The next two phases planned for London's historic Roundhouse were formally unveiled on Monday.
The Roundhouse, part of the city's railroad past on Horton St. at Waterloo St., is nearly fully restored after spending nearly a century as everything from fruit storage to a popular restaurant.
Now, with heritage as the foundation, developers a hoping to go modern and sky-high - 25 storeys high in a mostly residential tower to face the Roundhouse.
Patrick Ambrogio of Creative Property Developments is half of the group behind the project.
"You know it's a $75 million plus project...It will inject a lot of jobs into the area, it's a win-win, but no-one is going to be foolish about it."
Other projects in the area have fizzled before getting off the ground, but Ambrogio says he's confident reward will soon outweigh risk in SoHo.
A large real estate firm has the same confidence, committing to moving in to Phase B once it's complete, the section that will connect the Roundhouse to the proposed tower.
Peter Hoffman of Royal LePage Triland Realty says, "I'd have to say in the beginning we thought it was perhaps a bit of a seedy area, so we thought, 'Do we want to be in this area?' But after talking with [Ambrogio] and seeing his vision...we thought 'This is exactly where we want to be.'"
While old and new haven't always mixed, both developers and heritage advocates seem to be happy with the project.
Sylvia Chodas of ACO London, the local branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, says, "Well it is impressive to us that the circular area in the middle is preserved to imitate the actual turn table that accompanies the Roundahouse. So we think that is a beautiful way to unite this building with the new building."
The historic Roundhouse will be ready for its two tenants - rtraction and Neilsen IT Consulting - by April.
Phase B by is expected to be completed late next year and the proposed tower - if things go as planned - by the end of 2020.
