Eleven storeys where high hopes live
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator
(Aug 1, 2008)
The moment has been a long time coming, but on King East near Wellington they're nearly ready to welcome 11 storeys of new residents into the core.
There's an open house tomorrow afternoon from 1 to 4 for people who think they might like to live at the Terraces on King, the apartment tower that has risen slowly from a site of long despair.
In 1911, lawyer Sanford Biggar -- once mayor of Hamilton -- built a fine three-storey apartment block and called it the St. Denys. After a few generations, however, it was no longer an address to be envied.
Still, there was affordable housing over the stores in the St. Denys block. But everyone got evicted in the early '90s when a developer arrived with ambitious plans.
He got nowhere. In the mid-'90s, the St. Denys was bought by the Spallacci Group, a family that has been building highrises and homes in the Hamilton area and beyond for some 50 years.
The company sat on the property, waiting for the right deal. And that came along in 2005 with something called Strong Start, an affordable rental housing program.
Spallacci would erect a 123-unit $16.5 million building and the city would kick in $1.8 million, plus a combined provincial and federal contribution of $8.6 million.
The first estimate was that tenants would be moving in by spring of 2007. But permits took time, the weather was unco-operative and construction in a tight space like King Street East brings all manner of challenges.
There's no sideyard, no back yard. Everything has to come in the front door -- steel, drywall, flooring, plumbing, lights.
And cement. The trucks had to perform a tricky ballet on that narrow piece of King East. At the peak, there was a new cement truck rolling in every 15 minutes.
So traffic sometimes got clogged. And the sidewalk has been shut down through the whole project. Yet the crews building the tower made no enemies.
"People around here like us," says Joe Amaral, carpenters' foreman. "This building is good for the city."
He is halfway through a platter of sausage and potato salad, served to him and 50 co-workers this week, topped off by a big cake decorated like a construction site.
The lunch was the work of Mary Pocius and friends. She runs the International Village business association and wanted to say thank you to the tower's crew.
"We'll miss these guys," she says. "They've done their job brilliantly."
Pocius has had many successes on her stretch of street. But the boarded-up St. Denys kept her awake at night. "It's my Lister Block," she once declared.
So now, as workers place the final bricks, smooth the stucco, bolt on the rails, she is filled with gratitude.
There was an event along the way that made many happy. When Spallacci knocked the St. Denys down in the spring of 2006, it revealed a huge and wonderfully preserved billboard painted a century ago on the wall of the Denninger's flagship store.
It said: "Drink Coca-Cola. Delicious and Refreshing! Relieves Fatigue. Sold Everywhere. Five Cents."
Many came by to get pictures of the lost art. Then, as the Terraces rose, the Coke work slipped from sight.
Yet here we are drinking it in again from the east window of a model suite on the second floor. A conversation piece for sure.
Other features -- ceramic in the bathroom, open-concept kitchen and, in many units, sliding patio doors opening to french balconies that look out to the harbour or escarpment.
In the back, there's a large garden common area. In front, an airy entrance, with granite-look flooring , coffered ceiling, big chandelier.
Downtown will have truly turned the corner when developers decide to erect such buildings without government incentives, just the way condos are going up now in downtowns like Burlington, Oakville, Toronto.
The Terraces on King are an important step in making the core more vibrant, but the people living here will not have the resources to leave much in the tills of downtown shops, restaurants, theatre.
For 20 years, rents in the building are required to stay 20 per cent below market. The opening rents at the Terraces -- $480 to $623 for a one-bedroom; $565 to $692 for a two-bedroom. Utilities will add another $75 or so.
But to qualify, you must have a household income of no more than $28,000. That's somebody earning about $14 an hour.
Rudi Spallacci thinks people will be proud to move in here.
And he says his family's company will be managing the Terraces on King itself.
"We want to make sure this place is looked after properly. Then people keep it clean, keep it nice. That's what you want."
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