Waterloo Region councillors decided Tuesday to part ways with the developer because its vision for the hub at King and Victoria streets didn’t align with the region’s expectations.

The major transit hub planned for downtown Kitchener is back to the drawing board.

Waterloo Region councillors decided Tuesday to part ways with the developer because its vision for the hub at King and Victoria streets didn’t align with the region’s expectations.

“It’s a setback, but it’s not catastrophic,” said Coun. Tom Galloway, chair of the planning and works committee.

Regional staff will now look at other approaches to achieve the project vision without jeopardizing the committed provincial funding of $43 million for the transit-related components.

“The project goes forward. The money is still there,” Galloway said. “There are other options.”

A few months are lost, he said, but the target completion date of 2022 for the transit infrastructure could still be met. There was more flexibility around the completion of the private components.

“The transit component could still make the date,” Galloway said.

The plan for the site is an integrated mixed-use transit-oriented development.

The region put out a call for a master developer of the entire site, generating one qualified submission. King Victoria Transit Hub Partners Inc. (KVTH Partners Inc.) was invited in March to create a plan for the project.

It was given five months to prepare its proposal for evaluation by the region and its external advisers, with the option that either party could terminate the proposal process.

“They came forward with their best plans, what it could look like and the financial details,” Galloway said. “It wasn’t good enough.”

The original plan was to have a master developer be responsible for the design and delivery of the on-site transit infrastructure and mixed-use development, including residential, office and retail uses.

“We just couldn’t negotiate a satisfactory deal,” Galloway said.

That included both the design of the site, along with the land value.

“They weren’t valuing it sufficiently for us,” Galloway said.

The King Victoria transit hub is intended to be a landmark development and train station that creates a seamless connection for all transit in the region, including Ion, GO Transit, Via Rail service and Grand River Transit.

“We want a really iconic building on the corner,” Galloway said of the transit terminal.

Regional staff previously identified a number of viable approaches to achieving the project objectives if the request for proposal was unsuccessful, including restarting the procurement or parceling the project.

“We’re going to look at some of the alternatives,” Galloway said.