18-30 King St East | 106.9m | 32 fl | Proposed

[ScreamingViking]

It's great that they did that after the winter weather.

[The Gore]

Its been two winters already! What a shame its come to this.

[flar]

Originally Posted by mattgrande

Anyone have a realistic estimate of what those buildings would be worth today?

I can only imagine Dr. Evil saying "one million dollars"

Downtown Hamilton is a strange place. It's almost impossible to put a price on properties there. It seems like some places go for dirt cheap, and others are unrealistically expensive. There are too many properties that people have been hanging onto for decades, with little or no improvement, in the hopes they would be able to sell them for top dollar in the impending boom.

So, from the pessimist's perspective, the buildings are worthless because they require a big investment and have limited potential to generate income, and from the optimist's perspective they are worth a couple million simply due to their location, or perhaps because of their historic character.

[CaptainKirk]

From the CBC's twitter account...

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^Lost opportunities. That's what urbanists always say when they see the south side of King.

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

^Lost opportunities. That's what urbanists always say when they see the south side of King.

Not lost yet.

[oldcoote]

Blanchard is an ass.

[Pigeon]

.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by Pigeon

Dave Blanchard Hates Hamilton.

I hear he leaves babies in Gore Park in the middle of the night as a sacrifice to the White Walkers.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^...and he's a total jerk face!

Worst Hamiltonian ever...for the moment.

[Jon Dalton]

^ The jerk store called....

[HillStreetBlues]

...David Blanchard's their all-time best seller.

[thmx]

CBC Hamilton: 'Demolition by neglect': Gore buildings rotting away

'The whole character and heart of the city has been ripped out and we're still ripping it out'

By Adam Carter

A strip of historic buildings lining Gore Park has endured two frigid winters exposed to the elements without heat, and now it's just a matter of time before they rot away, says the city's former head of heritage planning.

This lengthy saga between the city and Wilson Blanchard is turning into just what some feared – demolition by neglect, says Philip Hoad, the city's former manager of Heritage Facilities and Capital Planning.

"Leaving a building vacant and unheated is going to exponentially increase its deterioration," Hoad told CBC Hamilton. "The constant freeze-thaw cycle just blows apart the building materials."

"These century buildings are what gives a city its heart and soul. Well, the whole character and heart of the city has been ripped out and we're still ripping it out."

Hughson Business Space Corporation owns 18-28 King Street East, and bought the historic 19th century properties in 2000. The developer tried to demolish the buildings back in 2013, but a sudden city heritage designation halted the process.

Since then, it has been a back and forth between the city and developer David Blanchard over what to do with the buildings, and if pieces of them can be saved.

They've sat vacant since then, and time has not been kind. The old-growth wood and hand-built stone with its original mason signatures have faced two of Hamilton's harshest winters on record.

Pieces of the building's facades were removed and put in storage with the intention of saving them. Now moisture has started creeping into the buildings. There are broken, uncovered windows in some buildings, and pieces of the ceiling have collapsed and sent chunks of wood and plaster cascading to the floor in another.

full story...

[matt602]

No surprise here. It's the Century theatre all over again, and we remember how that turned out.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

It's a shame that adults can't learn to be...adults!

[davidcappi]

I can't wait for the shit storm that comes when one of these collapses.

[markbarbera]

So, two years ago, the City quietly issued a demolition permit for these buildings, then at the last minute, after an outcry from historical preservationists, Council decided to rescind the permit and designated the buildings as historic. Now, despite the predictions of some who genuinely believed (hoped?) that century-old buildings with exposed wood-framed structures would manage to withstand a Canadian winter, the buildings have gone through two winters and are now essentially being demolished by neglect.

One way or another, the buildings are inevitably going to come down. We had a chance to strike a collaborative approach for redevelopment of the site, which may have led to at least the facades being preserved in some way in whatever ultimately ended up at this site, but that was lost when Council decided to take on a confrontational approach to the site's redevelopment.

Looks like the only thing achieved on December 12, 2013 was Jason Farr being given the apparently false title of Hero of Gore Park.

[realcity]

^ excellent. Could've had some modern, leased-out buildings in time for PanAm. Those buildings are coming down.

Farr saved the Tivoli, now he's the destroyer of James North.

[matt602]

Do you actually believe that if he were able to demolish the buildings 2 years ago, that he would have built something by now? He's a land speculator. You can see buildings that are owned/managed by his firm all over downtown, including vacant land and parking lots. If he'd been able to demolish them, there would just be a giant empty hole beside Gore Park instead of a row of abandoned buildings.

[Pigeon]

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