Construction about to begin on long-delayed City Centre condos in Kitchener

After years of delays, construction will finally begin on the City Centre condos in Kitchener.

After four years of delays, Andrin Homes is finally preparing to break ground on their City Centre condo development in Kitchener.

Construction is set to begin on Monday, to the delight of condo owners and neighbouring businesses.

“I’m excited about it because there’s going to be a lot more traffic downtown,” says Jessica Greschner, owner of The Bead Boutique.

The condo tower will be built in a parking lot at the corner of Duke and Young streets, right behind Greschner’s business,

According to the developer, the long construction delays came down to bad timing.

First, there was the economic recession, and then came BlackBerry’s struggles.

“When RIM first started having its problems in 2012, we had a number of people who had been sort of waiting for the construction to start before they wanted to make any decisions and commitments,” says Anne Marchildon of Andrin Homes.

People who busk in the city’s core say the increased number of residents should help bring more money to the area, but worry that rent will increase.

“Downtown is a relatively easy place to live and relatively cheap,” says Mike Adams. “But it’s not going to be that cheap for that much longer.”

Nonetheless, others are looking forward to the change.

“It’s going to make Kitchener more high-end looking.” Says Greschner.

Andrin Homes says condo owners won’t be able to move into their units until the summer of 2015.