Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Kitchener Frame property has a new lease on life.
Construction started last week at the Homer Watson Boulevard and Bleams Road property, vacant since 2009. It is the site of a $10 million environmental cleanup and property owners are planning to build two medical centres that could open next summer.
The Ball family originally wanted to rezone the land to commercial, but Kitchener council argued that the city needed the industrial land.
Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic spoke at a ground-breaking, calling the construction project “a great new beginning.”
Jody Ball, president of Homer Watson Medical Corporation, says a medical centre is badly needed in the south Kitchener area.
According to documents on the city website, Brownfield Remediation Program lasted many years, renewing and revitalizing former manufacturing properties and historic buildings and transforming them into residential or office spaces. It included private sector investments.
Some of the successful redevelopments through the brownfield remediation program include:
- Kaufman Lofts
- The InTowns
- The Tannery District