Harry Stinson on downtown Hamilton - Page 15

raisethehammer · #**281** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 3:51 AM**

I hope their eyebrows only rose a little bit.
I'd like one city official to give one good reason why this site can't be insanely tall.
it's not on Gore Park, it's not on a small streetscape - Locke, James North etc...
it's not on a street with homes. It's across the street from our current tallest and surrounded with high density complexes - Connaught, Terminal Towers.
This might be the most suitable site in the entire downtown for a new tallest. I'd rank it right up there with Bay/King, Main/King, Hughson/Main, Hughson/any point south of GO Station as the best sites in the city for a mega-tower.
Let's do phase 1 and make it a smashing success....and then, I hope city council rolls out the red carpet for 70 or 80 stories if Stinson can do it.

BCTed · #**282** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 3:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

This is truly exciting stuff for someone who lives downtown.

Did you hear that, BC Ted?

It's certainly a "grand vision." Too bad anyone can share a grand vision.

From the same article you just quoted:

Quote:

He's just inked a $9.5-million contract to purchase the former Royal Connaught Hotel site. The agreement was secured with a $100,000 deposit and provides a 30-day conditional period for Stinson to secure financing. Stinson has conducted extensive discussions with potential private investors and is confident he will be able to raise the cash necessary to close the deal.

Stinson has plunked down a pittance for a deposit and does not even have the financing in place for the full purchase price. That grand vision looks pretty far off to me.

BCTed · #**283** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 3:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by realcity

BC Ted has left the building. We won't hear from him again unless this development fails to materialize. This is exactly what Hamilton needs to shut up the bad attitudes and naysayers. It's like how every movie needs a 'bad guy' someone for the audience to hate, someone whom they can compare themselves to and feel good about themself. Hamilton has been Canada's 'bad guy' for decades, a city for every other city to compare themselves to and feel like they are superior. They won't be able to shit on Hamilton anymore if/when this gets built.

I'm still here. I am not a Hamilton naysayer, but I am a Stinson naysayer... I just do not believe in the guy. More power to him if he gets anywhere with this, but the news is a complete non-event to this point and is certainly is nothing to drive me into hiding. I imagine that he put down the $100,000 to drum up some publicity and to test the reaction.

raisethehammer · #**284** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:02 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCTed

I'm still here. I am not a Hamilton naysayer, but I am a Stinson naysayer... I just do not believe in the guy. More power to him if he gets anywhere with this, but the news is a complete non-event to this point and is certainly is nothing to drive me into hiding. I imagine that he put down the $100,000 to drum up some publicity and to test the reaction.

hmmm, maybe you should go back and read all of your posts.
You're a Hamilton naysayer. Loud and clear.
Keep it up though...guys like you seem to motivate Stinson even more!

BCTed · #**285** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

hmmm, maybe you should go back and read all of your posts.
You're a Hamilton naysayer. Loud and clear.
Keep it up though...guys like you seem to motivate Stinson even more!

I can't say that I have ever wished ill will toward Hamilton, nor have I ever expressed anything of the sort.

matt602 · #**286** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:33 AM**

If anything Ted is a realist with a fair bit less optimism than the majority of the forumers here. I've seen him give credit where credit was due.

LikeHamilton · #**287** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 6:00 AM**

I just spent the evening with Harry Stinson, John Mokrycke and a cast of other Hamilton character drinking wine eating all kinds of food.
Had a long talk with Harry.
You can book your 2009 Christmas party at the Connaught.
But I am tired so I will tell you about tomorrow…maybe. I have a busy day.

raisethehammer · #**288** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 1:14 PM**

where'd you guys meet? Acclamation? I've seen him there before.

raisethehammer · #**289** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 1:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Dethroned condo king Stinson makes play for Hamilton condo
Posted: February 29, 2008, 8:58 PM by Barry Hertz
Real estate

By Natalie Alcoba, National Post

Harry Stinson, Toronto’s dethroned “condo king,” has made a play for a downtown Hamilton landmark, hoping to restore it and build a new condo tower that could soar up to 80 floors.

Mr. Stinson, who recently moved to Hamilton after losing control of the 1 King West condo hotel in downtown Toronto, is prepared to pay $9.5-million for the Royal Connaught Hotel, which has been waiting empty, stripped of its interior contents, for a prospective buyer.

He said he has the money, but will take 30 days to make sure the building, which covers about one street block, is worth buying. The deal would close at the end of June, said Mr. Stinson, who filed for bankruptcy protection last year after a $12-million dispute over 1 King West with prominent theatre producer David Mirvish, who largely financed the project.

“I’m really picking myself up and starting all over here,” Mr. Stinson said of his work in Hamilton. Still, he said investors have not been hard to come by. “I’m not obviously happy with what happened in Toronto but I’m not walking away and forgetting. I’m keeping up my fight to vindicate myself on it, but I’m not doing it in the public eye.”

In the meantime, he is busy trying to convince Hamilton officials to let him build an 80-storey condo tower.

“Their eyebrows rose a little bit when I showed them a drawing, but that’s the whole idea here. This is going to have to be something that is really striking and is actually so outrageous that in itself becomes self fulfilling,” Mr. Stinson said.

“Our objective is to go tall. Can we get 80 storeys? I have no idea. That is what we are going to start with. We are going to try to make it a building they will find appealing, because their objective is really to galvanize that whole downtown core.”

The sleek condo tower is the second phase of a development project that will start with retrofitting the existing Connaught, circa 1916, into a combination boutique hotel and residences. The first four floors will house a refurbished ballroom, plus about 100 hotel suites, while “compact” condo units similar to those found at 1 King West will take up the remaining 10 floors.

Mr. Stinson said it could be up and running by Christmas 2009, but did not have a timeline for the construction of the adjacent tower. The hotel units will start at about $130,000; condos in the tower will range from $300,000 to $1-million, Mr. Stinson said.

Rendering of Stinson's proposed 80-storey condo tower by Stanford Downey Architects Inc.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs...inson-makes-play-for-hamilton-condo.aspx

someone help me out here.
Why does this rendering have part of the eastern hotel building photoshoped onto the southwest corner of the Connaught Corporate Centre??

northender98 · #**290** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 2:34 PM**

Hey Raise the hammer,

In the interview Harry Stinson had with Bill Kelly, he told Bill he wanted to duplicate the east side of the building on the south-west side to create a "U" shaped building.

Northender98

P.S. Thanks for all your posts in the past, very informative. Glad I could help you for once.

matt602 · #**291** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 2:47 PM**

LikeHamilton you have details to fill us in on, mister.

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

someone help me out here.
Why does this rendering have part of the eastern hotel building photoshoped onto the southwest corner of the Connaught Corporate Centre??

My guess is that Harry intends to "fill in" the block by replicating a mirror image building of the 1916 building on the other side of the 1930's annex. Time will tell how something like that will look... probably a bit tacky, but we'll see. I think a modern glass addition would look better.

raisethehammer · #**292** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 2:48 PM**

cool...thanks northender.
I wonder what sort of design they will use for that addition.
I assume it won't look like that cheap photoshop job. haha.
what's there right now?? is that where last minute larrys was?

I'm also still a little confused about what that golden box-type building is to the east of Connaught.
Is that the retail galleria?? parking garage?? is it part of the condo podium?
Perhaps it's part of the King St entrance to the retail podium...he said something about having street access from King, Main, Catharine and John.

raisethehammer · #**293** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 2:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt602

LikeHamilton you have details to fill us in on, mister.

yea, get out of bed!! haha.

is it just me or does that rendering look better and better everytime I see it? Lol

matt602 · #**294** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 2:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

cool...thanks northender.
I wonder what sort of design they will use for that addition.
I assume it won't look like that cheap photoshop job. haha.
what's there right now?? is that where last minute larrys was?

That's the ballroom area and a set of stairs down to the doors that exit onto John. Directly under is the stairs to the Yuk Yuk's in the basement.

raisethehammer · #**295** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 3:15 PM**

perhaps someone with photo-skills on this site should put in the Sapphire Tower as a proposal in the downtown section.
bet nobody thought we'd see a tower that sized proposed anytime soon...or ever. lol.

SteelTown · #**296** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

I'm also still a little confused about what that golden box-type building is to the east of Connaught.
Is that the retail galleria?? parking garage?? is it part of the condo podium?
Perhaps it's part of the King St entrance to the retail podium...he said something about having street access from King, Main, Catharine and John.

Others already mentioned about the infil to create a U shape Connaught facing the Court House.

The golden box-type from my understanding is mostly a parking garage. Liklely also an entrance to the retail section. He said the retail will be 5 storey.

SteelTown · #**297** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

perhaps someone with photo-skills on this site should put in the Sapphire Tower as a proposal in the downtown section.
bet nobody thought we'd see a tower that sized proposed anytime soon...or ever. lol.

I'll create a separate thread for the condo tower but I should I call it? Sapphire Tower II?

raisethehammer · #**298** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:29 PM**

nah, I'd just call it Sapphire Tower.
The website says 'the vision will continue'.
there never was a Sapphire 1. If all goes well, we'll get it!!

SteelTown · #**299** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:32 PM**

Okay I'll call it Sapphire Tower | 80 storey | Proposed

Wow 80 storey lol, still can't believe it.

raisethehammer · #**300** Posted **Mar 1, 2008, 4:34 PM**

has a nice ring to it eh?? lol.
it may never happen, so let's at least enjoy it while we can....which should be for several years.
I can't see construction starting anytime sooner than 2010.