Beasley Lofts | ? | 12 fl | Proposed

[Pigeon]

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[Dr Awesomesauce]

Thanks for posting those pics. Is that pigeon sh*t all over the floor??

[Pearlstreet]

Anyone looking to sell in Beasley? I am looking for a duplex. There is currently nothing for sale.

[SteelTown]

http://www.bbtcatunnelproject.ca/brandspace/home.html

[matt602]

Absolutely stunning and very profesional looking concept but it's gonna be a really, really hard sell in that area. Definitely a huge risk being taken here, which is exactly what this city needs. If this can actually happen it's going to go a long way to shouting out to other investors that there is potential and a willing market, even in downtown.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Very cool.

Using it as the School Board office was a good idea but I've always thought it would be an awesome high school. THAT would be an expensive retrofit though.

Isn't Good Shepherd moving out of that old warehouse across Mary? I thought I'd read that somewhere. That would change the neighbourhood sitch somewhat.

[Pearlstreet]

Join the 'Cannon Knitting Mills' Facebook page for up-to-date info on this interesting building and the ongoing improvement events being held!

[SteelTown]

Grand plans for empty downtown factory

http://www.thespec.com/news/business...wntown-factory

The owners of the Cannon Knitting Mills have unveiled a new vision for the vacant factory in the wake of a decision by the public school board to move its headquarters out of the lower city.

They call it the Mills Innovation Exchange and they believe that the combination of wide open space, brick and beam construction and proximity to edgy Hamilton neighbourhoods will encourage technology companies, researchers and creative types to take up residence.

The 110,000-square-foot building at the corner of Cannon and Mary streets was jointly bought by the city and Toronto developer Forum Equity Partners in January 2011.

It’s the first project in a joint venture called Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation which aims to develop key catalyst properties in the city.

The partners had been working on a commercial and retail redevelopment of the property before the chance surfaced to make it the home of the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, which had sold its Main Street site to McMaster University. Demolition has begun on the building and the headquarters is moving to the Mountain.

Now Forum and city representatives are moving forward to line up potential tenants. They envision a mix of users, from post-secondary programs to private businesses, along with neighbourhood-oriented retail such as a coffee shop.

“There’s been lots of discussion,” says Glen Norton, the city’s head of downtown renewal. “Everyone sees value in the building.”

But the renovation, which will entail a remediation of some contaminated soil under the building, will be expensive — likely in the range of $10 million. Rents won’t be cheap and some say the Beasley neighbourhood, will be a tough sell.

Norton acknowledges there are challenges but he says there is demand for unique work space and a burgeoning innovation sector that has outgrown space at McMaster Innovation Park in the city’s west end.

He says the success of Kitchener’s Tannery project — a former vacant warehouse now teeming with tech companies, including Google — shows there is demand for converted industrial space. He is planning a bus trip to take prospective tenants there.

Ramsey Ali, senior vice-president and general counsel of Forum Equity, says there have been plenty of recent positive developments in and around Hamilton’s core. He says the proximity to James Street North, GO service and the adjacent Beasley park will all be attractive to tenants.

“We’re really bullish about Hamilton. We think we can get public education tenants to integrate with private sector tenants.”

Norton is also shopping the project around to the province, hoping to access some pots of money dedicated to neighbourhood redevelopment, innovation and repurposing brownfields.

“What we have is a chance to do something really unique. This is a residential area, a needy community and this could really feed the community.”

While preliminary floor plans have been released, the space is ready to be designed in any way needed, says Norton. David Premi Architects is leading the design.

Some parts of the site, which is actually five buildings knitted together, date back to the 1850s.

Norton stresses this is a for-profit development. The city has lent HRCC $2 million from the Future Fund and the developer has matched that with its own equity.

The Cannon Knitting Mills was in danger of being demolished after the previous owner cut off gas and power and threatened to take it down if a buyer couldn’t be found. Norton felt the property had potential and convinced city officials and Forum to take a chance.

Forum, entirely owned by its president Richard Abboud, has developed or has equity in a wide range of properties, including residential and retail developments, courthouses, jails, Ontario highway service centres, office buildings and arts centres.

While Ali is reluctant to talk about timelines, Norton says he’s hopeful the partners can line up tenants for about half the building and start construction in the spring.

[thistleclub]

From Five-Year Review - Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation (PED11198) (Wards 1, 2 & 3):

"The HRCC was established in July 2006, when City Council approved the Unanimous Stakeholders’ Agreement (USA) and allocated $2 million for capital expenditures and $180,000 for operating costs of the HRCC. The USA governs the day-to-day management, accountability, financial strategy, monitoring and the winding up and liquidation of the HRCC. The USA may be terminated on the earlier date on which the HRCC has made aggregate capital expenditures of not less than $8 million or July 26, 2016 (ten years from the date of the USA).... The Capital Expenditures Satisfaction Date is the date on which the HRCC has made aggregate capital expenditures of not less than $8 million. Basically, that is when the City’s and the private investor’s $2 million initial investment has circulated twice. The City will receive the $2 million initial investment back if funds are available in accordance with the USA."

The trick is to turn a profit. That's important because the HRCC can be dissolved within four years and it's only momentum that will keep it going. The funding model for HRCC sees profits from its current projects used to bankroll future ones, and so on and so on. Stumble early and the race is potentially over.

I believe that the HRCC has a development war chest of $10 million (split 50-50 between the City of Hamilton and FH Investco Inc.), so remediation will be a nailbiter. At the estimates in the Spec article, that works out to be $90/sq ft spread over the functional lifespan of the building, though it does erode profits in the short term.

The Tannery's an interesting model and worth visiting/emulating, though of course it came about as a result of private investment (and followed other major downtown investments in the space of a couple of blocks).

[Duckyboy]

Edgy Hamilton neighborhoods? Is that what they're calling it now... that's rich. Anything to sell, I guess... don't get me wrong, as I hope it happens, but lets be real here; edgy is a real stretch as far as a descriptor to the surrounding area.

[lucasmascotto]

...a needy community...

Hahaha! Couldn't have said it better myself. But, yikes, if their trying to attract investors that's certainly not the wording to do it in.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^Some people actually live in this neighbourhood, so I'd watch what you say.

The building itself is amazing. We take such things for granted in Hamilton and Eastern Canada as a whole. Some cities have no such heritage - industrial or other - yet we have so much that we don't know what to do with it.

The area around the Mills is a mixed bag: The Good Shepherd is nearby; Cannon street is bad; lots of empty lots, etc. But all of those things will be dealt with in due time.

Along those lines, the owners of this building really need to push the City on the Cannon street issue. If people with deep pockets - along with regular Hamiltonians - starting making noise about two-way conversion, it may actually get done this century...maybe.

Anyway, this project is a slam dunk and its effect on the surrounding neighbourhood could be transformational. I wish I had a few extra bucks...

[matt602]

If this actually happens as it's supposed to, in the very least there will have to be some traffic calming done on Cannon, at least through the downtown. You can't have a successful project like this beside a 5 lane, one-way street with cars and trucks screaming by at 60km/h. A friend of mine used to live in the house on the other side of the alley that separates the knitting mills and Beasley Park and the sound in his living room was pretty noticeable, sometimes passing trucks would rattle things off the shelves. Not too great. Upon opening the front door you'd immediately be faced with a wall of fast moving traffic.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

But that's the price of progress in the Hammer. Downtown denizens be damned! Trucks must be given a shortcut beyond all other concerns.

[Pearlstreet]

73 pictures of Cannon Knitting Mills...

http://www.facebook.com/cdspark?ref=...7632721&type=1

[SteelTown]

(a) That a conditional loan commitment totalling $400,000 for the Mary Street Knitting Mill Property Limited, the registered owner of the property located at 134 Cannon Street East (parent company, the Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation, Richard Abboud, President), be authorized and approved in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Hamilton Downtown/West Harbourfront Remediation Loan Program;

(b) That Environmental Remediation and Site Enhancement (ERASE) Redevelopment Grant Application ERG-12-03, submitted by the Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation on behalf of Mary Street Knitting Mill Property Limited, owner of the property at 134 Cannon Street East, for an ERASE Redevelopment Grant not to exceed $1,493,400, payable to the Mary Street Knitting Mill Property

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/...__PED12174.pdf

[thistleclub]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

(a) That a conditional loan commitment totalling $400,000 for the Mary Street Knitting Mill Property Limited, the registered owner of the property located at 134 Cannon Street East (parent company, the Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation, Richard Abboud, President), be authorized and approved in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Hamilton Downtown/West Harbourfront Remediation Loan Program;

(b) That Environmental Remediation and Site Enhancement (ERASE) Redevelopment Grant Application ERG-12-03, submitted by the Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation on behalf of Mary Street Knitting Mill Property Limited, owner of the property at 134 Cannon Street East, for an ERASE Redevelopment Grant not to exceed $1,493,400, payable to the Mary Street Knitting Mill Property

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/...__PED12174.pdf

Between that $1.9m from the city and HRCC's $10m ($5m loan that the city already committed, presumably matched by $5m from Forum Equity), they should be able to solve the Knitting Mill puzzle.

Somewhat disappointed by the status-quo solution (“We think we can get public education tenants to integrate with private sector tenants”) that they've laid out, though. Leveraging public money to elevate downtown is hardly a new idea. They've potentially described a variation on the Lister Block strategy. Hopefully this is just down to the fuzziness of early days.

True, the Tannery didn't manage to do without public money (Waterloo gave Cadan a $891K grant for remediation; the feds chipped in $10.7m toward the Corridor for Advancing Canadian Digital Media), but it was predominantly private money that made it happen (Cadan paid $9.4m for the Tannery, a project that cost around $30m; the feds' millions for CACDM was dwarfed by $50 million in cash and in-kind support from private-sector program partners), a bullishness that made it possible to sell the property earlier this year (to Allied Properties REIT, who previously snapped up a nearby property just to the south for around $14m) for twice the project cost. Now that's bullish.

[thistleclub]

Any relation?

[realcity]

This project is the most speculative development ever. Stinson will build a new tallest before this tinderbox gets built into anything. The Lister had several deliberate arsonist attempts on it before the upper levels of government got interested, thanks to DiIanni.

This building is number #1 on the Hamilton Firefighters list. I know second hand that when this building goes up in flames, it is deemed, do not enter. The place is built from 150 year old hot-burning hard-wood, embedded with cotton fabric fibres. It will heat the city like Plastimet did. There is not much security around it, but there haven't been any fires yet.... for years no fires. Think about it, the next time there is a fire, look at the speculative owners.

[Pearlstreet]

"Dear Internet,

Hi, it's Cannon Knitting Mills speaking, friends call me Knitting Mills. Yes, the building, you've probably heard of me, haven't you spoken to a building before? I came online tonight to seek someone to take me, spin me around and make me feel new again. Isn't that what you do on the internet?

It's been sooo long, I feel mistreated, so what if I'm old. I have style, grace and experience I thought I was about to get schooled by someone, but it turned out to be a tease.

Someone developed, please contact me asap! ...I need to rejuvenate my core.

Don't forget about me,

Miss. Cannon Knitting Mills"