No heritage protection for downtown Hamilton church eyed for residential towers
Philpott Memorial Church leadership says deal with developers in jeopardy.
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...2c005d77a.html
City politicians have decided not to place a downtown Hamilton church eyed for demolition under heritage protection at the urging of the congregation concerned its real estate deal with highrise developers is unravelling.
Philpott Memorial Church says prospective heritage provisions have upended the congregation’s sale of the York Boulevard landmark to developers who have pitched a pair of 30-storey residential towers on the site.
That, in turn, has jeopardized the congregation’s plan to use proceeds from the sale of the 124-year-old sanctuary to turn another downtown property into a new church, a representative told the planning committee Tuesday.
“The fact that this has come up has had real implications,” said Jackson Theune, Philpott’s interim lead pastor.
The church’s leadership thought it had a “binding and solid” agreement with the developers — but now, viewing the heritage measures as an “encumbrance” to their plans, they want to “walk away” from the deal, he said.
Theune said he wasn’t certain ditching the provisions would iron out the issues, but suggested it “would certainly help,” noting the congregation is in a “difficult financial position.”
Representatives of development partners Empire Communities and Hamilton Coliseum Place didn’t respond to The Spectator’s requests for comment Tuesday.
The future of Philpott Memorial Church, which is next to the Salvation Army men’s shelter and across from TD Coliseum on York, has hit more than one fork in the road since the real estate deal was made in 2021.
Last summer, city politicians hit the brakes on a disputed plan to protect 84 York Blvd. through designation under the Ontario Heritage Act in order to hash out a path forward with the objecting congregation and developers.
That resulted in council’s direction for staff to instead draft an easement agreement to protect the church and its heritage features until a housing plan was approved.
The covenant was to enshrine a range of conditions, such as at least 600 residential units, including two- and three-bedroom apartments and affordable housing, as well as certain design features.
But in a report Tuesday, planning staff noted the city wasn’t able to reach an agreement with the development partners and recommended moving forward with heritage designation.
In a 10-0 vote, however, councillors opted to let an existing notice of intention to designate Philpott expire, leaving the church unshielded after July 31, but with the door open to future protection measures.
“We’ve already kind of approved the demolition of the building,” Coun. Cameron Kroetsch told The Spectator, referring to the easement plan, which called for the church to remain standing until residential plans were advanced.
But with Philpott’s concerns that developers are placing “undue pressure” on the congregation, it makes sense, for now, to remove heritage provisions as a “bargaining chip,” the downtown councillor said.
“We’re allowing the parties to try and work this out so hopefully the developer will move forward with this project now and we’ll get housing on this site.”
In the meantime, with the church on the radar, there’s “zero per cent chance” city officials will allow it to be razed without a housing plan in place, Kroetsch said.
In 2022, the developers made their initial pitch to demolish Philpott with a proposal to build two 30-storey towers atop a five-storey podium with 693 residential units and roughly 700 square metres of ground-floor commercial space.
Last year, with heritage designation on the table, the developers’ planning consultants pointed to “significant issues” with the building and said it would cost $2.5 million to $3.9 million just to improve it to modern building standards.
Moreover, leaving the church in place would cut the project’s housing component in half, they said.
Planning staff, however, have maintained the “structurally sound” church could be incorporated into the highrise development.
Philpott’s leadership has emphasized the old church is no longer suitable for its purposes, including its mission to help vulnerable people downtown, and too expensive for the congregation to refurbish.
With sale proceeds, the plan is to fund the redevelopment of the former Lincoln Alexander Centre on King Street East into a new sanctuary and hub for continued outreach in the core.
“We know that Jesus cared very little for old buildings — what he cared about was people,” Theune told the committee Tuesday.
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