Yep. Build first, ask for permits later.

They've started excavation here. Currently about one floor below grade on the east side of the site. Weird, no building permits but it appears they are definitely starting construction.

hmm, did they shore? I guess they may not need to given that theres no underground parking.. it's likely only going to be 1 basement level anyway.

I haven't been by in a few days, but they started digging out the southwest corner against the foundations of the other two buildings. Even if they're only going down 1 storey though, they would still need to shore against the sidewalk and road side. 1 floor underground is going to still be 3-5 metres which requires shoring for a vertical wall.

Went by, they're removing dirt, not just digging:

https://i.imgur.com/sfQAI22h.jpeg

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

hmm. Well you can tell they are relying on the existing shoring for the two adjacent developments.. We will have to see if this turns into something more significant.

The fact that they are actually removing the soil is pretty interesting. Wouldn't be surprised if they finish the foundation before permits, hasn't he done that before?

Off to Waterdown Garden Supplies, here we gooo!!

:haha:

Got a response from the city: https://twitter.com/cityofhamilton/s...8soU7iCqw&s=19

"the applicant for 213 King St W has a Conditional Site plan approval for the site and they are currently clearing the conditions. Soil investigation and testing for the purposes of determining record of site conditions is also ongoing."

Went past this morning. It's now twice as deep as yesterday morning. And Mr. Vranich himself was there taking a look. Seems to be a lot more than soil testing. I bet the city is out of the loop on this one lol.

yea, you don't need excavation to do soil testing. Something more is afoot here, I suspect Vranich is pulling his typical "ignore permits" thing and the City simply isn't aware yet.

Shoring steel has arrived on site. Looks like construction is imminent.

Vranich: “We’re just wanting to do a very thorough test of all the soil we can get our hands on.”

Could the rig just be parked here until the demo is completed across the street for Radio Arts?

Still doesn't explain the small amount of digging they have done here so far, but given that McMaster was using this site as a staging yard for a while I could equally see Radio Arts using it to store material until demolition is completed on it's site. Radio Arts will likely be ready to start shoring in a week or so, given that the demolition efforts are now just cleaning up the foundation of the old building. They might just be parking the shoring rig here for a few days until they need it?

Definitely possible

The only thing that leads me to believe this is that they were also digging today too when I went by

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

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

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

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

If this is actually starting construction, which it does look to be, it's pretty remarkable how quickly this block has transformed in the past little while. By next summer this is going to look like a totally different intersection.

They moved the shoring rig and steel to a different section of the site. It seems like they are starting work here.

May be conditional approval, or they could just be doing the Darko.

Yeah I was by this morning and it was pretty clear construction was in full swing.

How many levels below grade? I didn't think there was many. Parking is mostly above grade level. So this one should fly up too.

Probably just 1 level down as parking for this is going to be in the Marquee’s podium.