Downtown Development

The council approved two downtown developments last night.

The Prescott/Water Street hotel and the revitalisation of the former CBC Radio building on Duckworth Street.

This is good news for the city.

The CBC building will become condo units with some retail space included and will bring more people to the core of the downtown. It has to stay within the height restriction (15 metres) and the developers hope to start on this project by year's end.

The hotel will be six storys on Water Street and be of similar height to King George V Building a few feet away. While this exceeds the height restriction, the argument of the 15 metre rule, was somewhat lost because of the height of King GeorgeV. However, this project is a good example of the city and developer working together (with public input) to achieve a positive result.

There was no time frame provided for the start of this project. Hopefully it will be soon, as the city already has a couple of major projects that, though approve a couple of years ago, have not started - Bell Street Hotel, Steele Hotel