ZEBuilder
Active Member
Personally I just find walking around downtown Kitchener or downtown Waterloo, you don't really feel like you're in a big city. You feel like you're in a small city, that happened to recently have a bunch of condos going up - spaced quite far apart. Walking around in downtown Hamilton, you really feel like you're in a bustling big city. Bigger than the population would suggest. It's an old downtown, not a new one like KW.
There's nothing wrong with being a small city but the urbanization and condos close to each other is coming it just takes time, Hamilton has always had a larger downtown then KW but KW also has two downtowns/uptowns for a urban area of similar population, if there was only 1 downtown it would feel a lot larger. Even so downtown Kitchener 10 years ago is a vastly different place than it is today and it will certainly be significantly different in 10 more years. Just look at the King/Victoria intersection from 2014 vs now, in 2014 the only large building within 500m was the UW Pharmacy building. Now you have the entire Google complex, Station Park A and B, 1 Victoria, 100 Victoria Tower 1&2, Glove Box, Garment St Condos all complete and then TEK Tower and Station Park C under construction. In another 10 years 417 King, Station Park D and E, Vic/Park Tower 1, 2 and 3, 142 Victoria, and the transit hub should all be under construction in some form.
The King/Victoria corner isn't the only corner seeing major changes though, take the block bound by Frederick/Benton, Weber, Ontario and Joseph, in that block in 2014 the tallest building was The Regency, now you have Duke Tower, in another 10 years there will also be 10 Duke St W, Q Condos, 88 Queen St S, and 149 Ontario St N which are all 25+ floors. The city has also installed separated bike lanes along Ontario and Joseph which would have been insane to think of doing 10 years ago.
Now lets go to the "east end" of downtown around Borden Station, 10 years ago it was very much industrial, now the signs of change are starting with demolition and site clearing occurring at various locations, in 10 years East Gate, 1253 King St E, 1001 King St E, 926 King St E, 787 King St E Tower 1&2, 50 Borden Ave S Tower 1&2, should all be complete or under construction.
Sure it may not feel like you're in a big city yet but it certainly feels a lot larger than it did in 2014 and it will certainly feel even bigger in 10 years.