The entire facade will be redone should be quit transformational.

Very exciting stuff. It would be great to see this project trigger some more activity on that block, like for instance on the old legion hall site at the corner of Smith and St. Mary.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxiX_NZAXYk/

Wow -- just found this. Looks like they're planning some multi-storey units?

Yep, i think the idea is higher end luxury suites. (Check the first page of this thread for updates.)

Student accommodations could include nothing more than a small private bedroom, ie shared lounge/common space, no kitchen and shared bathrooms.

It is more common now for a modest size one bedroom "loft" style place with a bed and a study area, a private bathroom and a shared lounge/common area that includes a smaller kitchen style area ie no oven and often no fridge and each room has a private mini fridge. Often to make up for the lack for full kitchens there is a dining hall or food court style service in the building.

There is a chance they push it more is a low cost rental and include full kitchens. They could also structure these so preference is given to post-secondary students, perhaps in partnership with U of W, sort of politely suggesting to non-students that this isn't necessarily your first choice residence long term.

Something tall (~25 storeys) was being looked at in the vicinity recently, but I don't know where that's at now.

Really glad to see 185 Smith going ahead. I remember the building having a very nice, spacious outdoor patio on the second level, which would be a great amenity for future residents.

Cell phone tower atop the old Medical Arts bldg.

Smith Street Lofts:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-87ctWWsAA_fP-.jpg
https://twitter.com/PegLenny/status/1148201804968136705

I'm on holidays and not downtown this week, it an actual tower now? I know that MTS has had antenna's on the building corners for years (Google maps street view shows them in 2007)

Google Maps Streetview - Medical Arts - October 2018

No, it has antennas now that weren't there before the way they are now. I think you meant that they were placed on the corners of the building. Well, now they're in a cluster in the centre.

Didn't have my cell phone camera to snap a quick picture.

Earls site will be a tower

Portage place 2 towers

Next 5 years well get about 20 new tower proposals for the core... 300 main true north portage place.. forks residential are game changers..

Sorry, Earl's site has a tower proposal? How did I miss this?

Once earls relocates to 300 main the owner of that lot plans to tear down that bldg and build a tower.. those are his intentions.. is it official not yet is it in the works behind these scenes yes... there will be q tower at that spot at some point 100 % confirmed by very solid sources..

Earls won't relocate til 300 main is complete so cpl years from now . By than who knows what state our dt will be in.. but ya in 5 years we could get another 40 plus story portage main

The owner of that lot is Earls.

Maybe earls wants to sell the land to a developer than i dunno the details

They do not have a buyer or developer in place yet. They've only just begun to start planning the new location, and are expecting it to be likely 3 years away. Hell, the city hasn't even decided what land it wants to reserve for the eventual exit of BRT coming from Union Station yet – there's a chance there could be ROW stipulations on the north part of the Earls-owned land.

With the increased (current) rail setbacks I cannot see the Earls on Main site ever having a tower. It is going to be too narrow a slice of land.

That's too pessimistic. If you own that land and have the right motivation you can totally make it happen.

There is about 200 ft from Main to the tracks, that's a fair bit of width. Note that the westernmost tracks leading into Union Station have been disused since the current rail underpass was built in 1998... VIA never uses them anymore. So in reality there is nearly 300 ft from Main to the nearest actively used tracks. Seems to me that there is more than enough space for a tower.