Lyric Century | ? | ? | Planning
 

Coming soon to old theatre?
Curtain could rise soon on Lyric Century apartments

May 19, 2009
Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/568150

A much-delayed downtown development project may finally be getting off the ground.

The city has issued a building permit allowing the start of construction on a plan to turn the former Century movie house on Mary Street into an apartment building of 59 units.

City Councillor Bob Bratina -- the project is in his ward -- said the building permit has been issued and deposits paid. All that remains is for work to start.

"All the indications of the start of a project are in place except the start of the project," he said.

Ron Marini, director of downtown development in the city's planning department, said the current permit allows for the back part of the former movie and vaudeville house to be demolished. The front and side facades of the building are to be maintained.

Marini said that when the wrecking ball finally connects with the rotting building it will be an important day for the city's core.

"Let's do it. Let's get going," he said. "Every project downtown is important because the reality is downtown is going to be fixed one project at a time.

"We have to get some people living in that area who have money in their pockets," he added.

The proposal calls for the shell of the old cinema to support a new structure of five storeys and 59 apartment units. The project is backed by Brampton-based developers Zoran Cocov and Dimitar (Jimmy) Gorgiev, operating through a company called Lyric Century Apartments Inc.

In a telephone interview, Gorgiev said final details of the project were expected to be worked out on the long weekend.

"We have to decide about the price and everything else, but we expect to start work very soon," he said. "We still have a few details to work out."

The project has been on the city's books since 2001 when the current owners bought the property. It has been delayed several times for lack of financing. The project has been approved for $1.7 million in support under Hamilton's Downtown Residential Loan Program. It provides five-year interest-free loans of $20 per square foot of habitable living space. As an apartment project it could also be eligible for Hamilton's Municipal Realty Tax Incentive Grant Program. It provides 10 years of rebates on property tax increases resulting from improvements to the property.

The original project called for 97 small condos, but in 2004 the owners said they were going back to the drawing board after seeing the success of projects with larger units such as the Core Lofts in the old Bell Canada building on Bay Street.

Built in 1913 as the Lyric vaudeville house the auditorium held 2,000 people and was billed as the largest theatre in the city.

The structure was remodelled in 1940 into a movie house and renamed the Century, one of Hamilton's seven largest and grandest theatres. Others on the list included the Capitol, Palace, Temple and Tivoli.

The Century is the only one still standing. It was also known as the first cinema in the area -- some say in the country -- to offer air conditioning.

A final remodelling took place in 1967, but the advent of multi-screen venues such as the multiplex at Jackson Square, doomed the large old movie palaces.

The screen went dark for the last time in 1989.

I was hoping for a much more exciting development.
Power wash the unused building now and it would look better then this.
It's better then nothing...barely

Tell me what are they keeping from the existing building? the medallion?

where's the marquee? How cool would it be to have that marquis sign cleaned up and installed on the building.

Found this:

http://www.zoralinvestments.com/properties.html

I'm just a little concerned this project is gonna turn out like "Trinity Landing".

Really - who the heck came up with the name "Trinity Landing"? It should have been called "The Press Plant" and all sorts of original features should've been maintained.

If the Lyric is to be a success - it needs to play off its history and be something special.

I long for the day when someone who works for the city says, "It's important to preserve our older historic buildings, so they don't deteriorate and require wrecking balls............"

Hamilton - where neglect is encouraged!

I'm sure Matt can tell you the condition inside the theatre, I believe floors have collapsed onto each other.

The front facade of the building will be preserved.

and then slathered in stucco, from the looks of the rendering.

You aren't allowed to alter the front facade if it's designed a heritage building.

I totally disagree. I'd say it's rewarded!

why all the negativity??

i like that they considered other successful jobs in the city into making their decision.

It's only been designated by the city. This does not offer as much protection as a provincial designation. They would only have to ask the city for permission to make alterations, and we all know how that would go.

Going from their website - it leaves me less than encouraged they will do a good job with the Lyric. Trust me - I want to see these projects happen. But I don't want a whole pile of ugly Trinity Landings in the core.

Hamilton has to get rid of this "We'll take anything" attitude...

Bank of Montreal building is designated by the City and they wanted to place a sign on the front facade. But they weren't allowed to do so.

That's a pretty special building. I can't see them going out of their way to protect the Lyric. I would love to be proven wrong.

seriously... if this is the rendering.... this is as good as it gets. The finished product will be worse. It's horrible.

They'll probably take the City grant $ remove the asbestos then say "oops we ran out of money" *sound familiar.. ahem ... Connaught*. Then put the building back on the market as a building suitable for development "Asbestos and environmental clean-up costs free". We'll all pay for the clean up to pump the value of the building for the owners.

These guys will pull a Trinity, Connaught and York/Hess scam. It won't happen and I'll be glad it doesn't

I have been in the building and there is not much left of it. There is a lot holes in it and it leak like there is no roof. It has been on the fire departments vacant building death watch list.

This is correct. The various office floors at the front and back of the building feature wood that has rotted right through. There's a lot of holes and at this point, I wouldn't walk through either of those areas at all. It's not safe. The auditorium itself is alright for the most part. A few holes in it's ceiling that let water in but the walls, stage, etc are not too bad. The original roof of the theatre collapsed at least 5 years ago. Most of it sits on what was the original balcony (over the roof of the modern auditorium).

Restoration of the facade is about all we can expect for this building. It's simply much too far gone. According to some people on cinematreasures.org who worked there in the last few years, it had already been going to shit well before it closed. Famous Players didn't keep the place in very good condition, since a large parts of the original building (offices, balcony, backstage) were not in use any more. They just kinda let those areas crumble around the auditorium shell.

The most amazing thing about the interior is the giant backstage area. It goes up the entire tallness of the building, featuring wooden catwalks and staircases, all the way up to a roof hatch. It's a very scary ascent. There is also some graffiti on the brick walls dating back to the 1920's/30's.

Maybe "Trinity Landing" was a religious thing -- as in, it'll be finished when the father, son and holy ghost appear. Possibly a hint of the geographic origins of the numbered corporation (if it's Trinity Road) or the number of equity partners. Or maybe an unimaginative reference to the fact that the stairwell in a four-storey building (pre-cheese-wedge roof addition) might have three landings.

I'm surprised there was much left behind when the Spec moved its operation to Frid -- figured they probably would've sold any equipment they didn't plan on moving, or shifted it to another Southam holding. I was figured that all there was to stay true to was the faded mural on the western facade. Still they could've had some old-timey fun the name. Given the limited t use of the mid-70s era, Duotone might've been good, sounds kind of new-retro (Halftone is probably more accurate but has a negative connotation). Litho would be more mid-century modern. Intaglio if you wanted something really old school-sounding. ;)

(Spec-related... I thought this was funny.)

RIP Lyric. They're not even making a supersized CityPlaces, by the looks of it.