Liaison College (New Stinson Project) | ? | ? | ?
 

Stinson shifts to downtown core project

August 26, 2008
The Hamilton Spectator
(Aug 26, 2008)

Developer Harry Stinson is relocating his office and has plans for a new condo and hotel project.

Stinson is moving into the former Liaison College building on John Street and said he plans to redevelop the site.

Stinson recently lost $100,000 when he failed to find financing for his $9.5-million offer to buy the Royal Connaught. He bought the John Street property as part of his plans to redevelop the hotel.

Stinson said the new project will include condos and a boutique-style hotel. It will be easier to finance because of its smaller scale, he said, pegging the value at less than $10 million.

Stinson said he needed to move from his old James Street office because it's being rented for the expected federal election this fall.

The owners of the Connaught are still looking for their own financing to redevelop the hotel, said spokesperson Tony Battaglia. If financing fails, other developers have expressed interest in purchasing the property, he said.

Stinson owns the former Liaison College site and is moving ahead with the site's $10 million redevelopment into a boutique hotel and condo complex.

Think that can be done on $10 million?

This is a smart move by Stinson.
Even his biggest naysayers have previously stated that he'd be wise to start off with a smaller project and work his way up.
Clearly that's what he is doing now. I hope it works and he can keep moving on up - literally!

I don't see why not, Steelwon. We are talking about an infill on a small footprint, not likely to exceed the height of the current Connaught building.

He seems to have this obsession with boutique hotels/condos. This one track mindedness of his seem to be his achilles heel (among other issues).

If you look at the old Connaught proposal you'll see Stinson wanted sort of a replica of the Connaught facing the Court House, so Stinson is probably looking at the same height as the Connaught.

But the problem I see is the condos. With no real height there's no good view from the window. North and South side will be blocked off by neighbouring buildings and the West side faces the Court House and the East side faces the current Connaught parking lot.

^^ Boutique hotels are super popular, yet none exist in Hamilton. There has to be a market for them in the city.

I guess that answers my question I posted in the Connaught Thread yesterday! They weren't looking at the Hotel at all but rather the Liason College site.

Stinson finds a new project
8/26/2008

Developer Harry Stinson isn't giving up on downtown Hamilton.

After failing to finance his plans for a redevelopment of the Royal Connaught Hotel Stinson is moving to a new project.

This one is a bit smaller.

He wants to turn the former Liason College building on John Street into condo's and a boutique style hotel.

It's a project valued at about ten million dollars.

As for the Royal Connaught, Spokesman Tony Battaglia says the owners are still looking for their own financing to redevelop the hotel.

gotta love CHML.
They just copy and paste the news from the Spec. How about sending out a reporter to interview the guy and get some different info.

Isn't Harry usually on Bill Kelly around 10am whenever something happens on the news related to him?

I actually like abbreviated news articles. I'm SO jealous of TO, Mtl and the other big cities who have Metro newspapers. They're for the 'Young Professional on the Go' aka 'ppl who think they're too busy for life' aka 'Torontonians' hahaha

I've emailed Metro News a cpl times suggesting a publication for the Greater Hamilton-Burlington area, but apparently we're too close to Toronto :(

I'm glad Harry moved on and went with a smaller project.

Though I'm sure Oscar and Tony aren't too trilled to hear a boutique hotel is being proposed right next to their hotels.

Great news as i walked by the other day i was wondering what was going to happen here since London Tap house has added some life to this area.

It says boutique hotel and condos but isnt the building curently on three floors or less? Is he planning on adding on, imu a little confused with the plans to this but good news none the less.

I would imagine the development will see the existing building demolished to accomodate a new building at this location.

that existing building is one of a very few that I actually HOPE to see demolished. It's a piece of crap like the old one-storey Kit Kat building.

^^ it's a total piece of crap!
There isn't even a floor! It's just a pit.
Plus the Crazy Horse Saloon used to be a crackbar, right? :s

I would imagine he would tear it down and build a modern-looking boutique hotel in it's place.
Something Like:
http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/ad..._residence.jpg'ish?
http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/20...o_Which_is_it_

He only owns the Liaison though, so the Crazy Horse is kinda neither her nor there. It and the building it is in is still owned by a numbered company. I think we might see Stinson changing that however, as it would largely increase the foot print of his project. I can't really imagine him building much anything over 5-6 stories on the Liaison footprint.

Anyway I wish him good luck, he's definitely on a better footing this time around since he actually owns the property in question. If he gets the shovel in the ground, the Connaught certainly won't be empty for much longer.

That strip of road is in desperate need of redevelopment. It'll be great if he gets this project going.

I know I'll incur the wrath of the Stinson-haters on the board, but once again, he's at least moving forward and trying to make a project happen downtown.
The same can't be said for most of the other slumlords who have gotten rich off letting their properties (and this city) rot for the past 4 decades.
Shame on them all.
They are the only reason that I'd have a tiny piece of my heart sad to see Stinson succeed - it'll make them a bundle of money overnight and validate their plan to speculate and harm our city for all of these years.
Of course, I love Hamilton and downtown Hamilton especially. I hope with everything that Stinson can pull this one off, even if it means helping the selfish losers that have permeated our downtown for decades.