1276 Upper James (2 Hotels)| ? & ? m | 5 & 6 fl |Under Construction

[LikeHamilton]

1276 Upper James (2 Hotels)| ? & ? m | 5 & 6 fl |Under Construction

I drove past in the dark today and it looks like it is at grade. I will attempt to, in the next few days to drive by in the day light with my camera. It would be a good excuse to stop into Denninger’s for a sausage on a bun!

File Number SPA-21-127
Application Type Site Plan
Address 1276 UPPER JAMES ST
File Year 2021

DA-18-153
To construct a 4,999 SqM, 6 storey, 100 room hotel with 66 underground and 40 above ground parking spaces.

SAP-21-127
Amendment to DA-18-153. to construct a five storey, 45 room hotel at the rear of the existing hotel on the subject lands. A total of 41 additional underground parking spaces are proposed in support of the development.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

I drove past in the dark today and it looks like it is at grade. I will attempt to, in the next few days to drive by in the day light with my camera. It would be a good excuse to stop into Denninger’s for a sausage on a bun!

I usually partake of the chicken schnitzel. Made up my mind to get something from there in the coming days!

They really NEED to be a food option at THF. Dropping Denninger's was a big downgrade between IWS and the current operation.

Upper James near the Linc is our region's new hotel strip.

[bigguy1231]

They dug the hole before covid and just recently started up again.

[shoelessjoe]

This is currently planned to be a Holiday Inn Express and a Staybridge Suites.

[LikeHamilton]

I can confirm this is a Vrancor hotel project.

[LikeHamilton]

I drove by today expecting them to be a couple of storeys above grade and they are still at grade. Either an unusual slow Vrancor development or it has stopped.

[brandensimon560]

First phase for Holiday Inn Express is already at two floors and prepping for 3rd floor using precast concrete.

[Innsertnamehere]

good to see this actually getting built (finally!). It's been sitting as an abandoned construction site for far too long.

[drpgq]

Snapped this last week

[LikeHamilton]

From Vrancor's web site. The other one is not on the site.


holiday-inn-express-Upper James-hamilton , on Flickr

[ScreamingViking]

Does anyone know how many hotel rooms this will total for Upper James?

Or the city as a whole?

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Does anyone know how many hotel rooms this will total for Upper James?

Or the city as a whole?

as in, how many hotel rooms are proposed right now?

From what I can think of:

1. Holiday Inn Express & Staybridge Suites (this site): 105+45 rooms - total 150
2. 1097 Wilson St: 93 rooms
3. 9075 Airport Rd: 94 rooms
4. 2520 Upper James: 80 rooms
5. 270 Longwood Rd S (I think this is a Hyatt) - 162 rooms


Total: 572 hotel rooms. I may be missing a few, but those are the active proposals I can think of right now.

Hamilton has generally been extremely undersupplied on the hotel room front compared to most cities of it's size, so I'm not surprised to see a lot of hotel activity in the city. I do wish we would see an 4-star hotel in the downtown however, or even really anywhere in the city. The Pearle in Burlington was the first 4-star properity in the metro area and it only opened like a year or two ago. It would be nice to have a proper 4-star facility downtown.

The FirstOntario Centre renovation should create a huge amount of additional hotel demand downtown. I'm hopeful we will see a 4-star property proposed once the renovations are complete.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

as in, how many hotel rooms are proposed right now?

Thanks! I'm also curious about the number we have in service.

Downtown lost a lot when the Connaught closed and the Plaza was converted for use by HHS. But gained from Staybridge, Homewood, and now the Hampton Inn. None are luxurious though I spent a weekend "away" at the Homewood a few years ago and it was fairly nice (and new at the time). The Sheraton is still the only other large hotel right downtown, and it's been more than 20 years since I stayed there, but I seem to recall comments about how it's in need of a spruce-up. Then we have the tired older ones downtown or not far away like the Admiral, the Arrival, and the Visitors inns, plus a few others.

I imagine there are a number of Air BnBs and the like downtown too.

A renovated and better managed FOC should really help. I hope we'll hear something about the convention centre soon too. And like you say, a 4-star hotel would be nice.

The film industry must supply frequent customers for hotel rooms, though unless they are multi-day shoots Toronto may serve a part of that demand.

• After a quick search I found this 2008 report. On page 29 it lists 1,331 rooms downtown in Hamilton, but that's got to be wildly out of date.
• Tourism Hamilton has a bit of info too, and their list totals 1,348 across the city (not counting residence space at Mac and the colleges) but it isn't complete and up-to-date. https://tourismhamilton.com/meeting-...ccommodations/
• This website notes 1,700+ in the city, circa 2019: https://csae-trillium.tv/tourism-hamilton-3/

Undersupplied indeed!

[SteelTown]

Check out page 22, Hamilton hotel totals as of 2021, which is 1903 rooms.

https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings...umentId=219252

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Check out page 22, Hamilton hotel totals as of 2021, which is 1903 rooms.

https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings...umentId=219252

That includes the Hyatt and Holiday Inn Express, neither of which are completed yet.

So as of today Hamilton has 1,659 rooms according to that list. So if all of the currently proposed hotels get built, the city will see an increase in hotel space of over 35%.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Check out page 22, Hamilton hotel totals as of 2021, which is 1903 rooms.

https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings...umentId=219252

Thanks! You'd think a search would turn that up as one of the top items. Not in my case.

The fact Burlington -- a city about a third the population of Hamilton -- has two-thirds as many hotel rooms according to that listing (including the ones on that list that are still yet to be complete in Hamilton) says a lot. Many of them are along the QEW and likely rely mainly on business park customers, but still.

If we hit the projection of 2,500 rooms by 2030 (p.20) that'll be a good start. And hopefully many of those new ones end up being downtown.