo]

From their latest blog post:


Seasons Changing
October 15, 2010 | http://thegrandlofts.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/seasons-changing/

The main lobby has risen higher, and is being prepped for electrical, HVAC, plumbing and the new elevator work to be done.

As mentioned in the previous posting, we started shingling; at this point we are just about a week away from completing the final shingling.

In the past week we have started concrete work in the basement. Currently we have done one section for the flooring, the rest that we’ve done is trench work. This is being done so that we can have our bricklayers (who have already started) separate the units in the crawlspace.

As far as exterior work being done, we’ve poured the piers across the building for the exterior walkway in-front of the first story units, and we’ve begun pouring the walkway.

Lastly, we’ve begun dry-walling throughout the 2nd floor units.

I tried to grab an updated price list, but nobody was available at the time I stopped by.


October 30, 2010

http://www.wonderfulwaterloo.com/wdrive/Developments/Cambridge/Downtown%20Galt/Grand%20Condominiums/The%20Grand%20Condominiums%20-%20October%2030,%202010%20-%202b%20Resized.jpg

[benjaminbach]

The land that AAK is building on was severred from a larger parcel. The remaining 3 acre parcel has been sold to Option for Homes for $3 million, becoming firm after it was decided that there was no heritage building to protect. From today's Record:

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/823542


Historic Galt factory set to make way for condos TheRecord.com - Local - Historic Galt factory set to make way for condos

By Kevin Swayze, Record staff

CAMBRIDGE — City heritage watchdogs thought it was worth saving, but now there’s nothing to stop demolition of a century-old factory in the way of 182 condominiums at the south entrance to old Galt.

On Monday, city council took no action to save the last 25,000 square feet of the Canada Machinery Corp. building at the junction of Water and Ainslie streets. City council’s volunteer heritage advisory committee wanted council to at least consider the squat, red-brick building as a candidate for provincial heritage protection.

Tom Heaslip owns the southern 1.2 hectares (three acres) of the former Canada Machinery site. He didn’t want city heritage officials meddling in his deal to sell the land to Toronto-based Option for Homes. That company wants to build two, eight-storey apartment towers overlooking the Grand River.

“Designation of the property would have killed the deal,” Heaslip said.

After council’s decision to take no action on a heritage investigation, a conditional offer to sell is now firm, Heaslip said. The $3-million sale is expected to close in April 2011.

Heaslip is upset that the city threw a heritage curveball so late in the process. He said the city had known about redevelopment possibilities there since 2007 — when officials signed off on a splitting the property in two.

The northern 0.6-hectare (1.5-acre) section was sold to Amir Klein, who is renovating two, historic stone buildings along Concession Street into 49 luxury condominium apartments. The south half of the site has been for sale since then, while cleanup of industrial contamination was completed, and a warren of buildings in the middle of the site demolished, Heaslip said.

The municipal heritage advisory committee didn’t know about the condominium proposal in September when it asked for a heritage review of the prominent site, said committee chair Brad Paddock. About a week after talking about threats to old heritage factories like Canada Machinery, Paddock heard about the condominium plan.

“It isn’t MHAC putting a stick in the spokes ... there’s a concern that we’re losing Galt’s industrial history piece by piece,” Paddock said.

Paddock said Heaslip’s offer of $1,500 toward photographing, measuring and creating drawings of the old factory before demolition was “a kind gesture.”

The property was originally home to Cant Gurley and Company — Galt Machine Works. It was later the Canada Machinery Company, which sold premium woodworking equipment around the world.

The first buildings on the site were started as early as 1847, a city report says. The factory at the south end was built around 1910, with a soaring roof over the assembly hall and a line of windows along the peak to let natural light flow in.

“Why can’t these buildings have another, new life?” Paddock asked.

He’s not convinced a pair of rectangular concrete towers is an improvement to the historic Galt skyline.

“Does this help downtown? I wonder if the building that replaces it will be as good,” he said. “Are we city building or are we just getting things built?”

Options for Homes is working with the city to blend the exterior of the towers with surrounding stone buildings of old Galt, said president Jan Ciuciura.

There was never any thought to saving the old factory and including it in the housing project, he said. “It looks like a brick bunker . . . I never realized underneath that there may be some heritage aspects to it.”

Ciuciura said he’d entertain offers to buy the old factory after the current land deal closes.

“It would be a very expensive piece of property, since were looking at $3 million for the whole site,” he said.

[UrbanWaterloo]

There's an ad in This Week In Real Estate stating a Grand Opening Saturday & Sunday July 30th & 31st 1-4PM. You typically see "X number of units remaining", but Grand Opening? I take it sales are being relaunched next weekend, no mention on their website though.


This Week In Real Estate (July 22, 2011) - Page 33

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[brocks]

Did anyone attend the July 30/31 Grand Opening ? If so, any idea what units (beyond the 'X') are still available and, of course, the prices for each? Also any word on occupancy? :RpS_laugh: