Hamilton International Airport

[ScreamingViking]

“Toronto, to me, it’s an issue,” he said, between travel expenses and the extra time spent in transit. “I’ve flown with Swoop before and been very happy, don’t get me wrong. But I can’t help feel this was just a ruse to get people to buy tickets from Hamilton, knowing full well they would end up flying from Toronto.”
https://www.thespec.com/business/202...da-travel.html

I would feel the same way. Though I understand the issue the airlines have to deal with, trying to run a business in an "unusual" time.

I'm willing to give Swoop and WestJet and others that serve Hamilton leeway given the situation we've been in. But the feds are going to have to open things up sooner rather than later.

[shoelessjoe]

YHM will reopen to scheduled international flights 30 NOV 2021.

[King&James]

Originally Posted by shoelessjoe

YHM will reopen to scheduled international flights 30 NOV 2021.

that is fantastic news

[LikeHamilton]

From Forge & Foster

Panattoni Development purchased Industrial Commercial Investment (ICI) land by the airport for $17.5 million ($717,000 per acre).

2240 & 2254 Upper James Street. Next to and south of the HSR garage.

Broccolini purchased ICI land by the airport for $34 million ($383,000 per acre).

1205 Glancaster Road. This is at the dead end and up against airport property.

[SteelTown]

Jeez $50 million for property near the airport. This reminds me the boom for Upper James after the Linc got built. Everything from the Linc to Rymal is pretty much the result of the Linc.

[JakeLRS]

Swoop Summer 2022 Core Schedule Released

Abbotsford - 1x Daily
Edmonton - 1x Daily
Halifax - 1x Daily
Winnipeg - 1x Daily

Swoop gave Edmonton a massive dump of new routes, so hopefully, we'll get the next dumping of them. Swoop is adding Charlottetown, Comox, London (ON), Moncton, Ottawa, Regina and Saskatoon to their route network. There is no doubt Hamilton will score several of these new destinations soon.

As of now, Swoop will have two aircraft based in Hamilton.
Aircraft 1: YHM-YWG-YHM-YEG-YHM
Aircraft 2: YHM-YXX-YHM-YHZ-YHM

Westjet is still slated for 2x daily Calgary flights.
With the current flights, we'll see 6 daily departures, but I think we all know that will increase exponentially.

[King&James]

Really hoping for the Hamilton Kelowna route to come back!

[JakeLRS]

We'll have to keep an eye out in early 2022.

Calgary-based Lynx Air will be launching with 3 aircraft. Looks like they'll be eyeing domestic routes around Calgary.

Toronto-based? Canada jetlines will hopefully, for real this time, launch as well as they look into being a budget snowbird airline (like sunwing).

I'll be honest, I'm really hoping Lynx adds YHM-YYC, because I absolutely hate seeing how Westjet is charging a premium to fly to YYC from YHM.

Seriously, How does Westjet think it's okay to charge $79 from Kitchener, but $300 from Hamilton.

[shoelessjoe]

In a word, competition.

Originally Posted by JakeLRS

We'll have to keep an eye out in early 2022.

Calgary-based Lynx Air will be launching with 3 aircraft. Looks like they'll be eyeing domestic routes around Calgary.

Toronto-based? Canada jetlines will hopefully, for real this time, launch as well as they look into being a budget snowbird airline (like sunwing).

I'll be honest, I'm really hoping Lynx adds YHM-YYC, because I absolutely hate seeing how Westjet is charging a premium to fly to YYC from YHM.

Seriously, How does Westjet think it's okay to charge $79 from Kitchener, but $300 from Hamilton.

[ScreamingViking]

It would take me about 20 mins to get to Hamilton airport from my home. It's 45 mins in good traffic to Pearson, and 50 mins to Waterloo.

So why bother offering lower priced flights from Hamilton when there are some available to people like me at alternate airports, that are still much cheaper if including the personal cost of ground transport and parking.


Competitors to Westjet/Swoop will be very welcome at Hamilton. Let's just hope the market will be strong enough to support them, and that they'll be able to withstand Westjet's fight.

[Innsertnamehere]

Is it just me or did Hamilton vastly increase their parking fees? I thought I remembered it being closer to $60/week for parking, now its $135/week (!!). Toronto Pearson's value lot is cheaper, yet alone the discount shuttle lots!

[Markus83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Jeez $50 million for property near the airport. This reminds me the boom for Upper James after the Linc got built. Everything from the Linc to Rymal is pretty much the result of the Linc.

Case in point, that the Downtown peeps didn't think it wise because it didn't do anything for them with their tax dollars when the LINC was conceived and built. In reality it did and does and will do time and time again forever growing.
The Mountain peeps complaining about how the LRT won't benefit them directly with their tax dollars at work, and I won't list them, because there are just far too many to jot down.
People have to look at the big picture, the long game because in this industry that is what you are working with on many levels.
Well, that's just my viewpoint.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Markus83

Case in point, that the Downtown peeps didn't think it wise because it didn't do anything for them with their tax dollars when the LINC was conceived and built. In reality it did and does and will do time and time again forever growing.
The Mountain peeps complaining about how the LRT won't benefit them directly with their tax dollars at work, and I won't list them, because there are just far too many to jot down.
People have to look at the big picture, the long game because in this industry that is what you are working with on many levels.
Well, that's just my viewpoint.

Your point of view is the way I think people should look at things.

There was (and is) angst about the "Airport Employment Growth District" too.

You'll rarely get universal agreement on anything, but every opportunity the city embraces brings something good to all its citizens, even the ones who don't benefit directly.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Your point of view is the way I think people should look at things.

There was (and is) angst about the "Airport Employment Growth District" too.

You'll rarely get universal agreement on anything, but every opportunity the city embraces brings something good to all its citizens, even the ones who don't benefit directly.

There's often angst from downtown residents like me because suburban expansion, suburban style parking lots and car oriented development are often paid for by much of our property taxes. Downtown residents pay the highest property tax per sq ft in the city, and highest per capita.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

There's often angst from downtown residents like me because suburban expansion, suburban style parking lots and car oriented development are often paid for by much of our property taxes. Downtown residents pay the highest property tax per sq ft in the city, and highest per capita.

I was referring to employment land development. The stuff around the airport is important to our economy now and will be more so in the future. Same goes for the redevelopment of industrial lands in the north end.

I agree with you about what's paying for what. Suburban housing and much of the retail is not developed in a way that is financially sustainable in the longer term. Builders can cry all they want about people passing Hamilton by if there are no more greenfield SFHs available in the future, or that development charges aren't always spent by cities, but the reality is they cover only a fraction of the long term costs of infrastructure and services.

I hear some in the suburbs complaining about their taxes and how much they're going up, and how they "subsidize" the old city of Hamilton, but in reality there are many things those tax revenues have to cover in the suburban fringe, and the future maintenance and replacement costs for that infrastructure won't be cheap.

We live just west of downtown. Our property taxes are approaching $6,000 per year and I bet they will reach that in 2022; they rose 4% in 2020 and nearly 11% (!) in 2021. This for a 95-year-old modified 2-storey home of fairly modest square footage on a narrow lot. I'm not griping about the amount, but we're definitely not living in some haven financed by homeowners in Flamborough or Ancaster or the Stoney Creek mountain.

[ScreamingViking]

On a related note, the Amazon signage is up on their new building. Noticed it today, driving that section of Upper James.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

I was referring to employment land development. The stuff around the airport is important to our economy now and will be more so in the future. Same goes for the redevelopment of industrial lands in the north end.

I agree with you about what's paying for what. Suburban housing and much of the retail is not developed in a way that is financially sustainable in the longer term. Builders can cry all they want about people passing Hamilton by if there are no more greenfield SFHs available in the future, or that development charges aren't always spent by cities, but the reality is they cover only a fraction of the long term costs of infrastructure and services.

I hear some in the suburbs complaining about their taxes and how much they're going up, and how they "subsidize" the old city of Hamilton, but in reality there are many things those tax revenues have to cover in the suburban fringe, and the future maintenance and replacement costs for that infrastructure won't be cheap.

We live just west of downtown. Our property taxes are approaching $6,000 per year and I bet they will reach that in 2022; they rose 4% in 2020 and nearly 11% (!) in 2021. This for a 95-year-old modified 2-storey home of fairly modest square footage on a narrow lot. I'm not griping about the amount, but we're definitely not living in some haven financed by homeowners in Flamborough or Ancaster or the Stoney Creek mountain.

Hmm, 11% in 2021? How did that happen? The citywide rate was 4% or so I thought last year? I know my taxes seemed to barely change at all, though with area rating I think Stoney Creeks ended up being a bit below the city-wide rate.

Reassessment keeps getting delayed too so it's not from that..

Reassessment is going to be a fun one for Hamilton whenever it ends up happening. The lower city's property taxes are going to go through the roof as the assessed value of the lower city has skyrocketed since 2016, even more so than the mountain. There are a lot of houses in the east end that are selling for $600k that have $100-150k assessed values..

Suburban residential can be sustainable if it's taxed properly, but a lot of municipalities problems is that they try to keep residential taxes low by instituting very high commercial rates (Hamilton has basically the highest commercial / industrial tax rate in the GTHA). Hamilton's problem is that up until very recently it's industrial tax base was shrinking quite rapidly while it's suburban tax base was growing.. causing issues. The increased amount of industrial development in the city will help immensely with this, and eventually will ease budgetary pressures. Industrial eats up farmland like crazy but it's much higher tax rates means it's actually more sustainable from a municipal finance perspective than subdivisions as they need far less services and the increased tax rates makes up for the higher costs of the low density.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Hmm, 11% in 2021? How did that happen? The citywide rate was 4% or so I thought last year? I know my taxes seemed to barely change at all, though with area rating I think Stoney Creeks ended up being a bit below the city-wide rate.

Reassessment keeps getting delayed too so it's not from that..

Reassessment is going to be a fun one for Hamilton whenever it ends up happening. The lower city's property taxes are going to go through the roof as the assessed value of the lower city has skyrocketed since 2016, even more so than the mountain. There are a lot of houses in the east end that are selling for $600k that have $100-150k assessed values..

Suburban residential can be sustainable if it's taxed properly, but a lot of municipalities problems is that they try to keep residential taxes low by instituting very high commercial rates (Hamilton has basically the highest commercial / industrial tax rate in the GTHA). Hamilton's problem is that up until very recently it's industrial tax base was shrinking quite rapidly while it's suburban tax base was growing.. causing issues. The increased amount of industrial development in the city will help immensely with this, and eventually will ease budgetary pressures. Industrial eats up farmland like crazy but it's much higher tax rates means it's actually more sustainable from a municipal finance perspective than subdivisions as they need far less services and the increased tax rates makes up for the higher costs of the low density.

Assessment value doesn't matter too much because property taxes are done on a proportional basis. It doesn't matter that the $600,000 property is assessed at $150,000 so long as the $1m property is assessed at $250,000.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Hmm, 11% in 2021? How did that happen? The citywide rate was 4% or so I thought last year? I know my taxes seemed to barely change at all, though with area rating I think Stoney Creeks ended up being a bit below the city-wide rate.

Our assessed value did increase, by 9%, so that is why. Looking up neighbouring properties on the city's inquiry site, some had even larger property tax increases while others were below 2%. It's a mixed bag here. Hopefully our 2022 increase will be smaller, but I suspect it will still be 4 or 5%.

We've been in this home less than two years, so our tax history is limited. But there's a huge gap between our assessment and the likely re-sale value of the home, and also a gap between that of our home and similar properties. I expect the assessment will keep going up, but I think what's happened is some assessments on our street have risen faster relative to the broader neighbourhood, which is likely to catch up... there is still a lot of gentrification happening here.

The housing stock is also very mixed -- it's mostly composed of houses built in the early 20th century; some are two-storey brick, and some are single-floor with wood siding. A number of homes have been extensively renovated, but many have had nothing done to them in years. There are several properties where newer houses were built in the 1970s or 80s, and a couple with brand new structures on them or planned to be built soon.

[urban_planner]

Perhaps we can have someone start a new thread about tax rates rather than flood the airport thread.

Thanks