Yeah, looks like we've actually got two threads going for this site... Not sure if mods want to merge the Days Inn construction thread with the 2017 proposal to replace the Days Inn, since it seems like this thread will be used for the 2023 proposal to replace it too?
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=223980

Not sure what Clr Kroetsch's reason was for opposing the 2017 proposal, but take a look at the renders in the thread linked above. Lots of good reasons to oppose that proposal imo. I recall the would-be developer at that point also fell out of favour with the community when promoting that proposal as affordable housing and seeking City grants to offset the cost of his affordable housing development, only to later reveal what he meant by "affordable" was 125% of average rent in Hamilton.

Yeah. I think that’s an accurate summary. It was a terrible proposal. Hopefully something better is in the works this time.

To be fair, that's what Hamilton currently defines as "affordable housing" at the moment. So they weren't doing anything that was not following the guidelines.

Shouldn't affordable housing be compared and contrasted to what the average income in the city is? I mean what's the point of having super expensive stuff to live in if the average job in the city can't even prop up the costs of living locally?

I am curious as to what the average income within the city is - and I mean those who actually work in the city - not live there and say travel to toronto..

The new provincial definition is looking like it’ll be around 80% of Average Market Rent, which for Hamilton is about $900 for a 1-bedroom. This is what most other municipalities use.

Hamilton’s definition has always been a joke.

Agreed. To Chronomut's point, the entire point of affordable housing is supposed to be to bring affordable options and put downward pressure on nearby housing. It's questionable whether it has the latter effect though as the cost is usually paid by new owners and renters so it may cancel out, but there really haven't been studies into the economic effects of affordable housing units.

Wasn't it a Ford dealership? And the Acura dealership was at Main and Longwood?

Yes - though I do understand why Hamilton went with a higher standard. The deeper the discount the greater the subsidies required, and the City has pretty limited tool to encourage affordable housing so they set a low bar to meet to ensure developers would still actually try.

There are a lot more incentives out there now from both the province and Feds, so I think lowering the standard makes sense.

The idea behind affordable units isn’t to lower market rents around it (that won’t happen) but rather to provide housing options for vulnerable and low income households which otherwise struggle to participate in the housing market. It’s a system which will always be fairly niche and isn’t the only way out of the housing crisis, but plays an important part of the housing continuum.

Yes!

It started out as Acura on Main before the Acura dealership was absorbed into Sterling Honda (Main & Longwood).

This is correct.

I wasn't living in the city before this got turned into the Days Inn so I wasn't driving past the site much at all between 2000 and 2020 or so, but there are still online references to the Ford dealer that took over at some point.

This is not a Days Inn anymore. The signs have been removed. On line, its now called "Premier Inn".

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/home.html

British chain trying to enter the Canadian market? Somehow doubtful it's that..

It's not part of this chain. It is independent. Try this one. I don't know what language it comes up in, but I had to use Google translate to read it. Lots of mistakes in it.

http://premierinn.ca/

lol what a joke of a website. The language is lorem ipsum - jibberish used by graphic designers to fill text areas until the "real" text can be inserted.

100% those photos of the rooms are fake as well.

I can't imagine some small independent chain would pay $10M to run some two star hotel (maybe that's generous) without some sort of subplot. Whether that's a flip or it's money laundering or something.

the new owner likely didn't want to pay the franchise fees on the Day's Inn brand.

I would be surprised if this new hotel brand is anything more than temporary holding income.

It's funny because if it weren't for this thread, you'd think there's nothing there. No signs for the new hotel chain, no cars in the parking lot, looks out of business. Holding income or land grab, call it what you will, but I don't think we will see Premier Inn expanding relatively speaking.

More than likely the relatively short duration this will continue to operate as a hotel means it was no longer worthwhile to pay the associated franchise fees to Wyndham to keep this flagged as a Days Inn -- that or it has somehow fallen below the brand standards (which arent exactly high for that brand...).

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFsUmw...A/view?website
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/attach...-1-jpg.526937/
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/attach...-2-jpg.526936/
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/attach...23-jpg.526938/