KITCHENER — The Howard Johnson in Kitchener is closed, and the hotel contents are being sold off and carted away.

The parcel of land the building sits on, sandwiched between Weber Street East and Highway 8, is slated for redevelopment into highrise condo towers with office space.

All the furniture and household items from the Fergus Avenue hotel were up for a cash-only sale after it closed its doors for overnight guests on Dec. 31. A steady stream of people carried off beds, lamps, ironing boards, furniture, microwaves, mini fridges and other hotel room staples on Thursday.

The more than 60-year-old hotel will make way for four condo towers with 568 residential units and about 14,000 square feet of commercial space. The City of Kitchener granted conditional approval to the site application on Dec. 18.

"It's definitely a larger redevelopment," said Andrew Pinnell, senior planner at the city. "It's going to bring a lot of new people and jobs."

The city hopes the construction project at 1333 Weber St. E. will be a catalyst for more improvements to the area not far from Fairview Park mall.

There was a long-standing development freeze on the site pending sanitary services upgrades, which have now been completed. A large medical centre recently opened on Kingsbury Drive.

The developer declined to comment on Thursday. Conditions on the city's approval include standard items like providing plans and a noise study, due to the proximity to the expressway, Weber Street and a shopping plaza.

"They're very enthusiastic. It sounds like they want to proceed as soon as possible with a building permit," Pinnell said.

The hotel had been franchised as a Howard Johnson, part of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts chain, starting in 1999. Originally the Conestoga Inn, it was opened by John Hoffman in 1957.

The hotel temporarily housed government-sponsored Syrian refugees when they first arrived in Waterloo Region, following Ottawa's commitment to welcome 25,000 Syrians to Canada starting in late 2015. The last family that had been waiting a permanent home moved out in May 2016.

The hotel's closure won't be an issue for the region, which does not currently use the hotel for overflow emergency shelter space when all beds are full and hasn't for some time.

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