LCBO coming?

Store may open in downtown Kitchener next spring

KITCHENER — Downtown Kitchener may get a liquor store next spring.

Tony DiBattista, who owns a number of downtown properties, has filed an application for a demolition permit and has talked to city officials about locating a liquor store in the same block as The Beer Store, which opened at 400 King St. W. in late 2014.

The liquor store nearest to the downtown is at 607 King St. W., but that location must close to make way for the ambitious Sixo Midtown development, which will put up a cluster of office and residential buildings near the former Ratz-Bechtel funeral home. That store is scheduled to close next spring, said Christine Bujold, a spokesperson for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

Bujold wouldn’t confirm a new location for the store, but said the new location will open a day or two after the old one is closed, and will be bigger than the current store, which is a smaller store in a strip mall.

Mike Seiling, Kitchener’s chief building official, said his department had received an application for a demolition permit from DiBattista for a property in the former Block That Rocks, a stretch of King Street West between Water and Francis streets. DiBattista owns much of the property along that block.

“They’re going to have to demolish part of the building. They’re going to build a brandnew building for the LCBO,” Seiling said, adding that he had seen concept drawings from DiBattista.

“It’s part of the retail mix that our incoming downtown condo residents and young professionals are looking for,” said Hilary Abel, manager of downtown development at Kitchener’s economic development department.

The city hasn’t yet issued the demolition permit, Seiling said, because the initial application received in early November was incomplete and was sent back for more details.

Once the city receives a completed demolition application, it will process it within 20 days. However, a new liquor store would also require a building permit, as well as site plan approval from the city’s planning department.

The building department has not received an application for a building permit for that site.

There is another liquor store a bit further from downtown, at Victoria Street North near the Conestoga Parkway.