Groundbreaking Kitchener highrise is first all-electric condo in region
It may not look any different than most of the condo highrises going up along the light rail transit line in Waterloo Region, but the structure that rises 18 storeys at 741 King St. W. in midtown is the building of the future.
The highrise, known as the Bright Building, is groundbreaking.
It’s one of the first, if not the first, high-efficiency, all-electric multiresidential buildings in Ontario.
No natural gas or other fossil fuels are used to heat or cool, or for heating water in its 228 units.
But that doesn’t mean the people living there face astronomical hydro bills, says Scott Higgins, chief executive officer of HIP Developments, which built the Bright Building.
“It’s not your mom and dad’s toaster baseboards heating this place,” Higgins said. “People think of the cottage they once had that only had electricity to heat, that had leaky windows, and was costing hundreds of dollars a month to heat.”
The Bright was designed from the outset for energy efficiency, with air-source heat pumps to heat and cool each unit, high-efficiency windows and building envelope, and on-demand water heaters.
Every light is on a dimmer. Smart tech allows residents to monitor their daily power use and control lighting and heat remotely, through their phones, so it’s easy to turn off a light you left on by mistake. Every parking spot is set up for an EV charger.
People were once leery of buying electric vehicles, but have come to understand that EVs are not only cool and sustainable but cost less to run than gas-powered cars. In the same way, Higgins is confident awareness will grow about the ease and efficiency of all-electric buildings.
“In the residential market, there wasn’t that consumer demand, so no one was doing it.”
The development industry is slow to change, he said.
“No one was changing the guts (of the building). They were lipsticking — here’s some LED lights. Great, but that’s not going to change it much. … If you sell 100 houses a year, why change it? You keep building the same house.”
All-electric buildings are becoming more common in places such as California and Europe, but are still rare here.
HIP began with the premise that the building must operate at the same monthly cost — or less — than a conventional building.
It took more time up front for design and engineering, but Higgins said the cost of construction was fairly comparable.
“There’s not a huge cost premium attached to it. The Bright Building might have been an $80-million project, and we had to spend an extra $300,000 on engineering. It’s not like you’re spending $3 million more.”
Among the benefits of the building’s design: the lack of a common boiler and piping throughout mean less complex infrastructure and likely fewer big repair fees.
People began moving in last November and December. There are still units available to buy or lease, Higgins said.
Developing sustainable buildings is essential to address the climate crisis, says Tova Davidson, executive director of Sustainable Waterloo Region. In the region, 45 per cent of all carbon emissions come from energy use in commercial, industrial and institutional buildings (27 per cent) and in homes (18 per cent).
“This isn’t about one building,” Davidson says. “This is about transforming what the development sector believes is possible — and profitable.
“Your home can be comfortable and cosy, and it can be responsible and sustainable.”
Sharing building designs
HIP has since built another allelectric building, the Flats at Rainbow
Lake on New Dundee Road in south Kitchener, and Higgins says all-electric design will be a key element for the company from now on. The data from these projects will help make the case for more electric buildings, he said.
HIP has open-sourced what it has done to the mid- and highrise industry locally, so other developers don’t need to spend the extra six to eight months learning about allelectric designs. “What we want is sustainable change,” he said.
Higgins said he was partly motivated because the lack of sustainable options struck him as odd. There are sustainable office buildings such as Evolv1 in Waterloo, and builders are selling net-zero and sustainable single-family homes and townhouses, “but if you live in an apartment or a condo you don’t really get the choice, if you want to live sustainably.”
He was also motivated to push for a better way.
“I think we have an obligation as a big developer,” Higgins said. “We literally build the city. Isn’t it our job to build it better?”
“We could just rinse and repeat the past, but I think we have to have some level of corporate responsibility for what we leave behind.”
‘‘ This is about transforming what the development sector believes is possible — and profitable. Your home can be comfortable and cosy, and it can be responsible and sustainable.
TOVA DAVIDSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABLE WATERLOO REGION