TESTIMONIALS

Stinson back with Grand plan

April 07, 2010 

Andrew Dreschel

The Hamilton Spectator

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/749158

Developer Harry Stinson's plan for a multimillion-dollar condo hotel in the downtown is back on track.

Almost a year after pulling the plug on the Hamilton Grand, Stinson said he's secured new financial backing to push ahead with a $30-million, 15-storey project at the southeast corner of John and Main streets.

Shell Canada confirms it recently sold the land, the site of a former gas station, to Stinson. According to Stinson, the price was $625,000.

He and Shell also entered into a joint remediation agreement that should see shovels in the ground within 60 days.

Stinson said the Grand -- featuring some 300 residential units, two floors of office and commercial space, underground parking and a 24-hour restaurant -- will be completed within two years.

"Fundamentally, this will be a singles building," said Stinson, the man once dubbed Toronto's condo king for his visionary developments.

Glen Norton, senior development consultant with Hamilton's downtown renewal office, said it's good news for the core because it cleans up a polluted brownfield and promises to bring more residents into the heart of the city.

"We're pretty excited about it," Norton said.

"These are people who will be on the street at nighttime making it feel safer; they will be shopping downtown; they will be animating the whole area."

The project came to a screeching stop last summer after panicky investors backed out in the face of an Ontario Securities Commission investigation of a Toronto-based private real estate investment club whose members were partially financing the venture.

Stinson declines to reveal who his new funders are, other than to say one of the silent partners is local while others are from out of town, as is the case in his ongoing Stinson Street School condo project in central Hamilton.

While the Grand was on ice, Stinson modified the concept, collapsing ceiling heights, shrinking room sizes, extending the building by two storeys and gearing sales primarily to young urban professionals and academics.

"Notwithstanding everyone's wistful rhetoric about restoring downtown, the reality is that the only people who really seem to believe in and like downtown are the younger demographic."

Stinson's design envisions the top two floors as 60 full-service hotel suites.

The ground floor will house a bar and 24-hour cafe. The next two levels will be office and commercial studios.

The rest of the building will be given over to "very compact" studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments that can be purchased for personal living space or for leasing out.

The studios start at $79,000; one bedrooms at $99,900; two bedrooms at $169,900.

Flexibility is clearly a key marketing point.

If buyers choose to lease their condo units, Stinson said the Grand will have a rental program in place to assist them.

If buyers want to move right in, the Grand will sell them a $10,000 furniture package.

Stinson said the idea is to extend the services and amenities of a hotel -- front desk staff, housekeeping, 24-hour security -- to condo owners and renters alike.

"If you are a resident in the building and you want to order a hamburger from room service at two o' clock in the morning, you can do it," he said.

Give Stinson points for frankness.

He said there will be no elaborate landscaping. The building will go right to the curb. And the floor plans are formulaic. The office units -- which will start at $59,000 -- are simply stripped down versions of the residential units.

The brick and stone facade, however, is a different matter. Stinson's concept drawing depicts a classic chateau-style hotel with arched ground-floor windows, a strikingly green mansard roof and mustard-coloured top floors.

Stinson said he wants primary colours up there, lots of jewel tones.

"We wanted to really stand out from all the grey and taupe and beige and more grey (that's in the core)."