Buildings demolished in Charlottetown, corner to get facelift

Crews began demolishing houses at the corner of Upper Prince and Young streets in Charlottetown Friday to make room for a new apartment building and a bed and breakfast.

The houses at 10, 12 and 14 Young Street, near University and Allen streets, will be replaced by an 11-unit micro-apartment complex.  A bed and breakfast with five bedrooms will be built at 153 Upper Prince Street, which shares the corner.

SableArc Studios architect Robert Haggis said the units will be "open concept, no delineated spaces," bachelor units.

"The client felt that there was a great need for that, one-bedroom type developments," Haggis said. 

'Expect smaller rents'

The units will be approximately 430 square feet with space for a king or queen-size bed, along with a small living area, compact kitchen, three-piece bath, stackable washer and dryer and a balcony.

The building's design will be more contemporary than the single-family homes that now dominate the neighbourhood.

It's a good fit for a city struggling with density, Haggis said.

"The square footage is very small, which means you can expect smaller rents, although they won't be considered low-income housing."

Rent may be lower than market value because of the size of the units, Haggis said. He didn't have an exact price point yet and said that will depend on the final cost of building.

Building to begin off-site

"Students, singles, couples — they'll easily be able to get in here, which would otherwise be only exposed to a potential two-bedroom unit when they don't need a two-bedroom unit," Haggis said.

The design of the bed and breakfast on Upper Prince will fit in with existing homes in the area, he said.

Building work on the apartments will begin once the lot is ready, but he said the bed and breakfast will take longer. His plan is for the apartments to be ready next spring.

Part of the building will be constructed off-site.

"They build the components of the apartment, they ship them over to us and then we assemble on site," said Scott Gosson, co-owner of Leading Edge Homes.

"In theory, it speeds us up about probably 50 per cent of the time for the outside framing portion of the project."

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