Elora Mill South | 20m | 5s | Pearle Hospitality | Hicks Design Studio

[emphur]

A bit of a different post today as I was in town. I'm not sure whether Elora is considered within the sphere of Toronto like Kitchener is, but as this project is unique, and seems to be targeting retirees from Toronto, I decided it deserved to be posted. If this falls to far outside it can be removed.

The Elora Mill project is a multiple phase development that is stitching together a few old abandoned mill buildings into a mixed use complex. The first phase which involved the main mill building was recently completed as a luxury hotel.

Overview of the upcoming buildings:

The current building under construction, and the finished hotel phase can be seen on the left. Both uniquely sit rather close to the river embankment, which I have a feeling @Northern Light may not be too happy with. But I have to say those units will have quite the unique view:

On to progress photos, the initial pilings are in the ground:

Elora is quite cozy, this street is nice aside from all the cars:

 

[Lenser]

Cute town. Very touristy these days but still, charming as hell. All that grand old limestone and brick. I wish it well. Wonder what the locals think of the project. Looks good to me, it's at least not too out of scale with the town itself.

 

[Bogtrotter]

I spend a lot of time there and my sense is there are mixed feelings. The town has become a popular place for day trippers and is quite touristy, especially in the summer when the Elora festival is in full swing. Some of the more popular businesses for longtime locals have been replaced by delicatessens, bistros, high end furniture, lavender shop etc. and to me increasingly feels like a town out of a Hallmark movie. One of the positives of this 'gentrification' is the restoration of the Dalby House- a wedge shaped (flat iron?) building at the centre of town. On the downside, and more personal note, the interior was repurposed for offices replacing a fabulous small town Ontario dive bar that had killer fish n' chips. More recently another pub with the best patio in town has been replaced by a European style restaurant and pastry store. Not terrible developments of course, but certainly it's lost its Ontario charm and is increasingly feeling artificial and somewhat pretentious.

 

[Northern Light]

A bit of a different post today as I was in town. I'm not sure whether Elora is considered within the sphere of Toronto like Kitchener is, but as this project is unique, and seems to be targeting retirees from Toronto, I decided it deserved to be posted. If this falls to far outside it can be removed.

The Elora Mill project is a multiple phase development that is stitching together a few old abandoned mill buildings into a mixed use complex. The first phase which involved the main mill building was recently completed as a luxury hotel.

Overview of the upcoming buildings:

View attachment 376129

The current building under construction, and the finished hotel phase can be seen on the left. Both uniquely sit rather close to the river embankment, which I have a feeling @Northern Light may not be too happy with. But I have to say those units will have quite the unique view:

My view might be a bit different than you'd think.

I'm not broadly opposed here; in as much as:

1) This banks of the river here are engineered/hardened to a large degree, this happened, for the most part, a very long time ago, albeit with some changes over the years.
So this is not a case of losing a natural river bank, there wasn't one to lose here.

2) I have a bit of a fondness for this spot, I've brought 2 GF's here over the years, one for a dinner at the restaurant overlooking the river; and the second, for a mid-winter's Mexican Hot Chocolate as we ambled through the freshly fallen snow in town.

That said.......this is the imaging I pulled off the Grand Valley Conservation Mapping program

You can find that here: https://maps.grandriver.ca/web-gis/public/?theme=MYP&bbox=545360,4836397,546269,4836874 for the Wellington Centre Area.

Your legend for that is here:

The properties are within the regulatory floodplain; and some of the area shows erosion risk as well.

I'm sure ( I hope, LOL) that the new builds have all taken these things into account and are of reasonable risk; but something to be mindful of...

****

It would be nice to see more publicly accessible waterside area in the broader community; and more nature along the shores of the Grand as well.

But for the most part, that wasn't present in the core of Elora and likely won't be in the foreseeable future either.

 

[stjames2queenwest]

This is my home town.
Locals love this project and the previous related ones for the most part. I however miss the days of getting stoned as a teen in the old mills before they restored everything.

The new pedestrian bridge that recently opened is great.

It’s always been a tourist town.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Definitely not all locals like it- just saying In decades gone by more of a retirement community than tourist haven I would say. But true the the gorge is a great natural attraction and the town has for the longest time had an active arts community- both attracted visitors. It was always pretty restrained though. Feeling a bit too inauthentic for me now- but then I'm not a fan of Niagara-on-the lake either.

 

[Towered]

I've never been to Elora! It's top of my list of cute Ontario towns to visit in 2022!

 

[Lenser]

Niagara-on-the-lake does indeed have a similar vibe - a gift-wrapped Disneyesque town ready to accept all your tourist dollars. Still, I wouldn't mind living there, it's a nice microclimate and I love the peninsula.

Still, back to the project at hand; I suppose it was inevitable that Elora's postcard downtown would succumb to development pressures. A little to the south, Guelph is undergoing some major changes in its own downtown.
I just hope they do it right - judging by this particular project's scale and suggested appearance,, I think they're doing reasonably well.

 

[emphur]

Starting to make an impact. (From a friend today)

 

[Paclo]

The Elora Mill South project has been added to the database. This is phase 2 of the Elora Mill Master Plan and includes the Elora Mill Condos, as well as hotel, office & retail space. This phase will also provide a public trail connecting to Phase 1 on the north bank of the Grand River via the new pedestrian bridge.

Render of public trail from Urban Solutions' Presentation:

Additional information can be found in the Planning Justification Report of April 2021.