London, Ontario-based Residence Development Company is moving full steam ahead to expand its controversial Water Street Residence development project.
The company, which has leased the land directly across from the main entrance to Symons Campus for 99 years, plans to open its fourth block of student housing this September.
However, the Trent University administration is already looking ahead to further expansion. “That development is one of the most successful developments for students in this city,” stated Trent University President Steven Franklin. “We’re talking to Ray Stanton [of Residence Development Company] about phase two.”
The privately owned, non-collegiate Water Street Residence project was first proposed in 2008, during the tenure of former-president Bonnie Patterson. The proposal was amended upon Franklin’s arrival in 2009, and was approved by Peterborough city council in 2011.
The project faced fierce opposition from students and faculty, who felt that the university should be building another college rather than a private residence, and neighbours who argued that it was unsafe to place student housing on the corner of two notoriously busy streets.
The project’s original proposal consisted of two phases; the first being four blocks of student housing targeted at Trent’s upper-year population. Phase two comprised of additional student residence buildings along with mixed-use commercial space. The second phase was to be located in the vacant land south of phase one close to the Ultramar gas station.
The commercial aspect of the plan was billed by the university administration as fulfilling Ron Thom’s 1964 Master Plan for Trent, which described the construction of a small commercial “village” at the corner of Nassau Mills Road and Water Street.
However, three years into the project, President Franklin stated it is now unlikely that the development will actually have a commercial component. “My sense is that [the development] may not have commercial space,” he stated. “What the university needs is something similar to what we have on McDonnel Street, the Champlain College Annex.”
Such a project, said Franklin, would house both first years and upper years, and include some degree of college programming and support. “If there is one thing that I want to [be known] it is that we have flexibility on phase two and we want to make it as college-like as possible.”
There is still no indication on the timeline for phase two and Franklin cautioned that the university has not yet received an official proposal from RDC.