64 Main St East | ? m | 18 fl | Proposed
 

Early in 2009, Harry Stinson will be unveiling “The Hamilton Grand” condominium hotel.

The façade of the Hamilton Grand will indeed be ‘grand’, the scale is compact, comprising 80 one-bedroom suites in a 6 storey structure.

The Hamilton Grand will include a lobby bar, dining room, café, room service, parking, in-room movies, telephone, internet, and other miscellaneous guest services.

The Hamilton Grand will offer full-size suites – with full kitchen, laundry and separate bedroom - in a heritage building with 11 foot ceilings and exposed brick walls, in an ideal location, with an ambiance reminiscent of the Drake Hotel, the Windsor Arms, and New York’s Royalton.

What building is this?

The old KFC building on John St next to the Royal Connaught. Basically the two buildings sandwiched between the Connaught and London Tap House on John St between King and Main.

I just saw 11 foot ceilings and exposed brick walls in a heritage building. Those characteristics and the John St. location didn't compute.

The currently exposed facade for the building is over top of the original facade. Its heritage qualities are not obvious on first blush, it dwells underneath the current facade. Of course, I'm talking about the building beside the one that housed the former KFC. That building is crap.

Likely KFC is torn down but the Crazy Horse might have some arch value.

That's one of my favourite Hamilton grunge alleys, I hope that remains, as a service alley.

Is this the building with the Crazy Horse? Isn't the old KFC outlet the old Liason College?

I can't picture the buildings they're talking about.

It's at the former Liaison College.

http://www.hamiltongrand.ca/

http://www.hamiltongrand.ca/logo_oneline.jpg

As far as I know, Stinson doesn't actually own the other building (Crazy Horse). This would be the one with the crappy facade over the old one. Here's a picture of it, the building is at the right, pictured in it's original facade. I would assume the top, curved part was taken off at some point before the crappy facade was added.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...-billiards.jpg

I thought is was only 4 floors? They might removed the top floor as well as the arc thing.

It looks like there are 3 oriental-styled spires coming from a romanesque-styled arc, but also i can't see anything behind it.... like it's only part of the facade. Weird

I'm never failed to be amazed by the buildings we had from many years ago, and this one I never knew about. And it took an out of town developer to give it new life. I always just assumed The Crazy Horse building was just some 1950's box built on the site of something torn down, which seemed to be the norm around there. Does anyone know the condition of the inside, any original features?

I understand the restoration will expose original brick, iron pillars, and wood plank floors, and a café will be located where the laneway is now, retaining stone walls, wood beam ceiling and arches.

Stinson has stated that Larry DiIanni has joined his development team for this project.

I know most of you guys think that DiIanni has lost all credibility. What do you think of this move?

I'm all for anyone that can get a high quality project done downtown. We need higher income residential units downtown and if this actually goes forward then :tup:

It does seem odd, but I trust Stinson's judgement, he must have his reasons.

Pretty generic. Whatever heritage features remain are covered behind drywall and vinyl flooring. The only thing to hint you to the fact that it's a heritage building is winding iron staircase at the back corner of the building, which actually extends outside of the building, over the alley a bit. If you walk to the Catharine end of the alley and look up, you'll see it. The top of the stairwell ceiling is one of those glass pyramid things that you always see in old buildings.

My thoughts about DiIanni are completely of surprise, but I echo the sentiment that he must have brought something good and fair to the table for Stinson to bring him on board.

Di Ianni is smart, savvy and well-connected. Politically, he knows how to apply pressure and who to apply it on to get things done.

Harry let me have a peek of the building and well I think most will love it.

How did you get a hold of him, just wondering? I'd like to get some information from him; I tried sending him an email through an address I found on his website but it was returned to me with an error.

If you want to contact Harry Stinson regarding the Hamilton Grand his email address is....harrystinson@mountaincable.net or call him at 905-538-4808.