Exactly.

First post in this thread is from July 2016... par for the course for many developments 'round these parts. :tumbleweed:

At least Hamilton has completed many downtown development projects in the past say 5-6 years.

I've been following Buffalo development for 20 years and it used to be like 80% of projects never got off the drawing/rendering board :haha:
People joke that city hall is so large because entire floors are dedicated to forgotten plans that were never followed through lol (of course, now in 2021 the proposal to completion ratio is much much better since both the city and Metro are growing per 2020 census)

My point is, every city has proposals that never see the light of day. Even Toronto!

There’s a project near where I live in Ottawa that’s had the for sale sign up for condos so long I don’t think you could buy a house in the worst neighbourhood of Gatineau for the price listed on that for sale sign (so, at least 10 years?)… I’m not sure if it’s actually cancelled yet or not.

Meanwhile in Niagara, the Niagara Health System has had a sign up advertising for the :new: South Niagara hospital on the South end of Niagara Falls (Montrose Rd & Biggar/Lyons Creek Rd) near the border with Welland for at least 7-8 years.

The first sign and ribbon cutting ceremony was so long ago the sign got horribly faded and they had to erect a new sign and have ANOTHER ribbon cutting ceremony :haha:

Now they plan to break ground in 2022 and have the thing complete by Fall 2026, a full 12-13 years after the first ribbon cutting :uhh:
https://www.niagarahealth.on.ca/site...-niagara-about

LOL @Wigs that sign was up when I moved out of Niagara Falls to Hamilton. :haha:

Exactly. Like 8 years ago:haha:

Hamilton's development application map has finally started updating again, and this one has filed a site plan application now:

Just got an ad for this on Instagram. Brought me to promotional material. Seems the name for this development is "Radio Arts":

https://i.imgur.com/ZBa7KdAh.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/c7UItObh.png

Great to see this launching sales. I noticed it had a lot more development signage up on it yesterday when I drove by (planner, engineer, financing firm, etc. all had their signs up on the building)

Wow that actually looks really nice. That stretch of King is going to become quite trendy I bet.

Much nicer than the previous renders. If sales go well I wouldn't be surprised if they request to increase the floor count.

They don't need to apply for permission, it's already zoned for 28 floors. The trick with going higher is the need to accommodate more parking. This is a tight site with zero room for surface parking and only enough room for about 24 parking spots per parking level, whether above or below grade. Looks like they're currently marketing 122 units in the 13 floor version so I'm going to guess they're planning on two levels of underground parking. If they went up to 30f, they'd be looking at doubling parking by eliminating residential floors to make room above ground, or digging 4 floors down, which comes with enough cost increase that really challenge the business plan for a project like this. If I were the developer here, I'd follow Vrancors lead and simply add 3 levels of podium parking above one underground level to support a 30 storey tower. Why waste those potential units in the zoning permissions?

this is actually quite beautiful - much better than the previous render - let's hope they stick to it.

This is also going to push whoever owns the A&W to consider redevelopment soon I'd bet. Even though it is a pretty recent addition to downtown, it's a super low economic use for the site considering it's a low density suburban restaurant beside towers of residential. Same with the variety store plaza across (though the guys there are really nice).

I wonder what that east face is going to look like. Hopefully not another giant concrete wall.

an annex of the same style would be nice to this building that incorporated the A & W on the first floor, but dunno how a drive-thru would work then..

Drive thrus aren't allowed downtown anymore. Any removal means it will never be put back. Rightfully so, drivethrus take up so much space and are terrible for making a downtown (or city in general) a walkable vibrant place. Nobody things "vibrant downtown" when they see a drivethru.

to be fair nobody thinks "vibrant downtown" then they see this stretch anyways - this is where all the panhandlers are - I counted like 5 or 6 in like an hour the last time I was there..

I don't typically see any here and walk by daily. There's sometimes one on Bay but most hang out on the north side of King by Gore park.

Plus most downtowns have panhandlers. If anything panhandlers are more common downtown than drivethrus in most cities.