Dundas Update
 

Renovation of old hotel is nearly complete:

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This is where Bark & Fitz (upscale dog store) will be. There was a sign up last week but the workers took it down when I was there this weekend.
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Dundas is looking good for the holidays. Good shopping too, if a little pricey, but always nice to look:

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Another new store opened up as well, women's fashion accessories I think:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...tuff/00109.jpg

Upscale dog store. Okay.

what is this? the new Locke?
Kohana and Discount Emporium are both from Locke South.
I think Kohana moved there...Discount Emporium opened a second location in Dundas.
pretty cool though....10 years ago you'd never dream of having a downtown Hamilton business open new locations in Dundas. Folks would have always assumed it'd be the other way around, if at all.

So I went to Bark & Fitz today. Love it! lol Bought dog treats for my dog and other crap to spoil her.

The dog groomer was super nice. My dog went blind awhile ago and so I told her about my dog so she took my cell number and will only have my dog alone in the groomer (my dog gets scared of other dogs since she went blind). So she was super nice, great service! Plus to cut my dog hair is about $50 to $60 which isn't bad.

:hell:

Just got back from Buskerfest. King St. in Dundas is jam packed and there are lots of good performers, I think the highlight was the silver Elvis statue guy. Buskerfest continues tomorrow for those who still might want to check it out.

Building collapses on Dundas street

August 06, 2008
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton Fire Department reports the second floor of a King Street East building in Dundas has collapsed into the first floor.

The collapse took place just before 3 p.m.

Debris is spilling from the building onto the street.

Gas and hydro have been turned off to the building. There are no reports of injury.

Check thespec.com for more updates.

Roof collapses on Dundas building

August 06, 2008
Spectator staff

The roof of a two-storey building housing a business and a residential unit collapsed on King Street East in Dundas today, but no one was hurt.

Burlington Roofing was putting a new roof on the building when it collapsed at 2:40 p.m., said Hamilton police Staff Sergeant Bob Watts.

Three roofers were working on top of the structure at the time.

“You could hear everything cracking,” said Al Robson, who fell six feet into the roof’s interior along with one other worker.

Watts said the collapse pulled siding off the building’s face on the upper level and exposed three rooms in the apartment used as a residence by the owner of the business below, Sure Print and Copy Centres.

King Street East was closed between Main Street and York Road.

City building inspectors are on site to determine whether to repair the building or order it pulled down.

Watts said the wood frame of the structure was clearly rotting.

From the city...

Roof Collapse at 3 King Street East, Dundas

HAMILTON, ON - August 6, 2008 - At approximately 2:45 p.m. today firefighting crews from Hamilton Emergency Services responded to a report of a collapsed building at 3 King Street East in Dundas.

Upon arrival, firefighters found that the roof had collapsed in this two-storey building. During the collapse, the roof also pushed out the outside face of the front second floor wall, causing it to fall onto the street below.

There were three roofing company employees working on the roof at the time. They had just completed removal of the roof's shingles when they heard sounds of the roof starting to collapse, and were able to safely evacuate themselves from the roof area.

A full interior search of the building by firefighters confirmed that no one else was on the second floor of the building; people were found in the commercial establishment on the first floor and were removed by firefighters.

At the time of this Release, Building Department officials were on the scene assessing the structural integrity of the building and working to determine if any demolition would be required.

There were no reported injuries to firefighters or residents.

Damage estimates will not be available until a full structural assessment of the building has been completed.

I took a walk down there after supper, the building in question was part of an old wooden row with a print shop on the bottom floor and an apartment on the second floor. The roof was gone and the front wall of the second floor was gone. The apartment looked like a toy dollhouse where the wall opens up, everything was perfectly in place, pictures hanging on the walls and a television sitting right on the edge of the second floor against where the wall used to be. They were cleaning up the debris, it looks like a lot of the wood was black and rotten. I forgot my camera.

In other Dundas news, renovations are complete on the old hotel pictured up at the top of this thread. There is one commercial space still available, the other spaces are filled, with Discount Emporium, Bark and Fitz, D.V. Handcrafted Jewelry and Blur Eyewear.

A tower crane should be going up soon for a 9-storey condo on Ogilvie St. as well. Right now they have dug the hole for underground parking and are filling it with cement.

Oui! You missed a great potential photo series.

Collapsed Dundas building can be repaired

August 12, 2008
Rachel De Lazzer
The Hamilton Spectator

A Dundas building that collapsed last week can be repaired, says an engineer's report.

However, whether to repair it will be up to the building's owner, said Debbie Spence, communications officer with planning and economic development at the city.

The building's owner, a Vancouver-based company, could not be reached for comment.

Spence said the city does not know what caused the collapse.

"Our primary concern is with safety and proper repair, etc.," she said yesterday in an e-mail.

The roof of the building caved in Wednesday afternoon while workers were re-shingling the roof. The collapse caused the front siding on the second floor to fall off. No one was injured.

Spence said the engineering firm for the insurance company will send recommendations for permanent repairs to the owner.

The owner must obtain a permit to either repair the building or demolish it.

Business groups planting seeds for new market
BIA, chamber moving forward with the project for next spring

By Craig Campbell

Business
Aug 29, 2008

Two local business groups are working together with community volunteers to start a fresh new farmers market in downtown Dundas.

The Dundas Division of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, which ran a farmers market at Memorial Square for 36 years, is talking to the Downtown Dundas Business Improvement Area about resurrecting the market that closed down in the mid-1990s after nearly 150 years in the Valley Town.

Previous efforts to bring the market back to life failed. This time, with cooperation between the two organizations and community support already in place, seeds appear to be planted for a new market to grow by 2009.

Representatives of both the Dundas chamber division and the BIA confirmed they are moving forward with the project.

Chamber member Devin Tuinstra, who tried to bring back a farmers market two years ago said there is community support for a Dundas farmers market.

"But in order for it to happen, all facets of the community need to be on board and working together," Mr. Tuinstra said. "In the last year and a half the BIA and the Dundas Division of the Chamber have began building a good working relationship and we're meeting with them again in early September specifically to find ways of further synergy between the organizations."

He said one concern is starting the market, just to see it wither away again in a few years. Commitments are needed from anyone who agrees to manage the project, and from enough vendors to ensure attendance each week.

Mr. Tuinstra found several interested vendors during his effort two years ago. But several logistical issues, including a public parking contract between the city and Parksmart in the preferred location, helped squash the effort. That contract has since expired.

"Ultimately, the project was abandoned at the time because we didn't have sufficient knowledge to do it within the membership of the Dundas Division," Mr. Tuinstra said.

Fast forward to this summer, when Dundas resident Laurie Waters sat outside a Dundas bakery with her friend Nik Bennett, discussing the distinct heritage and architecture of Dundas.

"Nick asked me what I think it needs and I said without hesitation a farmers market," Ms. Waters said.

To Mr. Bennett, who grew up around farmers markets in his native Manchester, it seemed like the perfect idea.

With her background in public relations and marketing, and the support of a few interested friends, Ms. Waters began researching the history of a farmers market in Dundas. She decided to measure community support with online and written petitions.

Less than three weeks later, there were close to 200 names on the computerized list, and hundreds more to collect from the paper versions.

When she contacted representatives of the Dundas chamber division and the BIA, she discovered the continuing rumblings of interest in both organizations.

Ms. Waters said it is important to stress the idea is not to hurt existing downtown merchants ability to do business. Rather, she and Mr. Bennett believe the market's return could bring more customers to downtown Dundas.

She has already found 14 interested vendors, including farmers, craftspeople and artists, and even residents with community garden plots who want to sell some of their extra vegetables.

Most of those vendors like a once week Dundas market on Saturdays.

"Which would be ideal, because of the higher volume of traffic from other areas as well," Ms. Waters said.

But she pointed out the idea is now squarely in the hands of the BIA and the local Chamber division to work out the details together.

Ms. Waters said she would like to continue her involvement with organizing and operating a farmers market in Dundas, and have a small group of volunteers willing to help.

"I was overwhelmed by the positive response and have received a lot of support and encouragement. It shows the community supports local businesses and their preference is to purchase locally produced items," she said. "We all need to be on the same page to make it a success."

Downtown Dundas BIA executive director Judy Boswell said discussions about a farmers market are taking place with merchants who could be affected, and an application will be made for provincial government funding.

"We hoped for a fall opening, but now believe it will be April," Ms. Boswell said.

Mr. Tuinstra is excited the project is on the table, two years after his effort.

"(I) hope we can work with the BIA, Laurie Waters and the other community groups in town to make it a reality," he said.

A Dundas farmers market first opened in the town hall basement in 1848. In 1870 it moved to what is now Memorial Square. It briefly relocated behind the Collins in the late 1960s.

In 1988, a proposal to move the market into a parking lot behind the Canada Trust building, brought plenty of opposition. A newspaper report from Feb. 18, 1988 stated 45 citizens turned out to a town council meeting on the issue. Market manager Fred Bristol said the move could drop business and force him to quit. The June 9, 1993, Dundas Star News reported competition and bad weather combined to drive farmers market sales down 25 per cent.

CATCH News – September 18, 2009
Residents oppose Dundas towers
Proposals to build two 10-storey condo towers at St Joseph’s Villa in Dundas are facing stiff citizen opposition. Issues include loss of the greenspace used by Villa residents, impacts on the adjacent environmentally significant area, traffic safety, building heights and resulting density levels.
Opponents collected 650 names on a petition during last month’s Dundas cactus festival. As of the end of August, the city had also received 118 letters on the Villa proposal.
One of the towers would be built at the corner of Governors Road and Ogilvie Street and would include 2 floors of retail and 88 residential units. The second, comprised of 120 residential units, would replace gardens and lawns behind one of the two shorter Villa towers. It is immediately adjacent to the Dundas Valley environmentally significant area (ESA) and overlooks Spring Creek, one of the tributaries of Spencer Creek, as well as single family homes on two sides.
The proposal is being supported by city planning staff.
“It is an appropriate development that will protect existing environmental features, will promote inclusive design and housing options for Hamilton Residents, and reinforce Dundas’ economic vitality by strengthening existing uses and facilitating creation of new employment and economic development opportunities”, states the staff report. &ldqu o;It is compatible with the type and form of development in the surrounding neighbourhood and would maintain the privacy and amenity of lower density residential uses.”
An environmental impact study prepared for the proponent calls for a 7.5 metre buffer between the second new building and the significant woodlands beside it.
Provincial rules incorporated into the city’s new rural official plan call for “a minimum 30-metre vegetation protection zone measured from the drip line of trees at the woodlot edge”. The new urban plan reduces that to a 15-metre zone. Howe ver, the amendment being sought is to the old Town of Dundas official plan and the only reference in the staff report to the new urban official plan doesn’t refer to buffering rules for ESAs and significant woodlands.
Their report says the smaller buffer has been “approved” by the volunteer Environmental Significant Areas Impact Evaluation Group (ESAIEG) and the Hamilton Conservation Authority. Meeting minutes of the four-member ESAIEG note several concerns expressed by the group after meeting with the proponent’s consultants, but conclude that it “generally agrees” with the 7.5 metre buffer.
“Although this buffer is not as wide as what is normally required adjacent to a wooded ESA, it was considered adequate because it was measured from the drip line of tree limbs which leaned well over the lawn area,” says their recommendation. “Because the buffer was measured from this generous ESA boundary, ESAIEG is satisfied with 7.5 metres.”
The petition points to historic Dundas rules limiting building heights, and argues that “adding 208 units at the fatal intersection of Governor’s Road and Ogilvie Street would put public safety at risk.” Current zoning restricts building heights to three storeys.
A Dundas Star story this week reports on the death of a leashed dog being walked along Governor’s Road where the sidewalks are immediately adjacent to the road. The dog was killed instantly by a speeding car when it stepped into the curbside lane.
A newsletter issued by the opposing residents last month, says “repeated attempts to correspond with Villa representatives have been denied” and argues that “this level of crowding impacts community character, traffic and pedestrians, putting public safety at risk.”
The staff report also notes concerns from St Joseph’s residents “over the loss of outdoor amenity space as a result of the proposed buildings and parking areas”, and agree that this is a problem, but promise to “ensure that enhanced landscaping and improved circulation space within the site is provided and maintained” when the site plan is developed after project approval.
The issue goes before the planning committee on Tuesday morning (September 22).

Christmas tree at bakery caught fire: customers
Business destroyed; apartments above shop damaged

January 02, 2010
Carmela Fragomeni
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/697584

DUNDAS – A downtown Dundas bakery and two of three apartments upstairs have been destroyed after a morning fire disrupted business in the area’s core.

Fire broke out at Village Bakery at 65 King Street West around 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Customers inside at the time say a large Christmas tree caught fire and the flames spread quickly.

The shop was evacuated quickly and the tenants upstairs in the three apartments were alerted. Everyone made it out safely and no one was injured.

Smoke engulfed the downtown as the blaze tore through the building. It’s believed the fire caused damage to buildings on either side of the bakery.

Hydro was cut to the downtown for a time, but it has since been restored to most businesses.

Firefighters remain at the scene and are awaiting city building staff to assess the outside front of the building to ensure the outside wall is secure and won’t collpase.

No damage estimate was immediately available.

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Ugh so sad to see, one of my favourite bakery in the City.

Very sad indeed. I hope they can rebuild. My hubby works in Dundas and it was his favourite place. Best coffee in Dundas according to him.