Cobalt Luxury Residences On King | 97.5 & 97.5m | 2 x 30 fl | Under Construction

[coalminecanary]

I guess the question is "what could be worse"?

Not much...

[flar]

The only thing that could be worse would be to demolish it and build a crappy or suburban style building.

I'm not sure what you could do with that space to be honest. It's only a two story building. The floor space is big but the ceilings aren't very high. Probably a bit too low for many purposes. Also, IIRC, there are a lot of posts inside. I highly doubt something like walmart would go there.

[Pearlstreet]

In my little perfect world it would be a downtown hardware store. I hate going all the way to Lowes or Home Depot. Canadian Tire and Arrudas doesn't cut it. So much renewal and so far to go! Grease the wheels of renewal.

[Pearlstreet]

The Spec article re: the closure.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/43...losing-sunday/

[fuller]

Not my hope, but it's worth noting Shoppers Drug Mart never did replace the store they closed on James St. N.

In recent years they've been forced to learn how to do adaptive reuse in downtown areas (sort of) instead of their usual.

[beanmedic]

Originally Posted by flar

The only thing that could be worse would be to demolish it and build a crappy or suburban style building.

I'm not sure what you could do with that space to be honest. It's only a two story building. The floor space is big but the ceilings aren't very high. Probably a bit too low for many purposes. Also, IIRC, there are a lot of posts inside. I highly doubt something like walmart would go there.

This Sobeys Express store looks stunningly similar to the bingo hall location. I would also welcome something like this.

http://cdn.thegridto.com/wp-content/...1.58.11-AM.png

[thistleclub]

Delta Bingo hall closing Sunday
(Hamilton Spectator, Carmela Fragomeni, Jan 16 2013)

Delta Bingo in downtown Hamilton is closing its doors for good Sunday night after the last game is played.

Messages on Delta Bingo's website and a sign at the site have announced the closing.

Councillor Jason Farr, who represents the ward where Delta Bingo has operated for years, says he's been notified about the closure and that the operators are closing it to concentrate on converting its St. Catharines and Fort Erie bingo halls over to electronic Bing -- e-Bingo.

Delta Bingo has been operating at the old Kresge department store at 45 King Street East on property leased from developer Ralph Frisina.

About 30 charities that fundraised through the bingos at Delta are affected.

"It means charities will have to be creative and find another way to raise that $10,000," said Farr.

The closure means Princess Bingo remains the only bingo hall in Hamilton and the city and charities are exploring any possibility some of the charities could move to Princess.

Bee Eye 'N' Gee O Inc. owners Chuck Lemenchick and Mark Cosens sent a message to its customers and contractors Jan. 7 notifying them of the closing.

In it, they said they intend to continue operating its St. Catharines and Fort Erie facilities and convert both to E-Bingo in keeping with the approvals they were already granted them by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

"The closure of Delta Bingo Hamilton will allow us to focus our efforts on upgrading and strengthening our remaining locations," the message read.

Farr said he has mixed emotions over the loss.

He said the smaller grass roots local charities will be left suddenly scrambling to offset the "limited revenue Delta Bingo brought them annually".

At the same time the customers who came from all over Hamilton to Delta Bingo will have lost a venue of good fun and entertainment, he said.

However, "I could completely understand and appreciate the argument that 'wouldn't it be nice to have a department store there again'."

[movingtohamilton]

Re. Spec article above....thank you Councilor Farr for your vast imaginative response.

This space was a complete eyesore and reinforced the idea that downtown Hamilton is a dump. So I wonder if Farr is lobbying for electronic gaming in this building? Gotta keep the fun and entertainment going.

[coalminecanary]

How about LCBO?

Keep in mind this building has frontage on three different streets so used creatively it could actually be filled not only with one big store - it could be two, one facing king, one king william - or up to 8 if someone was really creative with the hughson frontage too

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by coalminecanary

How about LCBO?

Keep in mind this building has frontage on three different streets so used creatively it could actually be filled not only with one big store - it could be two, one facing king, one king william - or up to 8 if someone was really creative with the hughson frontage too

Great idea!

Does anyone have info on the owner of the building (per The Spec article), developer Ralph Frisina?

[CaptainKirk]

Originally Posted by fuller

Not my hope, but it's worth noting Shoppers Drug Mart never did replace the store they closed on James St. N.

Wellington and Cannon? Too far?

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

Does anyone have info on the owner of the building (per The Spec article), developer Ralph Frisina?

Frisina Construction (later Frisina Group), led by Ralph's father Al, built the Century 21 building then retreated to the suburbs. In recent years, the company knocked down a Victorian at the elbow of Haymarket Street (you can watch it disappear in Google Maps Street View) and announced plans to build a three-storey, 27,000 square foot office complex on the SW corner of Queen and Main.

Not sure if this would be the same Ralph Frisina who works as a broker for Royal LePage.

[movingtohamilton]

Thank you, thistleclub, for the info on Frisina. Councilor Farr tweeted this, moments ago:

"Hamont Delta Bingo on OLG e-bingo/e-ticket site list is a #moot point now that Delta has announced it is closing - that from Ec-Dev staff."

Call me skeptical but what would prevent Frisina from quickly lining up another tenant and have that property remain on the list as a site for e-gaming?

[CaptainKirk]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

what would prevent Frisina from quickly lining up another tenant and have that property remain on the list as a site for e-gaming?

A good offer, hopefully.

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by CaptainKirk

A good offer, hopefully.

So nothing stands in his way. I assume e-gaming in Hamilton is worth $multiple millions in net revenues over a few years. Why not lease the site to a sure thing?

[thistleclub]

My reading leads me to believe that a bingo hall opening at 45 King East under another name would require little more than paperwork.

Anything is possible at this point, really, including that the business might have already been quietly sold – think of Charles Juravinski selling Flamboro Downs to Magna Entertainment, only with less fanfare – in which case the closure could be a practical matter of redecorating.

[mattgrande]

From Graham Crawford on Facebook:

I just received an email response (second one today actually) from Councillor Jason Farr saying that because of the opposition to e-bingo machines being put into this location, the building was sold.

There was some discussion about converting it into an e-bingo operation, but Delta's discussions with the City were not encouraging for Delta. There is no current information, or at least none that was shared with me, about what the future plans include.

I want to thank my Councillor for responding so quickly to a very real concern.

[SteelTown]

Shoppers at that location would be great, especially now that Shoppers and Loblaws are together. The new Shoppers format includes fresh foods because of that they could probably take the entire main floor.

[movingtohamilton]

Mattgrande, we're both following this on FB. It sounds like the current owner bought the building from the Delta Bingo operator and made that operator the lessee. So now we wait to see what plans Frisina has.

Current opinion is that e-gaming is a no-go for this space. Frisina Group doesn't inspire much confidence, having looked at the link thisleclub posted.

[SteelTown]

Frisina has a long history in Hamilton. They're the group behind the Main/Queen proposal.