Royal Connaught Hotel | ? | 36 fl, 33 fl, 24 fl & 13 fl | U/C

[DC83]

Originally Posted by realcity

awesome!! I knew that tower would look great there!
Stinson tower, eh?? haha

[chris k]

Yeah the more modern height is suiting me better now that i see it and i think it looks great.

BTW, love how you added stinsons name on it

[SteelTown]

The Royal Connaught Hotel, 112 King Street East, Hamilton (L) – M. Adkins (Dec 13, 07)

Michael Adkins indicated that he has learned that the owners of the Royal Connaught Hotel will be filing for bankruptcy soon.

Councillor Bratina added that there are interested parties willing to purchase the property with the purpose of operating it as a hotel.

The Committee discussed the direction from its previous meeting to send a message to Council about designating the hotel and how this can be done in compliance with procedure.

[flar]

Maybe Stinson will have a chance to buy it now.

[raisethehammer]

LIUNA blows.

[matt602]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

The Royal Connaught Hotel, 112 King Street East, Hamilton (L) – M. Adkins (Dec 13, 07)

Michael Adkins indicated that he has learned that the owners of the Royal Connaught Hotel will be filing for bankruptcy soon.

Councillor Bratina added that there are interested parties willing to purchase the property with the purpose of operating it as a hotel.

The Committee discussed the direction from its previous meeting to send a message to Council about designating the hotel and how this can be done in compliance with procedure.

This is definitely good news, not bad news. Screw the "consortium". They weren't getting anything done other than gutting the building and whoring it out to movie studios. Time for someone with an actual vision and the money to back it to step up.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

The Royal Connaught Hotel, 112 King Street East, Hamilton (L) – M. Adkins (Dec 13, 07)

Michael Adkins indicated that he has learned that the owners of the Royal Connaught Hotel will be filing for bankruptcy soon.

Councillor Bratina added that there are interested parties willing to purchase the property with the purpose of operating it as a hotel.

The Committee discussed the direction from its previous meeting to send a message to Council about designating the hotel and how this can be done in compliance with procedure.

This IS good news. I wonder who or how many prospective buyers Bratina's referring to?
What are the chances that Stinson is interested???

[fastcarsfreedom]

Say "screw" the consortium all you want--in truth they did the heavy lifting on the project--gutting it, and more importantly, doing the asbestos abatement. The building is practically a clean slate--a great place for someone fresh to come in and start building. It is never good news when somoene steps in to do a major project Downtown and ends up bankrupt as a result--makes financing for subsequent ventures in the city all that much more difficult to acquire.

[raisethehammer]

screw the consortium. I'll say it again and again.
The only reason they got involved was due to promises of free public money from DiIanni. They were promised $10 million in a secret meeting with him way back when all this mess started.
They had no interest in 'doing this project'. They wanted to fatten their pockets off you and I.
I can't name my sources of course, but more than 1 person in city hall has discussed these secret meetings. LIUNA went to Fred and attempted to keep that backroom deal alive and he said 'no way'.
They're crooks and were only brought into this project by the other crooks at city hall.

[the dude]

hehehe...neat.

how much money has the city given them to date?

[DC83]

Originally Posted by the dude

hehehe...neat.

how much money has the city given them to date?

$229,500?
http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyre...103REVISED.pdf

[HAMRetrofit]

I doubt that organization invested a penny of their own money into the project. Financers are not going to blink an eye over this group of cronies and their incompetence. This is an opportunity for a new developer to take control of the project. Perhaps one with a proven track record with access to secure credit. Financers are not stupid, they have likely done background checks on this group and appropriately rejected them. I doubt that it has anything to do with some kind of red lining of Downtown Hamilton conspiracy theory.

[SteelTown]

The city only spent what DC pointed out.

But the group have made money from movie productions, such as the Trump movie, the Hulk, etc.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

The city only spent what DC pointed out.

But the group have made money from movie productions, such as the Trump movie, the Hulk, etc.

There was one called "XIII" filming in the Connaught last week and throughout Jan. They were also shooting at Absinthe Louge in Int'l Village!

[raisethehammer]

I know a few property owners downtown who have had their banks COME to them and offer financing if the owner ever desires to renovate or put in new apartments etc.... downtown is slowly becoming a better investment these days. you're probably right about banks shying away from this consortium group. I wonder if they walk into a bank they way they walk into the mayors office, demanding millions of free money?

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by HAMRetrofit

I doubt that organization invested a penny of their own money into the project.

Seeing as all they have done thus far is asbestos abatement, and the city awarded them funds to do the abatement, you are probably correct in your assumptions.

[fastcarsfreedom]

They only did asbestos abatement. Considering the costs and complexities of that process--and given that it alone has derailed renovation projects in other cities, you can't downplay the fact that this process is complete--and it's completion makes the project a heck of a lot more appealing to potential buyers/investors. That is the silver lining here--that's the point I'm trying to make. The failure of the property in the first place was not a positive, the failure of this project is in no way a positive. The hotel went into a steady decline beginning in the Joyce M. era and kept on sliding and nothing was done about it. I sincerely hope we are at a place now where investors/developers/operators are going to be lining up to make something work on the site--there are certainly enough hotel proposals on the table in the area right now to suggest that hospitality is going to be a growth area locally, something which has been a long time coming.

Having these 200+ rooms out of the already small inventory in the city has got to be harmful to HECFI, as well as driving more business travellers into Burlington and Brantford.

Di Ianni is gone--part of me wishes LIUNA would disappear too, just so I could see where the blame for everything that is wrong in the city would shift to.

[HAMRetrofit]

My point is that no one else but the city would be stupid enough to give money to that consortium. I can bet that their track record is a mile long. It has nothing to do with the property. Properties are just properties there is nothing not to trust about them. Shady business types are shady business types there is a lot not to trust. No other project has received difficulty in finding funding in Downtown Hamilton only certain individuals have.

[fastcarsfreedom]

With all do respect HAMRetrofit I'm not sure what project of a similar scale to The Royal Connaught has "easily" found financing in the recent past. If I'm missing something, jog my memory. LIUNA's track record, whether it be with LIUNA Station or their invovlement at YHM has been excellent--Lister aside.

[ihateittoo]

I wouldn't be happy if this property opening up some how effects the "education square" plan - since we know there are hotels interested already.