Ashburnham Realty’s new residential and commercial development on Hunter Street East in Peterborough’s East City is moving along, with construction on the development’s first and largest building now completed and work on the second building now underway.
“It is really starting to take shape now and will create a very cool hub in East City,” Ashburnham Realty owner Paul Bennett tells kawarthaNOW in an email.
The first building in the development, called “The Railyard,” is a six-storey building at 127 Hunter Street East with 40 one and two-bedroom apartments and two commercial tenants on the main floor. Construction is complete, with interior and exterior finishing to be done.
Bennett says he hopes to see the first residential tenants move into The Railyard in late spring. The two commercial spaces have already been leased, with those tenants preparing to renovate their spaces.
“There is a ton of interest and it is getting a lot of excitement,” says Bennett, a native of East City, adding that Ashburnham Realty is now accepting residential applications for The Railyard at www.ashburnhamrealty.com.
The name of The Railyard, located on the south side of Hunter Street East across from Ashburnham Ale House and just east of the Rotary Greenway Trail, is a nod to the rich history of the former Ashburnham Village. The Rotary Greenway Trail was built on the railbed of the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway, which was constructed in the early 1850s and operated between 1854 and 1860 (it was later used for other rail lines).
One of the first railway lines to be built in central Ontario, it included a railway station serving as the northern terminus of the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway. When the Prince of Wales (Queen Victoria’s eldest son, later King Edward VII) visited Peterborough in September 1860, he arrived at the Ashburnham railway station.
That railway station was near the current location of the development’s second building, which faces Hunter Street East on the west side of the Rotary Greenway Trail. It was once the office of McCarthy and Johnston Fuels and later housed a restaurant, The Main Ingredient Too, and most recently a law office, with residential apartments on the second floor.
That building was demolished earlier this week, and will be replaced with a new building containing 12 residential units and a commercial tenant on the main floor. Construction on the second building is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
The original plan for the development also called for two additional buildings with 41 residential units to be constructed on the east side of the Rotary Greenway Trail, between Hunter Street East and Robinson Street to the south, previously used as overflow parking lots for the former St. Joseph’s Hospital on Rogers Street.
However, Bennett says there will now be only one building in that location.
“We are just in the planning stages of this final building and it will be just residential,” he says.
All three buildings in the development are being designed by Lett Architects Inc. of Peterborough.
As part of the new development, Ashburnham Realty will also be enhancing the section of the Rotary Greenway Trail that runs between Robinson Street and Hunter Street East.
The trail will be straightened where it currently bends to meets Hunter Street East and trail lighting will be added (similar to the section just north of the development between Hunter Street East and Douro Street) along with landscaping.
“The trail is going to be really nice,” Bennett says
