[Steeltown]

Here's a sneak preview

I took a couple pictures today but I want to take some more pictures tomorrow. So I'll post them all tomorrow.

 

[Lucky 24]

Cool....I wish I could've made it there this year. Can't wait to see the pics.

 

[Steeltown]

I was thinking of doing a Hamilton Doors Open Meet up or something but I figured there would be little interest.

Plus on Sunday I totally busted my right ankle, had to use crutches so I wasn't sure with myself if I could go. But lucky my ankle got better yesterday and was able to go out for Doors Open.

 

[Steeltown]

Auchmar Estate

Issac Buchanan state, Member of Parliament and strong opponent of slavery. Buchanan held over 600 black people in his house. After his death the place was used for the Royal Canadian Air Force, rehabilitation centre. After WWII the estate became a Nun house.

Currently the estate is being used for a television show called "Black Holsey High".

Film crew used fake vines

Erm guess the film crew got bored at night

Outside

 

[Steeltown]

Workers Arts and Heritage Centre - Custom House

The Custom House is one of the oldest remaining "federal" public building in Canada. Also known as the most haunted house in Hamilton.

Hamilton in 1959 - see City Hall being constructed?

Ah sheesh how typical of Hamilton to place a nice sign right behind a metal scraps factory

Man the Copps family been in Hamilton for a long time

 

[algonquin]

I did Dundurn Castle and the Military Museum.... lot's of fun.

I've got pics, but I doubt I'll get around to uploading them.. sorry. I suck, I know.

 

[Steeltown]

I took pictures of

Century Manor
Auchmar Estate
Gowlings building (old Bank of Montreal)
Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (Custom House)
John Weir Foote Armoury
GO Centre
Whitehern Historic House (only outside pictures)

I'll try to post Gowlings and GO Centre today.

 

[Steeltown]

The Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway (TH&B) - GO Station or GO Centre, name it whatever that rocks your boat.

Whitehern Historic House

 

[Steeltown]

John Weir Foote Armoury

National historic site and rare example if an Armoury with two surviving drill halls. Home to Royal Hamilton Light Infantry and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

General's Room

Sorry for a really bad photo, hands were shaking

God save the Queen

 

[Steeltown]

Gowlings - old Bank of Montreal

Interior is dominated by the 35 ft banking hall and towering Ionic columns. Currently under renovation, will become office of one of Canada's oldest and largest law firms, Gowlings.

Renderings don't always turn out true

Century Manor

Former Asylum house. Interesting fact, Dr. James Wallace from Hamilton Asylum participated in Louis Riel's trial in 1885. He determined Riel was not insane and therefore fit to stand trial for treason.

If you been naughty they lock you up in rooms like this

 

[algonquin]

^ great pics Steeltown

I once thought that the Bank of Montreal building would make a great Elephant and Castle restaurant...

With Gowlings moving in, and the Lister Block being redeveloped, can we still consider Hamilton's downtown run-down? Is this finally the turn around?

 

[Steeltown]

Yep we’re witnessing a turn around in downtown Hamilton.

- abandoned Victoria Hall and MacKay buildings – collectively known as Foster building – have been sold (directly across Gore Park)
- Royal Connaught under redevelopment $15 million
- John and James Street being converted two way street
- Old federal building being converted into lofts/condos

Took this picture on Saturday

Before

Investments are finally being poured into downtown Hamilton.

Next month, June, city staff will begin to beat the bushes for developers interested in around $7 million in incentive loans.

So it's likely well hear new condo development in the core soon.

All we need is to put up a VIA station next to LIUNA station to fix up James Street North.

 

[algonquin]

- Royal Connaught under redevelopment $15 million
- John and James Street being converted two way street

really? cool

 

[Steeltown]

really? cool

Whoa, you didn't know about Connaught? tsk tsk well here ya go....

Downtown's granda dame getting Trump treatment

Donald Trump walked into the Royal Connaught the other day. The lobby was a mess. There was falling plaster and graffiti everywhere.

Trump saw beyond all that. He looked around and said. "This place has good bones."

This Trump is an actor, working on a movie that airs on ABC this spring. It's called Ambition and it is Trump's story.

The crumbling hotel Trump actually walked into back in the 1970s was the Commondore in Manhattan. Like our Connaught, it was a grand ruin. Pimps and hookers patrolled outside its doors.

His own father told him he was crazy, but Trump bought the place and artfully pulled together the financing to make it shine again. The hotel, now the Grand Hyatt, beside Grand Central, came alive and so did the neighbourhood around it.

As it turns out, on the day they're shooting in the lobby, we have an appionment above, top floor, corner office, with the Hamilton man trying to pull a Trump at the Royal Connaught.

Tony Battaglia and four partners bought the hotel in January. They paid $4.5 million for the historic shell. In all, this is a $30 million plus project.

The consortium also includes Ramada Plaza owner Oscar Kichi, Ted Valeri of T. Valeri Construction, Labouers' International Union of North America vice-president Joe Mancincelli, and Mario Frankovich, president of investment firm Burlgeonvest Securities. They nominated Battaglia to manage the Connaught rebirth. He's head of Westpark Developments and chairman of TradePort International, the organization that runs Hamilton's airport.

The gutting and rebuilding is not yet under way, so it's OK to rent out the lobby for a movie shoot. A set crew spent three days making the place looks bad, but that decay is all done with paper and waterbased paint.

There may be another movie or two shot here. But Battaglia is itching to get moving on his new project. He's relinquished the president's chair at TradePort, but sees many parallels.

The airport and the Connaught are both important to the city. Both have a history of failure. Both suffered a lack of investment dollars to make them successful. And, like our airport, the hotel needs repositioning.

The Connaught was built to be grand in 1916. But in recent decades it went downscale, trying to compete with other hotels in town. That didn't work and there was no money reinvest in the property. It finally went bankrupt.

The plan now is a page straight from Trump, five-star elegance all the way. Over the last six weeks, several hotel chains have come by to take a look. The Fairmont people, who run the Royal York and others like it, are not interested in a Hamilton alliance. But Marriott, Hilton, Delta might be.

They will submit proposals on fee schedules soon.

Yes, Battaglia admits, that stretch of King East is rough. "But as the fellow from Marriott said, 'We can create sort of an oasis.'"

The first floor will be commercial. Floors 2 to 7 will be hotel rooms, about 140 of them, down from 207 now. Starting rates are about $135. Battaglia says an occupancy of 65 per cent would be enough for a visible operation.

Floor 8 to 11, plus a rooftop Starlight Room, will be condos.

"We're looking at those floors as a blank canvas," Battaglia says. Purchases will be able to carve them up the way they want - an 800 square foot unit, or something four times that size. There's already been an expression of intent from a party of means to take the Starlight penthouse plus 5,000 square feet on the floor below it.

There's now short list of five architects. Their submissions will be in by next Thursday and an architect in place by the end of the month. Then there will be three months of preliminary design and budget crunching.

Everything goes. Furniture, mattresses, lamps, curtains are already en route to other hotels. Every tub, sink, toilet gets torn out. So does the pool and the old heating, plumbing, wiring.

"This hotel needs a full organ and artery transplant," Battaglia says.

It could cost $12 million to bring back the hotel section alone. The condos could be another $8 million. And $8 million more for a four-storey parking garage.

"Downtown Hamilton is a tough place to get money for a hotel." Battaglia admits. But sometimes this summer, after the design and budget stage, and after the chain affiliation is settled, the job of firming up financing will begin. Battaglia says that should take three months. If that's on track, construction starts in the fall.

The dream date for completion is June 5 of next year, the hotel's 90th anniversary.

It's likely they'll miss that target. But Battaglis says he knows he can make this project go. No one is going to step up and say, "Tony, you're fired."

 

[algonquin]

oh.... no, no. I knew about the Connaught.... it was the point about converting John and James street. I made an error when I quoted you..

 

[Steeltown]

Oh yea James and John Street will be two way street starting in August. Currently both James and John Street is two way from King Street up to the waterfront. Starting in August both street will be two way from King Street to St Joseph hospital, making it completely two way street.

 

[algonquin]

Oh yea James and John Street will be two way street starting in August. Currently both James and John Street is two way from King Street up to the waterfront. Starting in August both street will be two way from King Street to St Joseph hospital, making it completely two way street.

thats good news... next Main and King, perhaps?

 

[Steeltown]

Yep, King Street West is next, which is a biggie since it also contains new streetscape design. But that will probably happen in 2007.

Main Street I doubt will ever be two way. But I can see Main Street West from Dundurn to Queen Street getting a new streetscape design though.

 

[algonquin]

Yep, King Street West is next, which is a biggie since it also contains new streetscape design. But that will probably happen in 2007.

Main Street I doubt will ever be two way. But I can see Main Street West from Dundurn to Queen Street getting a new streetscape design though.

but King and Main work in tandem. Surely if they 2-way one, they have to 2-way the other?

 

[Taha]

Oh yea James and John Street will be two way street starting in August. Currently both James and John Street is two way from King Street up to the waterfront. Starting in August both street will be two way from King Street to St Joseph hospital, making it completely two way street.

That's a one of the best news for Hamilton. Thank's for informations steeltown.