Almost three years to the day since council approved an application from Pearle Hospitality to build a luxury condominium and hotel beside the Cambridge Mill restaurant, the most visible signs that project is moving ahead have appeared.
Fencing went up around former apartments at 115 and 113 Water Street North earlier this month and demolition began this week.
The properties will be consolidated with land already cleared at the corner of Water and Simcoe streets to house what was originally pitched as a seven-storey parking garage serving the condo and hotel across the street.
The plan is to connect the parking garage to the hotel with a raised pedestrian walkway over Water Street North.
Although it's still not clear when groundbreaking will get underway for the 37-storey condominium tower and 28-storey hotel, Pearle Hospitality project planner Mackenzie Meek said the demolition is part of the preliminary work needed to advance the project.
The hotel is expected to contain 146-suites and the condo will house 250 units with more than 20,000 square feet of retail space, a restaurant, and spa on the ground floors and podium. Construction is expected to create 250 short term jobs and the hotel and condo will create 300 long-term positions. Once built, the towers will generate about $4 million in annual property taxes.
Meek said ongoing design work on the project led the company to secure additional property for the parking structure "to optimize its design and efficiency." The number of floors needed for the parkade could change as the plan comes together, she added.
Over the last few years, Pearle Hospitality had been trying to work with the city on a plan to build affordable rental units above the parking structure, but due to challenges posed by provincial regulations, the company was unable to move forward on that idea, Meek said in an email to CambridgeToday.
"We remain optimistic that these obstacles which impact more than just this site, can be resolved at the provincial and city levels, allowing for much-needed housing, including affordable units, in the downtown core in the future," she wrote.
Much of Galt's core is within a floodplain special policy area that requires any zoning amendment for increased density to get approval from various provincial ministries, Meek said.
"Based on initial discussions with city and ministry staff, we understand that this approval process is complex, time-consuming, and does not guarantee that the ministries will provide the necessary sign-offs," Meek wrote.
"Considering that a large portion of Downtown Galt is within a special policy area, we hope the city can collaborate directly with the province to streamline this process to allow future planning applications for much-needed housing projects in the downtown cores of Cambridge."
A spokesperson from the city's planning department was unavailable for comment.
The Region of Waterloo is also planning to turn the one-way section of Water Street North, between Simcoe Street and the Ainslie Street split, into a two-way stretch to accommodate traffic to the towers and the Waterscape condos next door.
