Renovations underway for two prominent downtown buildings
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/408550...ay-for-two-prominent-downtown-buildings/
By Meredith MacLeod
Plans for an extensive renovation of two prominent downtown buildings include a four-storey glass-wrapped elevator facing King William Street.
The project at the northeast corner with Hughson Street will also include a ground-floor restaurant and a rooftop patio.
The renovation work is underway and developer Steve Kulakowsky of Core Urban Inc. says the buildings will be gutted to reveal exposed brick and ductwork and provide open work spaces.
"It will be exciting and collaborative and social."
It will also be accessible. The buildings, which have long been tied together, have only a steep interior staircase that Kulakowsky calls the "stairway to heaven" because it's four storeys straight up.
The easiest solution would have been to build an elevator in the centre of the 25,000-square-foot structure. But Kulakowsky says he and partners Dave and Maureen Sauve wanted to make a bold statement.
"Wherever we go, we try to improve things. This is an opportunity to change the street a little."
The rounded three-storey red brick structure at 41 King William was built about 1890 as the home of the Hamilton Times newspaper, which lasted from 1859 to 1920. The four-storey dark brick building next to it came about 20 years later and was called the Empire.
Core Urban will call the new development Empire Times.
Leases with a law firm and mobile web developers BraveNewCode have already been signed. There is about 8,000 square feet of space left to rent.
The proprietors of the new restaurant coming to the ground floor space — home to a number of eateries over the years — aren't ready to go public. But Kulakowsky says they are behind several other very popular food destinations in the city.
Baltimore House and Sagarmatha Curry Palace will stay at 43 King William St. and only façade and lighting improvements will be made to the lower floors of that building. The presence of the eclectic Baltimore House café and music venue was one of the reasons Core Urban was drawn to the building, said Kulakowsky.
"We love King William Street. Great things are happening there already and it's got all the makings of a great street, like the wide sidewalks and the stamped streets and the beautiful architecture."
King William had an extensive reconstruction in 2011 and has had a number of public art installations, including a large mural on the side of the Lister building. The King William Art Walk, from James North to Ferguson Avenue, is a joint project of Arts Hamilton, the Downtown Hamilton BIA, the International Village BIA and the City of Hamilton.
Glen Norton, manager of urban renewal for the city, says King William is an important "cultural artery" in the city that is attracting a growing number of independent bars, restaurants and creative businesses.
"We're starting to see it develop as we'd hoped."
The building that once housed Reardon's Meats is now sold, says Norton, and a few doors west, 31 King William, is now on the market for $500,000.
Core Urban has a solid track record of success in Hamilton. They have sold out the residential portion of the Witton Lofts project and have only just one retail space left. That project on Murray Street converted a former school into condos and added two floors of glass-wrapped units.
"We're really proud of it," Kulakowsky said. "It turned out better than we could have ever thought."
Core Urban also converted the New York-style Herkimer Apartments into lux
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