McMaster Primary Health Care Campus | ? | 6 fl | Under Construction

[SteelTown]

That's what you get when you don't watch Dan McLean and his highlighted hair piece!

[raisethehammer]

I guess so. He's a rock star for sure! lol....ok, off to bed. hopefully the spec has some renderings. CH blows.

[SteelTown]

[SteelTown]

City plan includes education centre
But school board to look at other options

January 11, 2008
Rob Faulkner
The Hamilton Spectator

As it tries to decide on the future of its Education Centre, staff at Hamilton's public school board want to see financing details for a new city-proposed Hamilton Education Square project.

The board is trying to decide what to do with its headquarters at 100 Main St. W., a 1967 building that needs millions in repairs and is too small to fit all of the board's non-teaching staff.

City staff last night presented a proposal for the block bounded by King, Main and Bay that would see three public buildings on that site -- the public school board, a new McMaster University family medicine clinic, city public health -- plus two private hotels.

The board had been prepared to see its own staff-recommended option for the future of 100 Main St. W. at a Jan. 28 meeting. As board staff wait to hear more from the city, that date is likely to be missed, manager of planning and accommodation Daryl Sage said.

"We don't need to rush into this big decision," trustee Shirley Glauser said.

The city plan would see the school board sell any land at 100 Main St. W. it doesn't require for a new building there. The Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation, a for-profit agency with city ties, would buy any excess land and develop for Mac and city public health.

The board would be on the corner of Bay and King, public health would be to the south, and Mac would be at Bay and Main. The city says the board could get access to city downtown incentives; board staff wonder if donor David Braley may help financially so the deal happens.

Gord Moodie, co-ordinator of downtown incentives, suggested if the board can sell excess land for $8 million, city programs may chip in an extra $4 million for the joint downtown project.

Trustee Bob Barlow was so eager to hear more that he tried to lift rules on public presentations to ask the city to bring financial details within 30 days. Barlow said renovating 100 Main St. W. is too pricey. The city's plan, presented as trustees heard delegates on the Education Centre, predates the collapsed deal to move city public health from the Right House into the Lister Block, Moodie said.

Trustee Lillian Orban, who wants to retain the existing board headquarters, felt that with Mac and the city proposing a mega-project, it's like people are "ganging up" on the school board.

She asked Tim McCabe, city general manager of planning and economic development, why the city didn't tear down City Hall for the mega-project.

He said Mac's interest in a downtown family medicine centre developed after the debates over City Hall.

Sage said one problem with the joint project is that it doesn't give the board space for its maintenance vehicles as a new site on the Mountain would. It may require a second building, and it would decrease the board's revenue from a land sale at 100 Main St. W. Sage suggested other ideas may be possible. He said board staff may bring forward a recommended option Jan. 28, but if it is the city proposal, it would be done with a caveat to await financing details.

[SteelTown]

[raisethehammer]

can't really figure this out...is Bay St at the bottom?? looks like 12/13 floors facing King and close to 15 facing Main.
no colour doesn't help, but it looks good. they're using all the land which is nice and building streetwalls on all 3 sides.
Doesn't sound like the board is too interested. How about the one guy saying "where will our maintenance vehicles go"?? sheesh, nothing like being a deadbeat, water-thrower instead of thinking for some solutions for about 7 seconds. That's really an earth shattering problem he's talking about.
did CH have this pic or a colour one?

[raisethehammer]

by the way, who did up this plan?? the surrounding buildings dont' appear to be Hamilton. hopefully this wasn't just taken from somewhere else.

[SteelTown]

The bottom street is Main St. The street on the left is Bay St.

[DC83]

^^ Ya, I can't figure it out, either.
I don't think it IS Hamilton??
If u look at the top left corner, you can see train tracks?? There aren't exposed tracks in this part of the core!?

[chris k]

Definetly the best idea proposed so far. Not only are we keeping everyone downtown but gettting a buch of new buildings and NO surface parking. I love it how the rendering (Hamilton or not) incorporated nice new buildings aswell as good wildlife. Can't wait to see that final decision.

[flar]

Even though the rendering is quite strange, the school board should go for this. If all these hotel plans come to fruition, someday Hamilton will have more hotels rooms per capita than any city in the world.

Why would the school board need a fleet of maintenance vehicles at their main office? That's something that could go on the mountain, perhaps at a closed school or something. Put all the office people downtown. The last thing downtown needs is a maintenance yard.

[DC83]

^^ I'm pretty sure they already have a maintenance yard/bldg right beside the Customs House/Workers Heritage Bldg at the Bayfront??

[SteelTown]

Remember the guys who developed this rendering only had like a week to make some changes like Public Health department. So obviously they focused more on the buildings then the surroundings. You can tell this is for the School Board and others because with another rendering that was showed on CH it showed logos on the side of the building.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if we see office space included with one of those towers, Bratina mentioned a bank has expressed interested and I know another company that's interested as well.

[DC83]

a bank, eh? Did Laurentian Bank just up and leave the core when it left it's office in the Scarfone-Hawkins Bldg at King/James? Maybe they'll be moving back?

[raisethehammer]

ahh, I see. if those are the streets as mentioned above then King/Bay is an office tower. the board is going to Bay/King....still doesn't make sense to me though. it says board at Bay/King, public health further south and Mac at Main/Bay.
that's what made me think the bottom street is Bay St...there's 3 distinct buildings along it.
the courtyard looks cool too. i'd hate to lose the board of ed building, but if we do lose it, hopefully it's to a plan like this.

[realcity]

I like it. And ONLY if the Board stays downtown... I'd say tear it down, at least one parking lot is gone and the dumb lawn around the building.

How could anyone not want to work here? and prefer a wasteland, car dependent sprawl campus on the mountain? They must be baby-boomers. Perhaps they'd be happy if they could somehow make a drive-thru office, they'd never have to leave their SUVs.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by realcity

How could anyone not want to work here? and prefer a wasteland, car dependent sprawl campus on the mountain?

b/c there's no drive-thrus... they'd actually have to WALK to get lunch :O W-A-L-K?!?

[SteelTown]

Rooms to grow: Hamilton's flood of hotel proposals

Steve Buist
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 14, 2008)

Unexpectedly, perhaps even inexplicably, Hamilton has suddenly discovered it's become the 'inn' place to be.

After years of suffering from a chronic shortage of hotel space, Hamilton is awash in new proposals and redevelopment plans that could nearly double the city's stock of available hotel rooms.

"It's like rags to riches," said Neil Everson, the city's director of economic development. "I don't really have an explanation for it."

"It's welcome news to us because it has been our Achilles heel for the last number of years," added David Adames, executive director of Tourism Hamilton.

In the past week, three new hotels have been proposed for the lower city.

Two of the new projects, totalling as many as 400 rooms, would be located side by side on the proposed site of Hamilton Education Square, to be situated on the block bounded by King, Bay and Main Streets -- across from the current Sheraton Hotel.

As well, hotelier Oscar Kichi announced that he intends to build a hotel with at least 140 rooms at McMaster University's Innovation Park on Longwood Road South in the city's west end. Kichi already owns and operates the Marriott Courtyard on Upper James Street and the downtown Ramada Plaza, which is currently in the midst of an extensive $5-million renovation.

There are also plans for new hotels at the former Hamilton Motor Products site at the corner of Bay and Main streets, near the corner of Golf Links Road and Stone Church Road in Ancaster's Meadowlands, and a possible Holiday Inn Express at the corner of King and Queen streets.

An eventual reopening of the Royal Connaught hotel is also still in the works, once the current ownership group arranges financing.

"Hotels are just one example of where investors are looking at Hamilton with fresh eyes," said Adames.

He noted that the city may have reached a "tipping point" now that a number of projects have either been proposed or completed, including the innovation park, the education square, McMaster's downtown family health centre and the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

"There's all these good news things coming together and definitely investors are looking at the city," added Adames.

One reason for the unexpected interest could be improving occupancy rates across the province, which have been rebounding since the fallout from the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Hamilton has also been beating the provincial average when it comes to hotel industry standards for average daily rate and revenue per available room.

Another factor, Adames added, is that the city has dedicated staff resources to actively seek out investment opportunities.

Adames said that at present there are close to 900 hotel rooms in the city, but that's a fraction of the 3,600 hotel spaces in London, Ont., or 3,200 rooms in Windsor.

The lack of hotel rooms in Hamilton makes it difficult for the city to attract national and international conventions or sporting events.

"The reason we can't get half the conventions that we'd like is because we don't have the hotel space, and people end up sleeping in Burlington and Brantford," said Everson, "and that really does us no good in terms of economic benefits."

[DC83]

^^ I still don't get why we're building so many new hotels when we've got a gorgeous old one sitting empty??
I mean, I understand the need for Hotel Space in this city... it was a problem well before the Connaught closed. But I mean there are SO MANY proposals for brand-new, several-hundred room hotels to be built new when there is a perfectly fine building dying to be returned to it's former glory!

[coalminecanary]

ask liuna

for some reason they can't make it profitable