Posted Oct 3, 2024, 2:39 PM
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Ham-burgher
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Hamilton
Posts: 7,397
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Aeon still plans to do something here... at some point. Hopefully a "competitive" process emerges and results in a terrific outcome. I had high hopes for the original proposal but better is always better.
Anyone know at what point in the year we reached $1 billion in permits? Robichaud's quote seems to be positioned as a damper that residential is down, and the unfortunate part of that is the slowdown in construction of proposed condo buildings, but having majority of permit value in industrial, commercial and institutional uses isn't a bad thing.
As the city moves on, Aeon sticks with its vision for west harbour hub
The partners have scrapped an agreement for the Barton-Tiffany studio district.
By Teviah Moro
The Hamilton Spectator
Oct. 3, 2024
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...7356eb452.html
Aeon Studio Group says it’s not letting go of its years-long vision for a creative industries hub in Hamilton despite the termination of its agreement with the city.
But with the project’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) now scrapped, municipal officials say they’ll explore new possibilities for the city-owned land Aeon and partners had eyed for its studio district.
A mix of headwinds don’t currently favour the 14-acre project on the city’s Barton-Tiffany land at the west harbour, Aeon co-founder Jeff Anders says.
“The land development market has collapsed. The film industry has turned sharply down,” Anders said in a statement via text message Wednesday.
Meanwhile, grant funding for the arts has “dried up” and Aeon, along with its partners, have “retrenched to safely ride out the storm.”
The goal is to “reconstitute the team and prepare to finish the job of realizing the Bayfront Studio District in Hamilton once the market conditions improve — as they always do.”
But city officials say they’re turning the page on Aeon’s plans and preparing to examine new possibilities for the land off Barton Street West just south of the CN rail yard.
“The next steps would be a review by the city of feasible options that are available for that site,” Coun. John-Paul Danko said after city politicians met in a closed session Wednesday to discuss the terminated MOU.
Deciding a future use for the brownfield will involve public feedback, said Danko, who as deputy mayor, chaired the meeting.
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Aeon’s vision for the arts hub with production studios for film, television, animation, video games and fashion, performance spaces and 750 homes near the CN Rail tracks had been years in the making.
It had partnered with TAS, a Toronto-based firm that focuses on mixed-use projects and commercial community hubs, and Forge and Foster, a Hamilton real estate investment firm now experiencing financial woes.
The project showed promise after Aeon opened its Bayfront Studios in an 80,000-square-foot former industrial building on Queen Street North next to the eyed parcels in 2021.
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The Barton-Tiffany project collapses as the wider residential construction industry trudges through an unfavourable market slowed by elevated interest rates.
In Hamilton, housing starts were down 32.5 per cent in the first months of the year compared to 2023, Robichaud noted Wednesday during an economic action plan update.
“Overall, volume of applications are down,” he told council.
This year, the city has reached $1 billion worth of building permits, but that is mostly driven by the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, Robichaud said.
Local film industry activity, meanwhile, took a big hit during the COVID-19 pandemic and has weathered subsequent writers’ and actors’ strikes, staff also told council.
Despite industry-wide woes, Hamilton is “faring better” than Ontario generally, said Lisa Abbott, acting director of tourism and culture, noting the city has generated about $2 million from film production in three years.
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