Rumour Mill

[mikevbar1]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

The ones closest to Hess would definitely be missed if not kept or used in some way. 294 to 300 King W. aren't quite as noteworthy but I'd hate to see them totally demolished. Other stuff on that block can go, though La Luna's building is a bit unique... but it's always seemed out of place to me.

The north side of King between Caroline and Hess has a much more interesting and complete street wall. I hope if anything gets proposed on that block, it will be built on the parking lots in behind.

I agree with the earlier post that the Tim Hortons on the south side needs to go. As does the little building beside it with the shawarma place and the variety store. I don't think it will be long before something happens on those properties.

This whole area is definitely going to all be gobbled up pretty quickly- it already is. I just want to see the city come forward with attention to detail and respect for the built form when sites like these get redeveloped. I don't like the constant comparison, but we should be seeing what Toronto does as the bare minimum- at least for heritage integration.

Maybe this wouldn't be as big an issue if Hamilton had reasonable ground-level guidelines to create an interesting street level interaction, but we don't. Platinum for instance looks like shit, and so do a good few other projects. We can't even look to Toronto in this regard because the guidelines are pretty bad there, too; though, with better results than what we get. At least keeping these heritage structures retains a part of this site (really, the entire city) that knew how to do this.

[King&James]

Hmmm, not sure where to place this one, mostly a recap on Liuna development but other odds and sods

https://renx.ca/liuna-major-player-h...al-development

[Bubba9000]

It appears the owners of the West Town on Locke St are buying up some more adjacent properties. They already have their patio that was Picks n Sticks before it was torn down. Now they own 206 Locke S, I heard from someone affected. Also recall mention of more. Perhaps south to the corner? Going north, the next one is Democracy then "Antiques", both 1 storey buildings.

Does anyone know about this? Could they be doing a land assembly? Assume a lot more value could be created by raising the entire row of 1 and 2 storey buildings to 4-8 storeys.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Bubba9000

It appears the owners of the West Town on Locke St are buying up some more adjacent properties. They already have their patio that was Picks n Sticks before it was torn down. Now they own 206 Locke S, I heard from someone affected. Also recall mention of more. Perhaps south to the corner? Going north, the next one is Democracy then "Antiques", both 1 storey buildings.

Does anyone know about this? Could they be doing a land assembly? Assume a lot more value could be created by raising the entire row of 1 and 2 storey buildings to 4-8 storeys.

Didn't the building that was where the patio is burn?

I hope the new owners don't change too much. The West Town is a classic. I lived around the corner for a few years and frequented it often for breakfast with my ex, plus a few evenings for drinks with friends. We enjoyed the patio a lot too.

[TheHonestMaple]

There's an excavator at 20 Jackson Street West. I wonder what's going on here.

[HamiltonBoyInToronto]

Crane went up at stonechurch and west 5th today

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by HamiltonBoyInToronto

Crane went up at stonechurch and west 5th today

Colour me surprised, I wasn't aware that had even started construction.

August 2023 (i.e. last month) streetview shows the site cleared, but no real construction:



latest rendering:



no permits yet - just demolition:

[King&James]

Well not really rumour more speculation, wonder if Quadreal is in talks with Yale, there could be endless Pickelball Courts installed at Jsckson Square, even go rooftop for the 3 season angle.

https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...erview-photos/

[craftbeerdad]

Jackson Square needs new owners or a reverse takeover. Definitely needs a makeover. The lighting, store facades, everything other than a few places are worth keeping. You'd think the owners would want to change the perception of the mall from the current state.

[TheRitsman]

Jackson Square has slowly been renovating, but it's too slow, and too little.

In other rumours news. Was at the SvN Talks tonight and Jennifer Keesmat said her firm is planning something big in Hamilton near Go Transit. She indicated it would be made public in the next couple of months. No idea what that could be, but I was excited to hear about it. Let the speculating begin.

[Innsertnamehere]

My guess is something in Stoney Creek maybe?

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

My guess is something in Stoney Creek maybe?

Maybeeee, Myself and some others were joking that's what she might have meant, but it seemed like she meant downtown ish.

[King&James]

Jackson Square needs a full rethink. Pretty certain Yale is not company that will provide that leadership. My guess is that they will everyone else spend the bucks and they will take whatever benefits that they spin off.

[craftbeerdad]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

Jackson Square has slowly been renovating, but it's too slow, and too little.

In other rumours news. Was at the SvN Talks tonight and Jennifer Keesmat said her firm is planning something big in Hamilton near Go Transit. She indicated it would be made public in the next couple of months. No idea what that could be, but I was excited to hear about it. Let the speculating begin.

Really wanted to go but sadly it was beyond capacity when I went to register on Sunday.

She's one of the better urban planners around and glad to see her doing something in Hamilton.

How was the host?

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by craftbeerdad

Really wanted to go but sadly it was beyond capacity when I went to register on Sunday.

She's one of the better urban planners around and glad to see her doing something in Hamilton.

How was the host?

The registration was a bit of a mess. Really enjoyed the event, two free drink tickets was pretty great.

Overall it was alright. They left the first 30 minutes for filling in and networking, and the last 20ish for networking. I feel like the actual panel could have used some more time to breath and get going. They barely mentioned LRT and it's a lot of stuff that I had heard before. Felt a lot more like a developer networking an dhype event for Hamilton, than something that had some legitimate meat to it.

One developer guy defended the suburbs saying they're what attract people to the city to then see downtown...

Overall glad to be there, spoke to a few people I know from the housing industry and city. Keesmat seemingly bailed right away, though I would have loved to chat with her a bit. Hope to grab a drink with Thorne soon so I can talk about what I would have with Keesmat. Would have loved to hear a bit more from the other panelists too.

Chatted with some people until about 8:30 which was nice, everyone was very friendly, plus I saw my neighbour who is planning on growing their development company in Hamilton focused solely on highrise.

[HamiltonPlanning]

I echo this, the event was alright, a lot of Hamilton hype (which is what I was expecting). I agree though, really wish they touched on the LRT more. Each panelist had a neat perspective of Hamilton (all positive), which is always great to hear. The two drink tickets was an awesome bonus!

Excited too see what project that Keesmaat is referring to in Hamilton. Considering she was born and raised here, she seems very eager and excited to work on a project in Hamilton, and be part of the growth taking place.

[TheHonestMaple]

I'm really hoping she's planning on filling in some of those empty lots across from the Hunter GO.

[Allroadsleadtoham]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

The registration was a bit of a mess. Really enjoyed the event, two free drink tickets was pretty great.

Overall it was alright. They left the first 30 minutes for filling in and networking, and the last 20ish for networking. I feel like the actual panel could have used some more time to breath and get going. They barely mentioned LRT and it's a lot of stuff that I had heard before. Felt a lot more like a developer networking an dhype event for Hamilton, than something that had some legitimate meat to it.

One developer guy defended the suburbs saying they're what attract people to the city to then see downtown...

Overall glad to be there, spoke to a few people I know from the housing industry and city. Keesmat seemingly bailed right away, though I would have loved to chat with her a bit. Hope to grab a drink with Thorne soon so I can talk about what I would have with Keesmat. Would have loved to hear a bit more from the other panelists too.

Chatted with some people until about 8:30 which was nice, everyone was very friendly, plus I saw my neighbour who is planning on growing their development company in Hamilton focused solely on highrise.

Also, attended. We exchange better ideas, insights and knowledge on this site then the panel that spoke. All Keesmat seemed to care about was Toronto. I did like the idea of how Hamilton core should become more of a walkable communiyt.not sure about the suburban guy comment. Made absolutely no sense. They were a serious panel put together to talk about a city with minimal development excitement. So, I understand why the energy seemed a bit faint. Effectively, the panel was politely saying we need hyper growth in order to build and develop. Otherwise, there's nothing to talk about.

[TheHonestMaple]

That's not really what I took away from the discussion. It was more about how Hamilton has great bones, a great urban environment with loads of heritage. Keesmaat was basically just saying how Hamilton is an extremely special place for development, and that she's excited about the future.

Minimum development excitement? Jason Thorne spoek for like 20 minutes about how development is at an all time high for the downtown core.

[Allroadsleadtoham]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

That's not really what I took away from the discussion. It was more about how Hamilton has great bones, a great urban environment with loads of heritage. Keesmaat was basically just saying how Hamilton is an extremely special place for development, and that she's excited about the future.

Minimum development excitement? Jason Thorne spoek for like 20 minutes about how development is at an all time high for the downtown core.

So, Jason Thorne was referring to development proposals. And yes he did mention that 2022 was the highest year yet and 2023 was not that far off. And yes the speakers did flatter the crowd with positive words about Hamilton and where it's come from but towards the end of the discussion the premise was focused on growth and how to achieve it and Jenifer Keesmaat along with Shonda Wang stated that without hyper growth the city will not developed at the rate we would like it to. At a rate where we can see significant transformation. So, in so many words, we need higher-income folks to want to move to Hamilton and we need a lot of them. The question is, how do you spark hypergrowth? Jennifer referred to Toronto and how it's experienced hypergrowth for over 15 years. The answer that works, and Jennifer alluded to this is to make the core walkable. This fits right in with the LRT development. .This also explained converting main street into a two-way. At least with in the core. Other than that she didn't get into specifics.At least I didn't think so. And yes this definitely was a networking event but nothing to the extent of actracting big name developers. I did however see someone representing mattamy.