City Motor Hotel
 

So today I noticed some concrete medians put up on Queenston Rd. at the traffic circle surrounding the hotel. Also a small bulldozer was parked there as well. Could this sucker be finally coming down? I really can't wait for it to be flattened. I'm curious to know, when the city purchased the property, did that include the lot where Herbie's is as well?

Spoke too soon
 

Looks like it was just prep for some pipe work on the street.

Anyone know of the status of the purchase of the Hotel and when they will evict the people living here?

Last I remember, there was some question as to who the actual owner of the place is. Did that ever get sorted out?

I don't think the city actually owns it yet as I'm pretty sure the place is still in operation. There's probably loads and loads of red tape to go through before the city can take control of it.

Yeah, that announcement by the City was only recently made. By the usual timeline, shovels will be in the ground in five+ years.

Better late than never I guess
 

Yikes! Thats quite a while before anything happens there. I'm hoping the that the entire area from the traffic circle right to Rosewood Av gets redeveloped.

Thanks for the replies and information guys! :)

I've lived in the east end all my life and I'd love nothing more than to see that area get utilized better. Something that attracts a business or two. Something that doesn't attract the type of people that currently live in the 'hotel'.

The idea of using part of it as a transit terminal is a cool idea - only if there was a clear plan for what kind of future transit the city will adopt.

I think its a good area for some small businesses and maybe some town homes along Rosewood.

What do ya'll think would be good for that chunk of land?

http://i49.tinypic.com/20tm5jl.png

I don't understand why it's even necessary for a roundabout to be there. Queenston should just be a two-way street that follows the current South side of the roundabout and they should either remove or reincorporate the other part of the roundabout (beside the hotel) as a transit terminal or something. I'd imagine the thing probably had a lot more usefulness about 40 or 50 years ago, but it seems completely pointless now.

It's a weird intersection. I'm not even sure how it would work otherwise.

Re. Development of this site

I've got no idea when that's going to happen - I'm just talkin' out my a**. But with the City involved, you can be sure it won't happen overnight, especially given that it's going to be a 'grassroots' effort. ;)

That's what I am afraid of - taking so long that things might change in between that time. Like nothing going through at all.

As for the intersection, it's an odd one - a lot of streets going into 1 area. If they got rid of the round about I'm sure there would be a ton of traffic lights.

Hamilton takes over City Hotel on Thursday

Coun. Merulla will introduce a motion for a demolition permit at Wednesday council meeting

By Samantha Craggs, CBC News Posted: Jun 12, 2013 7:17 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 12, 2013 7:15 AM ET

The city of Hamilton will officially take possession of the City Motor Hotel on Thursday, and one councillor wants to demolish the building as quickly as possible.

Coun. Sam Merulla says he'll introduce a motion at a council meeting Wednesday to get a demolition permit for the hotel, a 5,241-metre property he calls a den of drugs, prostitution and gun activity.

“The building has to come down very quickly from a liability perspective, and to prevent squatters,” he said.

“Nothing has changed until the building is demolished and there's a clean canvass.”

Council voted last August to expropriate the hotel and use the property for several purposes, including a transportation hub, commercial uses and affordable housing.

Related: Hamilton paying $1.9M on City Motor Hotel
It voted in February to pay $1,960,000 in interest on the land. Due to a “complicated and cloudy title,” a staff report said, it paid a number of groups, including a numbered company, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and KMTC-Key Management Technology Corp.

Developers are already interested, Merulla said. The next step is to choose a private developer through a request for proposals process.

“It's a project where we want to cross our T's and dot our I's so it's something we can look back on as a legacy project,” he said.

Council will also vote on Merulla's motion asking for the province to grant the city the ability to govern Hamilton Police Service.

Currently, the service is governed by a police services board comprised of council and provincial appointees.

Merulla wants the city to govern it, or for the board to be comprised of city councillors or council designates.

The motion comes during a fractured year for the city and its police service. The city asked the service multiple times to trim its budget. Coun. Terry Whitehead, a council designate, was suspended from serving on the board last week.

The meeting starts at 5 p.m. Reporter Samantha Craggs (@SamCraggsCBC) will tweet from the council chambers.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/stor...ity-hotel.html

City Motor Hotel
 

I can't understand how this property is worth $1,960,000!
(Plus the money on staff and lawyer's fees for the expropriation and the cost to demolish the buildings.)

Now an RFP process to select a private developer to build a transit hub for a future LRT line?

If it really was "a den of drugs, prostitution and gun activity" then why not have Chief DeCaire and the Hamilton Police clean it up?

It's basic common sense that this closure and demolition won't solve the perceived problem, it will just move to another location.

What should former City Motor development look like?
The Hamilton Spectator
By: Nicole O'Reilly

Standing on the edge of the former City Motor Hotel property, watching cars speeding though the Queenston traffic circle, it's hard to imagine what the street might look like a year from now.

The traffic circle gone? In its place a park leading to shops, townhouses and condos?

The hotel is now a memory. And for many residents of the surrounding east Hamilton neighbourhood, demolishing the rundown building — which became known for drugs, prostitution and crime in its latter years — has been an improvement.

But it's been a year since the city expropriated the property and more than nine months since demolition. The dust has cleared and ward Councillor Sam Merulla says he wants public input on what the area should look like.

He says it needs a "radical approach."

A design firm hired by the city has put forward a preliminary concept that includes eliminating the traffic circle — a piece of roadway engineering Merulla contends is dangerous for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

"When you are trying to cross the road, you are taking your life into your own hands," he said.

The Toms + McNally Design concept shows part of the traffic circle lands becoming green space in front of the redeveloped property. The site shows 13 townhouses, an apartment building with retail space on the ground level, and parking at the rear. Strathearne and Bell avenues would meet at the intersection with Main Street East.

Merulla stresses this just a starting point. A public meeting is scheduled for June 26 and he wants to hear from residents.

While modern roundabouts are gaining popularity, Merulla says the Queenston traffic circle is nothing like these. It's "cumbersome."

Roundabouts are designed to slow drivers as they approach and travel through, because they must yield. But drivers travelling along Main Street East and Queenston Road enter the traffic circle at full speed and need to watch multiple entry points.

The Spectator surveyed more than a dozen neighbourhood residents; all of them said the traffic circle is dangerous and they wouldn't mind seeing it swallowed up in a development.

At a nearby coffee shop, Shannon Curtis said she would never try to cross the traffic circle on foot.

"The cars drive straight through … no stopping, no slowing," she said.

Traffic statistics were not available, but a quick search of The Spectator's archives churned out numerous stories about crashes over the years.

Regardless of what happens to the traffic circle, it's clear residents want to know what will happen to the former hotel lands.

The design firm also raises a few concerns in the brief report sent to the city earlier this month, including a recommendation that the height of any building be extended to 12 storeys — over the limit of eight storeys in the official plan.

Merulla said it's important that the development maximizes residential units, adding if there isn't a desire for commercial space he would be fine with eliminating it. He also said any residential development has to have the right balance of subsidized housing and other units. Five per cent of the property was previously earmarked for social housing.

He hopes to see shovels in the ground by next spring.

In Hamilton, greenspace (i.e. grass) + townshouses + parking at the rear = radical.

Can't wait! :slob:

Read the full article regarding the controversy of the design here: https://raisethehammer.org/article/2...tor_hotel_site

http://i.imgur.com/jyyjyRn.png?1

http://i.imgur.com/aSsfAX8.png?1

http://i.imgur.com/ECjAahr.png?1

http://i.imgur.com/qRnGCXZ.png?1

I'm not sure what makes it controversial. I think the buildings are an appropriate scale to fit into the neighbourhood. I am actually a bit relieved that this is moving forward. For a while it appeared that the space was doomed to be an empty lot. I am glad to see the traffic circle disappear, which should improve the walkability around there significantly.

I think this is right-sized for the area, and I too am glad to see the street configuration change.

Future redevelopment of this scale along Main and Queenston would be ideal, particularly at major intersections.

CHCH News: Hamilton making plans for former City Motor Hotel property [Video]

The city of Hamilton has some big plans to revitalize the land that used to be home to the City Motor Hotel. The city’s planning committee approved a proposal today to rezone the land and put two buildings on the site.

The proposal passed unanimously. It rezones the land from commercial to mixed use. That would allow a developer to put both a residential and commercial building on the property — a big change that residents are looking forward to.

It’s been a year since the degenerate, but iconic, city motor hotel was torn down after being expropriated by the city.

And finally, residents are getting to see what their new neighbours may look like.

“I’m very happy about it.”

The planning committee approved a mixed use design for the land. It would allow developers to put up an eight-storey housing complex facing Main Street and a building for commercial and community use facing Queenston Road.

Councillor Sam Merulla: “Based on the specifications that have been set, it will go out for public tender and then we will await a response accordingly.”

Any developers that bid on the property would have to build to the city’s specifications.

What exactly will fill the space is still up in the air, but neighbouring residents and business owners already have their wish lists.

“I think a nice high-rise would be nice there. It would bring more business to us here anyway.”

“I think more recreational stuff for kids, teenagers to keep them off the street, you know?”

“And they should have food places here so when we want to get our lunch, we don’t have to go all the way down to the Centre Mall.”

The plan would also eliminate the Queenston traffic circle and create a two-way intersection — a move Sam Merulla says would make it more pedestrian friendly: “It’s a very dangerous intersection and one that I wouldn’t recommend anyone crossing and hence we need to take action to ensure it’s a complete street and one that is far more focused on public safety.”

By creating a more pedestrian friendly hub, Merulla hopes the history of the City Motor Hotel won’t repeat itself.

Sam Merulla says the rezoning of the property also makes it more valuable. The city paid 1.9 million for it and he expects to turn a profit on that. Any surplus money would be injected back into ward 4.


http://i59.tinypic.com/15e6xhe.jpg
Source

http://i62.tinypic.com/1z3wfme.jpg
Source

http://i59.tinypic.com/24oomy1.jpg
Source

http://i58.tinypic.com/ae7h1u.jpg
Source

This is an interesting proposal and I like the idea of the city sort of pre-packaging the site for development after rezoning the land for greater intensification.

It reminds me of how Waterfront Toronto has done something similar with the much larger East Bayfront lands there. The concept allows re-development to proceed quickly while enforcing some cohesion among the various projects and pre-determining where public uses will go.

I'm a little surprised that it seems a municipality can now expropriate privately held land then flip it to a new owner after enhancing its value via rezoning. Basically, expropriation for *profit* rather than the usual/former? requirement that the expropriator must have an immediate, municipal use for the property it takes from owners.

Have expropriation rules here been changed to more closely mirror those in the U.S., where the concept of Eminent Domain exists?

Does this mean that a property such as Jackson Square could be expropriated from Yale, rezoned for greater density and height, then sold to a richer developer like Cadillac Fairview?

The city could be sued by the property owner. The expropriation was for a transit hub, no? Now the property will be resold to a developer.

Right, didn't the Rapid Ready LRT report specify the land for a transit hub/part of an LRT train storage yard? Yet there doesn't seem to be any transit shown here.

I wonder if the property may have changed hands in the regular way, in the end, with the looming prospect of expropriation just hastening the deal, like the houses in West Harbour that were situated around the Rheem plant.