Arrow Lofts
112 Benton Street, Kitchener
Developer: Auburn Developments
Architect: Turner Fleischer Architects Inc.
Website | Auburn Website | Site Plan
136 Units in Converted Factory
184 Units in New 16-Storey Building (120 Benton Street)
Older Rendering
Overview
Combining Kitchener's rich heritage with modern, spacious design, Arrow Lofts will see the conversion of the former Arrow shirt factory into a beautiful residential space. Located on Benton Street, this exciting two-phased development will include 134 units in the converted factory, and 184 units in the new 16-storey building just to the west. Ample parking and nearby amenities will make Arrow Lofts the perfect base to take advantage of Kitchener's vibrant city life.
Latest Rendering From Doors Open 2008 (September 20, 2008)
Some old pictures before the construction really began.
http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten....rt_factory.htm
Last edited by Spokes; 07-18-2010 at 09:28 AM.
Arrow project back on track
April 30, 2009 | Terry Pender | The Record | Link
KITCHENER - Broken windows. Graffiti-tagged walls. A bare, steel frame on top of an old industrial building.
For years there has been little progress on the long-delayed project to convert the former Arrow Shirt factory at112 Benton St. into rental housing.
The first phase of the project was originally scheduled to finish in the summer of 2003.
But six years later, in the midst of a deepening recession, the head of London-based Auburn Developments insists the project is going ahead.
A model suite should be open in September.
Auburn president Jamie Crich said yesterday the company only needs to complete a site-plan agreement with the City of Kitchener.
"So we are 99 per cent of the way through that process and we should be getting the approval within weeks," Crich said in an interview.
The plan calls for 135 luxury apartments with hardwood floors, granite countertops and 12-foot ceilings.
Initially, the units will be rented out. When the economy picks up, the apartments may be sold as condominiums.
In April 2001, the shirt factory closed after 80 years of production. Some of the soil on the property was contaminated with industrial solvents.
That cleanup -- and final approvals from the Ministry of the Environment -- took much longer than expected.
A retaining wall for the parking garage and steel framing for three additional floors were completed a long time ago.
New windows will first be installed, then walls constructed inside the building for the apartments. The entire building should be closed in this summer.
The building should be ready for its first tenants next year.
"Hopefully, we will have a model open for Sept. 1, and that's when we will be setting the rents," Crich said.
The economic downturn that has pushed the unemployment rate in this region to 9.6 per cent has not scared Auburn Developments away from the project.
The only concession is the decision to rent out the units first.
"We build through the good times and the bad with luxury rentals," Crich said. "We just finished a 23-storey (project) in London and we have six or seven left out of the 200."
Chris Pidgeon, an urban planner working for Auburn, said once the final approvals are in hand it won't take long to finish the Arrow building.
"They could actually complete that building in about eight to 10 months time," Pidgeon said. "I think it will close in very quickly."
When building permits are issued, development charges must be paid to the city -- $3,975 per unit.
So far the city has issued several building permits for the project, including one in May 2006 for $500,000 worth of work to erect the framing on the roof for the additional three floors.
In 2007, another permit for work valued at $100,000 was issued for the construction of a retaining wall. Last year, a permit for work valued at $20 million was issued for the construction of residential units inside the old factory.
Craig Waller, the city's manager of building, said a building permit for the parking garage, valued at $4 million, will also be issued.
As part of the city's efforts to encourage the redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites, Auburn Developments will get an annual property tax grant of $110,000 for 10 years to help pay for the environmental cleanup that was required.
The cleanup cost at least $2.2 million.
Found a cool newsletter from back in 2002. The cover story is about the Arrow Lofts. http://www.kitchener.ca/working_kitc...undbreaker.pdf
Sad actually that this has been going on since '02
Taken by me today. I wish the site plan gave a better understanding of what was going on with the construction.
So I guess the plan is to finish the parking garage and THEN do the building. I'm not sure why. Why not just start both at once? Unless they need to be able to access the building from right up close and the parking garage needs to be completed to do that? I don't know.
Quick update on Arrow:
-Garage construction is continuing, looking good.
-A number of skids of BRAND NEW bricks were dropped off at the site
-A number of workers were in the building putting up scaffolding inside and sealing it off. I think we can expect to see the openings start to be closed up in the near future.
A few pictures by me today so you can get an idea of what they're doing over at Arrow:
They've got a few openings sealed off and heat pumping into them to help the mortar set. They did 2, and almost the 3rd opening in the last two days. You can kind of see the bricks through the plastic
Parking garage is coming along. They're getting ready to pour the ramp. It seems as if they're going to have to do more excavation. I don't know why they wouldn't do it all at once. This might not be the case if the garage isn't a perfect square.
January 15, 2010
Last edited by UrbanWaterloo; 01-19-2010 at 02:01 PM.
So in that last picture, do you think they'll paint white strips on the brick, do a skim coat of concrete and paint that, or just leave it without white strips
Awesome pictures UrbanWaterloo looks like they are finally making some real progress on this project. Does anyone know if they are still planning on building the 14 storey building to the west of the original Arrow building?
I haven't heard anything. Hopefully though. I can't imagine they'd break ground on the next phase right away though. It'd be nice. They could surprise us though. Auburn may not be able to do multiple sites at once, and Barrel Yards might be the next project to be touched. Hopefully the revenue brought in from Arrow can jump start Barrel Yards and Arrow phase 2 though.Originally Posted by leaffan
Pictures taken by me today Feb 3,2010
Thanks for all these pictures!
I'm anxious to see windows get installed on this one. The side of the building facing Queen St. had it's broken windows pulled out a few weeks ago, they should be doing the same to the rest of the building soon.
Before that can happen they still have some work to do. They still need to fill in the extra sections of concrete on the side of the building facing Courtland. They'll be the strips running vertically and horizontally that will be painted white.
My guess (at least how I hope they do it) is that they'll finish the masonry/concrete stuff, install the windows to get the main part closed off then they can start all of the studding and boarding inside. While they have people in doing that, the guys that did the concrete/masonry stuff should do the same thing on the upper part of the building, by the time they're done, the people working on the lower part should be ready to move up as well. (I know, I know, that seems too logical and efficient to be done on the Arrow site, but I've been impressed with what I've seen over the past 2 months)
I drove past today and noticed that they had a large work crew there and they had put in concrete forms for a second level.
March 1, 2010
Hmm I wonder why they didn't put up the flooring for the second level everywhere in the structure? It looks like they didn't do the area closest to Benton st. Unless maybe that part won't be two levels there?
Looks like nice weather has picked things up at Arrow. Most of the windows on the North side of the building have been removed and the windows on the East side look like they're being removed today.
Parking garage continues to progress.
I really hope Auburn follows through with the plan to add a new 14 storey building into the project. But I don't want to jump to far ahead as there is still alot of work to go on the original phase.
Ya Im not sure what their plan is. I can't imagine they'd start the next phase before people got into the first one, although would people be willing to sit through construction? They should start construction on the next phase now and then by the time phase 1 is ready for occupancy they'll be on the inside of phase 2 thus limiting the noise/dirt/debris.
The pictures are not the best, as they have the sidewalk on that side of the road closed off so it's hard to take pictures of the parking garage progress.
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