'Topping Out' completed at Kitchener rental tower development

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic, Kitchener councillor Stephanie Stretch, Vive Developments Chief Development Officer Stephen Litt, St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe and Kitchener councillor Dave Schnider posed for a photo on Dec. 18, 2024. (Jeff Pickel/CTV News)

The SYLK Towers on King Street in Kitchener has hit an important construction milestone.

A Topping Out ceremony was held Wednesday after the 25-storey tower at 3241 King Streeet East reached its highest point of construction.

The Vive Development project will offer 304 affordable rental apartment units.

“The entire building's 10 per cent below market [value] and then 20 per cent of the units are at 70 per cent of median household income.” said Stephen Litt, Chief Development Officer of Vive developments.

“That makes the units around $1,700 per month rather that $2,200,” Litt added.

Litt says the project was made possible though initiatives from the federal government.

Around $115 million dollars in financing came from the federal Rental Construction Financing Initiative.

“The funds coming direct from the Federal Reserve, there's no intermediate lender, so it's lower cost … without that my interest rate would be doubled effectively in a project like this,” said Litt.

Litt says this type of purpose-built rental helps cut out investors who are looking to turn a profit on rental units.

“90 per cent of new high-rise condos are bought by investors. In that regime there's a developer looking to make a profit, then [an] investor, then a tenant. In this case, it's [from the] developer right to the tenant,” said Litt.

As part of the agreement, the units must remain affordable for 21 years.

Litt said the plan is to have tenants move in this year, and he said phase 2 and 3 of the SYLK Towers are in the planning stages.

According to Vive’s website, when construction is complete, the project will bring more than 1,000 new rental units to Kitchener.

Tenants are expected to be able to start to move in sometime in early 2025.