18-30 King St East | 106.9m | 32 fl | Proposed

[ScreamingViking]

It's great that they did that after the winter weather.

[flar]

Originally Posted by mattgrande

Anyone have a realistic estimate of what those buildings would be worth today?

I can only imagine Dr. Evil saying "one million dollars"

Downtown Hamilton is a strange place. It's almost impossible to put a price on properties there. It seems like some places go for dirt cheap, and others are unrealistically expensive. There are too many properties that people have been hanging onto for decades, with little or no improvement, in the hopes they would be able to sell them for top dollar in the impending boom.

So, from the pessimist's perspective, the buildings are worthless because they require a big investment and have limited potential to generate income, and from the optimist's perspective they are worth a couple million simply due to their location, or perhaps because of their historic character.

[CaptainKirk]

From the CBC's twitter account...

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^Lost opportunities. That's what urbanists always say when they see the south side of King.

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

^Lost opportunities. That's what urbanists always say when they see the south side of King.

Not lost yet.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^I hope you're right but, realistically, what are the possible outcomes to this situation?

*Demolition (active or through neglect) > a good possibility
*Complete restoration > highly unlikely
*Facade restoration > maybe

Restoring those buildings has never been part of his plan. So perhaps the best case scenario is that those facades are saved (with public money) with a hulking parking garage in behind. It's hard to imagine anything else transpiring quite frankly.

[lucasmascotto]

Developer boards up Gore buildings; abandons property standards appeal
The Hamilton Spectator
By: Matthew Van Dongen


David Blanchard has boarded up five Gore Park heritage buildings he wants to tear down even as he argues there is little left inside to protect.

The well-known developer abandoned his appeal of property standards orders and avoided a hearing Monday by using plywood to block broken windows and holes in the damaged building facades of 18-28 King St.

But Blanchard characterized the effort as "largely pointless" Monday and said he hasn't given up on a separate appeal of the heritage designations imposed by council in December. The surprise move voided demolition permits held by Blanchard since January 2013.

"We blocked it up, but the only thing that could possibly be saved from those buildings now is the facades — the rest is garbage," he said. "They've been sitting there all winter without heat, probably flooding, full of mould … I wouldn't want to go in there now."

A peek in the streetside windows shows collapsed ceilings and debris in the buildings, which have been empty for more than a year.

Blanchard has appealed the heritage designations to the provincial conservation review board, but that hearing has yet to be scheduled

He said his staff is scheduled to meet with the city this week to talk about how such a hearing could be avoided.

"I'm still willing to talk, but I don't know what will come out it. You can preserve the facades, but it will be too expensive … If the city wants to do it so badly, maybe they can pay for it."

Prior to designating the buildings last year, council made up to $1.1 million in heritage grants available for the Gore buildings.

Blanchard estimates it will cost between $2 million and $2.5 million to preserve and incorporate the old stone and brick facades into a planned condo and commercial development.

Ward Councillor Jason Farr said Monday he was pleased the building owner complied with the city property standards order. He called the opportunity for continued negotiations over the heritage appeal "encouraging."

So did Diane Dent, president of the Heritage Hamilton Foundation.

"I think David Blanchard will ultimately see the benefit of working with the community on this," said Dent, who showed up Monday to watch the cancelled property standards hearing.

She said she's reached out to the developer to say heritage advocacy groups are interested in helping preserve and find uses for the dilapidated buildings, which date back to the 1840s and 1870s.

"I think if he reaches out, people are interested in being part of the solution," she said.

[oldcoote]

Blanchard is an ass.

[ScreamingViking]

"They've been sitting there all winter without heat, probably flooding, full of mould … "

Yes David, because you removed parts of the facades before the winter and left the buildings more open to the elements until a couple of weeks ago.

[Pigeon]

.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by Pigeon

Dave Blanchard Hates Hamilton.

I hear he leaves babies in Gore Park in the middle of the night as a sacrifice to the White Walkers.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^...and he's a total jerk face!

Worst Hamiltonian ever...for the moment.

[Jon Dalton]

^ The jerk store called....

[HillStreetBlues]

...David Blanchard's their all-time best seller.

[thomax]

CBC Hamilton: 'Demolition by neglect': Gore buildings rotting away

'The whole character and heart of the city has been ripped out and we're still ripping it out'

By Adam Carter

A strip of historic buildings lining Gore Park has endured two frigid winters exposed to the elements without heat, and now it's just a matter of time before they rot away, says the city's former head of heritage planning.

This lengthy saga between the city and Wilson Blanchard is turning into just what some feared – demolition by neglect, says Philip Hoad, the city's former manager of Heritage Facilities and Capital Planning.

"Leaving a building vacant and unheated is going to exponentially increase its deterioration," Hoad told CBC Hamilton. "The constant freeze-thaw cycle just blows apart the building materials."

"These century buildings are what gives a city its heart and soul. Well, the whole character and heart of the city has been ripped out and we're still ripping it out."

Hughson Business Space Corporation owns 18-28 King Street East, and bought the historic 19th century properties in 2000. The developer tried to demolish the buildings back in 2013, but a sudden city heritage designation halted the process.

Since then, it has been a back and forth between the city and developer David Blanchard over what to do with the buildings, and if pieces of them can be saved.

They've sat vacant since then, and time has not been kind. The old-growth wood and hand-built stone with its original mason signatures have faced two of Hamilton's harshest winters on record.

Pieces of the building's facades were removed and put in storage with the intention of saving them. Now moisture has started creeping into the buildings. There are broken, uncovered windows in some buildings, and pieces of the ceiling have collapsed and sent chunks of wood and plaster cascading to the floor in another.

full story...

[matt602]

No surprise here. It's the Century theatre all over again, and we remember how that turned out.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

It's a shame that adults can't learn to be...adults!

[The Gore]

Its been two winters already! What a shame its come to this.

[davidcappi]

I can't wait for the shit storm that comes when one of these collapses.

[markbarbera]

So, two years ago, the City quietly issued a demolition permit for these buildings, then at the last minute, after an outcry from historical preservationists, Council decided to rescind the permit and designated the buildings as historic. Now, despite the predictions of some who genuinely believed (hoped?) that century-old buildings with exposed wood-framed structures would manage to withstand a Canadian winter, the buildings have gone through two winters and are now essentially being demolished by neglect.

One way or another, the buildings are inevitably going to come down. We had a chance to strike a collaborative approach for redevelopment of the site, which may have led to at least the facades being preserved in some way in whatever ultimately ended up at this site, but that was lost when Council decided to take on a confrontational approach to the site's redevelopment.

Looks like the only thing achieved on December 12, 2013 was Jason Farr being given the apparently false title of Hero of Gore Park.