KITCHENER - If all goes well, construction will begin in about a year on a $60-million redevelopment of a downtown block along King Street East.

Workers are cleaning up the site after the demolition of several buildings on the block of land bounded by King Street East, Madison Avenue, and Charles and Cameron streets. The demolished structures include the former Gascho Automotive buildings.

Drewlo Holdings of London, Ont., plans to put up buildings containing 423 rental units on the site.

A four-storey-building will cover most of the block. Rising out of that podium building will be two apartment buildings, one with 14 floors and another with 18 floors. The Charles Street side of the block will feature apartments with three floors.

The part of the podium building fronting on King Street East will contain commercial and retail space.

A total of 523 parking spaces are proposed. There will be one floor of underground parking and three floors of parking in the four-storey podium building.

Within a week or so, the developer will begin negotiations with the City of Kitchener for approvals and amendments to the Official Plan and zoning bylaw, said George Bikas, Drewlo's manager of land development.

All approvals must be in place, and the building permits issued before March 1, 2019, in order for the project to qualify for incentives for downtown development. If that deadline isn't met, millions of dollars will be added to the cost.

"The clock is ticking," said Bikas. "We have to move quickly on that one because development charges are waived on that site so we can add that extra money we are saving on development charges to the esthetics of the building,"

Drewlo is ready to move forward, he said.

"We can kind of have everything basically ready to go," he said. "I have some drawings here ready to be submitted for site-plan consultations, so that is our next step. Within the next week I will be submitting and getting the actual process going for site plan, so it is a preconsultation."

For the past 10 years, most of the new, large construction in the downtown has occurred in the west end, closer to Victoria Street.

The Drewlo project will be the biggest residential development in the east end in decades, if not ever. It is one block from the Kitchener Market, one block from a light rail transit stop at Cedar and Charles streets, and directly across from Ben Thanh, a popular the Vietnamese grocery on King Street East.

"It's a great site, a great location," said Bikas.

Drewlo has more than 50 years of experience in the development industry. It owns more than 50,000 rental units in apartment buildings across southern Ontario. It owns apartment buildings in Kitchener at 205 Victoria St. S., 310 Queen St. S., 560 Queen St. S., 161 and 121 Fallow Field Dr., 435 Wilson Ave., and 250 Country Hill Dr.

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The company also owns the Inn of Waterloo at 475 King St. N., and several hectares of surrounding land.

"It is a growing economy, the rentals are a big part of the market there," said Bikas. "Not everybody can afford to buy a unit, so the option of renting is there."