KITCHENER - Manulife Financial Corp. is behind an application for a mixed-use redevelopment of a downtown parking lot that could include a grocery store on the ground level and condos above.

The Toronto-based financial services giant retained Intermarket Real Estate Group to file a site plan application with the City of Kitchener. Manulife owns the property, but Intermarket is stickhandling the approvals.

The site plan application is among the first regulatory hurdles that must be cleared before any development is approved by city officials.

It provides a high-level summary of what Manulife wants to do with the parking lot that is bounded by Charles, Francis, Joseph and Water streets. That expanse of asphalt nearly covers the entire city block between the Tannery building and the Manulife offices in the former King Centre shopping mall.

"We are considering a residential rental building on top of a podium building with ground floor retail that could accommodate a grocery store," said Beverley MacLean, Manulife's director of external communications in Canada.

"Manulife is evaluating the potential to redevelop part of the parking lot at 85 Charles, part of which is obtaining municipal approvals for a proposed mixed-use redevelopment," MacLean said in an email.

The site plan application calls for a building with 25 floors and includes a supermarket on the main floor. The first five floors will form a podium, creating a base for the tower that would rise above it.

"We have also begun to gauge interest in the proposed project with potential office and retail tenants to determine feasibility of the project," said MacLean.

The building would cover nearly 40 per cent of the block, mainly near the intersection of Charles and Francis streets. Surface parking will be provided on the Joseph Street side.

"The mixed-use building is ground-floor retail and above that are four storeys of offices, and then the 20-storey residential tower above that," said Katie Anderl, a senior planner at the city handling the application.

"The preliminary concept does show a larger retail component on the ground floor, and the plans indicate that it could be a grocery store," said Anderl.

Manulife bought the property for a parking lot after it purchased the former King Centre shopping mall in 1999, where more than 2,000 employees currently work. The company, which employs about an equal number of people at its Canadian headquarters on King Street North in Waterloo, has no plans to change that.

"Manulife is committed to Kitchener and Waterloo, the home of our Canadian headquarters," said MacLean.

The application to redevelop the parking lot goes before the site plan review committee this week. Once the application has approval-in-principle from that committee, the city and developer would work through all the technical details, a process that could take six to eight months.

"From our preliminary review so far it looks like the development is generally in line with our Official Plan policies and our zoning bylaws, so it is generally meeting our expectations," said Janine Oosterveld, manager of site development and customer service in the city's planning department.

The Manulife application is among 10 active site plan applications for downtown projects under review by the city. The applicants want to secure approvals and take out building permits before the end of February 2018. That's when exemptions for downtown development, which save developers millions of dollars in fees, are scheduled to end.

"I am in favour of the whole intensification bit," said Coun. Frank Etherington, whose ward has seen the bulk of downtown condo projects.

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However, Etherington has repeatedly voiced concerns about the influx of new development in the core, namely the need for affordable housing and the preservation of existing neighbourhoods.

"I worry about communities like Cherry Park and Victoria Park," said Etherington. "On the other hand if this does include a grocery store, I think that is fantastic for the downtown."

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