Originally Posted by markbarbera
Pay no heed, RTH. Come springtime naysayers like BCTed will be eating crow bigtime.
I have to admit, my initial reaction to Stinson's appearance in the Hamilton scene was greeted by scepticism, based mostly by the bad press articles about him during the past year. However, I dug a bit deeper and did a bit of research on Stinson's role in development in Toronto. In a nutshell, some of the projects he started he saw right through to the end, but not all. I decided to research the projects that Stinson did not see right through to see what went wrong. Know what I found out? They did not go wrong at all - just shifted hands to different developers.
For example, a few days back, BCTed described The Candy Lofts as a Stinson failure. I thought to myself, wait a minute, this was a successful condo development in Toronto, why is he going on about this being a failure? So I read up on the Candy Factory. This was a development that Stinson envisioned over a decade ago. It was also his first stab at development on a large scale, and a learning experience for Stinson on municipal bureaucracy and financial backers. The development was delayed due to city planners' concerns about the redevelopment of a former industrial space as a residence. He also had difficulty securing financing from banks because they saw the site as in an unsavoury part of town and therefore an unsound investment (sound familiar?).
The protracted delays stretched Stinson's development costs to his limit, so he sold the development to Metroontario Group. They were an established development firm with deep pockets, and were able to see it through to the end. Today, the Candy Factory is a highly successful condo development which set the standard for future redevelopment of former commercial spaces in Toronto into condominium residences.
Another 'failure' Stinson's critics cite is 1 King. The fact of the matter is that this development is the first successful high-end hotel condiminium development in Toronto. It is perceived as a failure because a group of investors, led by David Mirvish, launched a law suit against Stinson because their investment return is not as high as he projected, due to the fact that municipal taxes are using the commercial rate rather than the residential rate that Stinson used to estimate their returns on investment. Again, I emphasize their beef is they are not making as much money as they thought they would, which is very different than losing money on an investment. The fact that 1 King was recently recognized with a Pug Award for Toronto's best new residential development.
Finally, there is the latest Stinson development that BCTed describes as a 'failure' - the Sapphire. Again, this is a development that has been delayed by city hall planners concerned that its height would cast a shadow across Nathan Phillips Square. This has led to nearly two years of delays and significant cost overruns as designs were redrwan several times over. With the Mirvish lawsuit pushing Stinson's development business into bankruptcy protection, Stinson decided to sell Sapphire to generate funds sufficient to settle the bacnkruptcy claim. This was a hard decision no doubt, because the signature tower was meant to be Stinson's greatest development triumph. However, its sale settles his bancruptcy and positions him to do what all visionary developers do: carry on. To our good fortune, his creative energies are being brought down the road to Hamilton. And, for the record, Sapphire is carrying on much like the Candy Factory, only with another development firm seeing it through to the end.
Upon reflection, these items could be described as setbacks for Stinson's business specifically. However, it should be noted that, of his perceived failures, the Candy Factory and 1 King developments are successfully completed, and the Sapphire is on the road to development. Toronto has benefitted greatly by these developments, as Hamilton will be by whatever developments Stinson starts on in this city. That's a heck of a lot more than what Hamilton is getting from its current set of so-called developers.
I say we roll out the red carpet for Stinson, and any of his Toronto colleagues who may now take Hamilton much more seriously due to his interest in the Hammer.
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