Apex Condos | ? | 23 fl | Approved

[DC1983]

Originally Posted by hammerton

There's a sign for a new commercial development at Queen and Main (SW). Anyone know what's the story behind that?

by me from today

[fuller]

The Frisina website says they are a Residential/Commercial/Institutional developer. It also says they built Landmark Place. They are presently located on Hughson.

[matt602]

That certainly looks right at home in the suburbs.

[geoff's two cents]

Originally Posted by matt602

That certainly looks right at home in the suburbs.

Agreed - It interacts horribly with the street. Hopefully it's not an actual rendering but just a concept.

[DC1983]

Originally Posted by geoff's two cents

Agreed - It interacts horribly with the street. Hopefully it's not an actual rendering but just a concept.

From my understanding, it's the actual render.

It seems like there is either retail or res. units (?) on the Queen St side of the bldg? lol

Weird lil piece of architecture.

[SteelTown]

I don't mind the design, it kinda reminds me of the office building in the Meadowlands. Too bad this wasn't built five years ago, might have kept Dalton Timmis Insurance in the area.

I like the black facade, modern and clean. The surrounding area are all mostly 2 to 3 stories so this will blend it.

Glad to see Frisina is back at it, hopefully the son will carry on his father's legacy.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

I don't mind the design, it kinda reminds me of the office building in the Meadowlands.

...and that's the problem, my friend.

[thompsdk]

Certainly looks better than the gas station that was there previously and much preferred to the strip plaza across the street. The height and street frontage looks right. Although people can't seem to get away from the whole stone facade thing right now.

Little victories, eh?

[geoff's two cents]

My primary concern is that having new construction along these lines will reinforce Main St. as the quasi-freeway thoroughfare it currently is, instead of planning new construction around what most sane people agree will be an eventual lane reduction and transition to two-way traffic.

At the very least, I hope council has the common sense to wait until the B-line LRT route is nailed down before giving it the go-ahead. Should the line end up on Main, construction like this would be a real waste of prime spinoff potential. For goodness sake, isn't there an LRT stop planned for Queen?

As for looking better than the plaza across the street, I agree, but with the caveat that this is new construction the neighbourhood would be stuck with for the next 50 years, whereas the plaza could obviously be redeveloped in the event that Main is converted to two-way and/or LRT.

[thistleclub]

Frisina has been back at it a while, just in a very conventional, conservative mode. The company's Twitter account hints at an appetite for more progressive development, but we'll see. A footprint at this location (even at the SW edge of the downtown) surely means something. An industrial commercial condo like this would be equally at home on a service road off the highway, so this may signal something.

On first glance, the street personality is a bit hostile to pedestrians, more so even than the Bay/Main Bank of Montreal (here it's built right to the narrow sidewalk on Main), but that's the norm on that stretch of road and I'll take it on faith that this is just a rendering. It wasn't that long ago that the company was looking to "build to suit," so I'm not sure what tipped the balance for them here, aside from branding the company – their current offices above the GO station on Hughson South are more downtown than this, but low-key. I must say, though, that this may be a fairly inert presence, since its cornerstone tenants will be Frisina and Royal LePage and there's certainly no shortage of office space in the core.

[SteelTown]

Al Frisina has submitted his plans to the City.

First he needs to change the bylaw zoning from Community Shopping and Commerical to retail/office.

The site plan contains underground parking.

Lintack is the architect.

[SteelTown]

Looks like progress is being made....

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/.../BillNo067.pdf

Requesting to amend zoning by-law.

[SteelTown]

http://www.235mainwest.com/

[Dr Awesomesauce]

If Main St were a slower, friendlier street, we'd likely see a better design. As it is, though, nobody wants to sit outside at a cafe on Main [or Queen for that matter], so it's only natural that this is what we're being given.

[SteelTown]

They've found a tenant! National Bank

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/...__PED12212.pdf

That a grant in the estimated amount of $162,390.31 under the Hamilton Downtown Property Improvement Grant Program

But it's now 2 storey instead of 3.

[Pearlstreet]

The gap in the teeth is no more - how exciting! I have been anticipating forever as I'm close by. What a ton of good advancement in the past few weeks, making my head spin...

[durandy]

a bank branch? Crazy! This will be invisible to traffic coming up the hill. Once cars drive out of the parking lot they'll be routed into a right turning lane taking them into the labyrinth of Queen st S. It gets hardly any pedestrian traffic because Main is such a shitshow.

It only makes sense if the street is two-way or if they're counting on traffic coming north on Queen.

Great news but really weird choice. But on the bright side, the more serious businesses we get on Main (and I don't mean Zizzo's car wash), the more the case for two-way will be strengthened.

[urban_planner]

Originally Posted by durandy

a bank branch? Crazy! This will be invisible to traffic coming up the hill. Once cars drive out of the parking lot they'll be routed into a right turning lane taking them into the labyrinth of Queen st S. It gets hardly any pedestrian traffic because Main is such a shitshow.

It only makes sense if the street is two-way or if they're counting on traffic coming north on Queen.

Great news but really weird choice. But on the bright side, the more serious businesses we get on Main (and I don't mean Zizzo's car wash), the more the case for two-way will be strengthened.

Unfortunatly this could also make a case against 2 way as people might say oh look main street is attracting business even though its one way!

Just saying!

I am all for 2 way though!

[Dr Awesomesauce]

I'll eat my shoe if Main goes two-way in the next 25 years.

Two-way proponents (such as myself) should start to aim a little lower and push for fewer lanes (2-3) with parking and a cycling lane. The two-way issue is far too explosive to even be broached by our too-lame City councillors and staff.

[durandy]

funny thing is there's already parking on stretches of Main - but the street is so bad that people don't use it. Too afraid to stop I think. I once parked at the meters at Main and Locke and both of them were practically rusted shut. Neither took my money.

I think if we first got rid of the green wave, then a bicycle lane, then two way might be more realistic.

But on the other hand with the Vranich and Mac developments and all the other business popping up on the street, it will be increasingly hard to discount the economic sense of making it two way. And if council is swayed by anything it's money.