Downtown Update - Page 266

TheRitsman · #**5301** Posted **Oct 7, 2022, 3:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Once Cobalt, 1 Jarvis and 75 James are complete and the residents have moved in, do you think there will be a noticeable difference in foot traffic on the streets? How different?

I would assume the increase in foot traffic will be proportional to the percentage increase in people, reduced by maybe 20%. Developments like 1 Jarvis and 75 James will likely generate less foot traffic as they are further from a commercial corridor. Cobalt will be a pain to drive out of, and easy and nice to walk out from, so there will be more people walking.

Must keep in mind how many will be students living in these too, as they have less money, and are typically less locally focused, especially international students, who focus a lot more on specific restaurants and stores. I suspect Cobalt and 75 James will still bring a noticeable difference though simply a result of the thousands of new people. Ward 2 in 2016 had 33,600 residents. If we assume the difference to 2021 of 9% then we're looking closer to 36,600 residents. When Cobalt finishes and 75 James St finish and 1 Jarvis, we'll have about 2000 new residents, which is about 5.5% increase, so I'd say natural foot traffic will increase by 5%.

As downtown gets more retail spaces and places to visit, and things like 30 minute Go service and LRT there will be more people making the trip downtown from outside too.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating, I live downtown, and anytime I go for a walk in my neighborhood down James St N, there are people exploring downtown that have never been, or have not been in a long time. It's an exciting time for downtown.

TheHonestMaple · #**5302** Posted **Oct 7, 2022, 9:21 PM**

I forgot about the McMaster grad residence. That will be a massive boost. Especially considering mature students will definitely go to bars and restaurants.

Innsertnamehere · #**5303** Posted **Oct 7, 2022, 11:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikevbar1

Given the way projects here are picking up, I would like to pose a very open-ended question to others; What regions do we see as our direct competitors in the GTHA market right now? As in, where else are potential buyers looking when Hamilton is in the cards? My first guess would be Kitchener-Waterloo, York Region (Markham/Richmond Hill/Vaughan) and Mississauga, but perhaps also suburban Toronto (particularly Scarborough and other relatively affordable areas), if not Toronto itself to some degree. I base that assumption on factors like 'urbanity'/urban amenities, cost and proximity to downtown Toronto. This can hopefully help us understand why development volume is so high now, particularly relative to other areas of similar size. From there we can better gauge how many projects will actually start moving. I think it's a combination of the factors I mentioned, but I am curious as to what Hamilton offers to out-of-towners, considering those are realistically the ones buying condos downtown (or elsewhere) right now.

Honestly I think a big reason condos are suddenly booming downtown is the GO train access. Even if most people living in downtown aren’t planning on being daily commuters, having walking access to all day go train service to Toronto is a huge bonus. *especially* if 30 minute service happens.

Otherwise, downtown is hitting a critical mass of “cool” that is making it attractive, and lets you live an urban walkable life at not downtown Toronto prices. You can get urbanish lifestyles in places like Mississauga, Kitchener, etc, but Hamilton is unique in its greater proximity to Toronto than Kitchener (it’s actually somewhat commutable), it’s greater affordability, and greater urbanity.

TheRitsman · #**5304** Posted **Oct 7, 2022, 11:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Honestly I think a big reason condos are suddenly booming downtown is the GO train access. Even if most people living in downtown aren’t planning on being daily commuters, having walking access to all day go train service to Toronto is a huge bonus. *especially* if 30 minute service happens.

Otherwise, downtown is hitting a critical mass of “cool” that is making it attractive, and lets you live an urban walkable life at not downtown Toronto prices. You can get urbanish lifestyles in places like Mississauga, Kitchener, etc, but Hamilton is unique in its greater proximity to Toronto than Kitchener (it’s actually somewhat commutable), it’s greater affordability, and greater urbanity.

I went to meet my partner at the West Harbour Go and the number of people getting off on a Friday was surprising to me. There were at least 200 people getting off at 6PM. That's a massive number of people considering COVID situation and WFH. I think a lot of people visit downtown from Mississauga and Oakville too on Go. The free transfers help with that too. If I lived in Oakville and wanted to come visit downtown Hamilton I'd take the train over the bus.

matt602 · #**5305** Posted **Oct 8, 2022, 12:13 AM**

Yeah, I've also noticed that passenger levels are a lot higher than I thought they'd be by now. I wonder if the ridership will surpass the TH&B station on Hunter even though that has existed for almost 30 years. If so, it shows that Hamilton benefits far more from all-day service instead of commuter-only hours.

Berklon · #**5306** Posted **Oct 8, 2022, 12:53 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

I went to meet my partner at the West Harbour Go and the number of people getting off on a Friday was surprising to me. There were at least 200 people getting off at 6PM. That's a massive number of people considering COVID situation and WFH.

Wow... that's a lot more than I would've thought.

What are the numbers like at Hunter?
I've been WFH for the last 7 years, but for the 20 years prior to that I commuted to Toronto daily via the GO and I don't think I've seen more than 100 people get off the train at the Hunter station regardless of which rush hour train I took back. Maybe it was more than that, but it certainly wasn't 200.

TheRitsman · #**5307** Posted **Oct 8, 2022, 1:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berklon

Wow... that's a lot more than I would've thought.

What are the numbers like at Hunter?
I've been WFH for the last 7 years, but for the 20 years prior to that I commuted to Toronto daily via the GO and I don't think I've seen more than 100 people get off the train at the Hunter station regardless of which rush hour train I took back. Maybe it was more than that, but it certainly wasn't 200.

I wish Metrolinx posted more often on ridership numbers. I've only taken the Hunter once, but only a few people got on at Hamilton. From my understanding Go service is at 102% of pre pandemic levels on weekends.

Even West Harbour had only like 300-400 riders pre-pandemic. Hourly go service is huge for reliability. Commuter service sucks.

urban_planner · #**5308** Posted **Oct 10, 2022, 4:46 AM**

I noticed today that their is some fencing up around 98 John Street south. This is the old 24 Karat Jewellery store. not sure what is happening but figure it was interesting. Their is currently parking on both sides it would be nice if a demo were to be happening and the two lots and the building were developed into one lot and something went up, I'm probably dreaming but it is close to the Hunter station.

Innsertnamehere · #**5309** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 3:06 PM**

Hamilton's new website finally replaced the building permit activity page, so we now have August 2022 data.

Major permit issues include:

35 HWY 5 W - Warehouses, addition $1 million
29 John Murray St - new school, $168 million - this seems to be an error, I can't imagine this is actually a $168 million project. The error seems to permeate to the total monthly permit issue total as well, which states a total of $240 million. I suspect this is a $16.8 million project instead, which would put monthly permit issues at only $89 million instead.
230 Highway 8 - greenhouse, addition - $1 million
120 KING ST W - Offices, Alteration - $2.1 million. Wonder who the new tenant is, they are apparently renovating 7,000sf. A lot of money for an office renovation of that size, to be honest.
35 Arkledun Avenue - Apartments, Alteration - $3 million - This appears to be the renovations for the proposed affordable housing here

Overall, a very quite month. Hopefully September is more eventful!

TheRitsman · #**5310** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 3:28 PM**

They've been slowly renovating 120 King for the last few years. This is probably just more renoes for another floor or two. It would be incredible if we got a new em ok oyer downtown using 7000sqft, though I would bet this is just renovations to encourage a new tenant. Maybe this means they are taking the idea of finding a good tenant seriously?

Or perhaps you are right, is $2.1million a cost that would indicate an office addition over a renovation?

If you review the permits for 120 King St W, there are 3:

2020: Alterations to the 5th and 6th floor to create SCOTIABANK offices.

This is an old permit, and it seems like maybe Scotiabank pulled out because of the pandemic?

2022: Alterations to the second floor of the existing office building including interior demolition and installation of new mechanical and electrical to serve 2 shell units

2022: Renovation to Unit: Plaza 500 "Veteran Affairs Canada" office. Scope of work includes interior renovations

Perhaps I'll go over on my lunch and take a look.

TheRitsman · #**5311** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 6:24 PM**

I walked over to check it out. So the 6th floor is Scotiabank "Dealer Advantage".

I took a few pics of the frankly eerily vacant floors. Many of the floors have a single office using them, but a few are completely vacant. Nothing much going on floor 2 (which is actually floor 3 because floor 2 is considered Plaza Level).

I believe this office is vacant, despite the sign not being taken down:

Canuck905 · #**5312** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 10:20 PM**

Despite all the faults in the City's new website, the Development Applications mapping tool has been updated and includes lots of descriptions of FCs that have been held recently.

The site that Emblem just bought went to an FC this year to "To develop a 30-storey mixed-use building with a tiered, six-storey podium. Includes a total of 330 residential units."

Or 215 King St W. "To develop a 14 storey mixed use building with retail at grade and 102 residential units above. A total of 55 parking stalls are proposed in two levels of underground.".

I utilize this tool for work frequently so this is great.

Innsertnamehere · #**5313** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 10:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canuck905

Despite all the faults in the City's new website, the Development Applications mapping tool has been updated and includes lots of descriptions of FCs that have been held recently.

The site that Emblem just bought went to an FC this year to "To develop a 30-storey mixed-use building with a tiered, six-storey podium. Includes a total of 330 residential units."

Or 215 King St W. "To develop a 14 storey mixed use building with retail at grade and 102 residential units above. A total of 55 parking stalls are proposed in two levels of underground.".

I utilize this tool for work frequently so this is great.

where are you seeing this?

https://www.hamilton.ca/build-invest-gro...ons/where-development-happening-hamilton

This is the site I use and as far as I can tell it doesn't have FC's.

Canuck905 · #**5314** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 10:30 PM**

I just searched 'Hamilton Development Applications' and clicked the first Open.Hamilton link.

TheHonestMaple · #**5315** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 10:33 PM**

Wow nice find on 215 King Street West!

Canuck905 · #**5316** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 10:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Wow nice find on 215 King Street West!

Does that work for you? Wondering if I stumbled upon something I wasn't supposed to. lol

Innsertnamehere · #**5317** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 10:45 PM**

hmm, interesting. I suspect they have been posted in error, I don't believe FCs are supposed to be public info. It's definitely not on the built-in data tracker on their website, but when the info was published to the open data portal FCs have been included.. I downloaded the CSV file of the data and will go through all the recent FCs to see if there is anything interesting sometime..

TheRitsman · #**5318** Posted **Oct 11, 2022, 11:21 PM**

Was able to find it: https://open.hamilton.ca/datasets/7e9931...?location=43.258400%2C-79.876371%2C19.81

What does FC mean?

Already found a few interesting ones:

73 Hughson St N: 30 storey mixed use with 4 storey podium, 330 residential and 124 parking spaces

89 Park St N: 30 storey with 5 story's podium, 693 residential and 393 parking spaces

This might be part of an ongoing disclosure through and FOI from Joey Coleman from a few years ago. FCs don't really mean too much though as it just means that they owner has requested to speak with the city about a potential application to reduce risk of denial.

TheHonestMaple · #**5319** Posted **Oct 12, 2022, 12:13 AM**

I've seen this map before, it's just never been this complete.

wow 73 Hughson St N and 89 Park St N. That's huge news.

Canuck905 · #**5320** Posted **Oct 12, 2022, 1:12 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

Was able to find it: https://open.hamilton.ca/datasets/7e9931...?location=43.258400%2C-79.876371%2C19.81

What does FC mean?

Already found a few interesting ones:

73 Hughson St N: 30 storey mixed use with 4 storey podium, 330 residential and 124 parking spaces

89 Park St N: 30 storey with 5 story's podium, 693 residential and 393 parking spaces

This might be part of an ongoing disclosure through and FOI from Joey Coleman from a few years ago. FCs don't really mean too much though as it just means that they owner has requested to speak with the city about a potential application to reduce risk of denial.

FC stands for Formal Consultation.