I think Hamilton has plenty of older buildings and plenty of time before glass boxes dominate. To be honest, I think this church mashup with a condo tower just looks odd and unnatural and would not care if the church part was just demolished and excluded from any build.
 
Sunnyside said:
You’re writing off the possibility of this company being set up specifically by somebody else (a developer, maybe) to own and develop these lands. Is it likely? No, but it’s not uncommon. What is uncommon is not financing that purchase.

Flipping doesn’t strike me as a great laundering method compared to fully building, either- but I don’t really know.
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Im just looking at their portfolio (zero) and their level of experience (near zero) and it's pretty obvious they aren't serious about building anything.
 
TheHonestMaple said:
Im just looking at their portfolio (zero) and their level of experience (near zero) and it's pretty obvious they aren't serious about building anything.
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Oh I get that- I'm trying to say that we don't know if they're actually an affiliate/subsidiary of someone who does have experience, as opposed to a trust fund kid.

Full disclosure, I give the odds of it being a subsidiary of another developer only about 33%. It is slightly more likely this is a property flipper, ie. 'developer in name only'. But those people usually get some extra permits or planning approvals to make it worth their while, which is still a win to some degree.
 
Sunnyside said:
Oh I get that- I'm trying to say that we don't know if they're actually an affiliate/subsidiary of someone who does have experience, as opposed to a trust fund kid.

Full disclosure, I give the odds of it being a subsidiary of another developer only about 33%. It is slightly more likely this is a property flipper, ie. 'developer in name only'. But those people usually get some extra permits or planning approvals to make it worth their while, which is still a win to some degree.
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Totally agree. Just frustrating since this has now been flipped like, 3 times already? The city should just expropriate it at this point and give it to a serious developer at a massive discount. I'm not usually in favour of taxpayers taking on the burden, but it's getting to the point of ridiculous and is a massive eye sore in our downtown.
 
TheHonestMaple said:
Totally agree. Just frustrating since this has now been flipped like, 3 times already? The city should just expropriate it at this point and give it to a serious developer at a massive discount. I'm not usually in favour of taxpayers taking on the burden, but it's getting to the point of ridiculous and is a massive eye sore in our downtown.
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Completely agree. It is unfortunately ground zero for speculation in this city, and I do understand why- it’s desirable enough for even the bigger developers. But the value is now so inflated by already having approvals and permits, the site is perfectly priced in. Ripe for investors to play their games.

Given that, I don’t know if the city can even justify swooping in to pay full market price. This isn’t the only site they would need to look at either (ahem, the Gore Park lofts assembly).
 
BCTed said:
I think Hamilton has plenty of older buildings and plenty of time before glass boxes dominate. To be honest, I think this church mashup with a condo tower just looks odd and unnatural and would not care if the church part was just demolished and excluded from any build.
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Whereas I think its the opposite - and I think that this build would look better with a piggott style build - it's not that far from the piggott anyways and would tie in well with the church facade AND the building behind it - not EVERY skyscraper has to be made with purely glass and steel. Doesnt need to be pure stone - can be the concrete facade like core urban uses.

I think we can ALL agree however that the previous renderings of modern and traditional looked awkward - this needs to be given the respect it deserves. The entrance is pretty solid as I am pretty sure it's mostly solid stone so it will last a long time - as we have seen.
 
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Sunnyside said:
Completely agree. It is unfortunately ground zero for speculation in this city, and I do understand why- it’s desirable enough for even the bigger developers. But the value is now so inflated by already having approvals and permits, the site is perfectly priced in. Ripe for investors to play their games.

Given that, I don’t know if the city can even justify swooping in to pay full market price. This isn’t the only site they would need to look at either (ahem, the Gore Park lofts assembly).
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I feel like it's a bit of a tough sell right beside the YWCA and YMCA. Hopefully the development on James cleans things up a bit and improves the area to the point of developers having confidence in selling units!
 
FF407 said:
There is some equipment on site here. I couldn't take any photos as I was driving. Of someone is in the area maybe they can get some pictures.
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Just the usual ol’ new owners doing an inspection to assess the soil and heritage facadectomy. We’ve seen this about two or three times now, unfortunately; it’ll mean something when we see or hear something more substantial.
 
FF407 said:
There is some equipment on site here. I couldn't take any photos as I was driving. Of someone is in the area maybe they can get some pictures.
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Talked to the workers, it’s a brace for the wall.

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It's incredible to me that a keyboard warrior knows so much about the inner workings of a complex development.

I looked up their linkedin and asked some friends about them, these founders of Vantage come from humble beginnings (one grew up in Calgary, the other in east york) having to work their way up and are extremely hard working smart professionals. Both worked for investment banking firms canadian and swiss, then one worked for the largest REPE firm in Canada building rental, then in Hamilton specific. James Street will be built, and it's just a matter of time when it starts, I'm guessing 12 months.

These are the type of guys you want building in Hamilton. They'll be active, thoughtful and they're not boomers who could care less about design and finishing on time. These guys actually remember what it was like to rent.

So instead of wanting the world to burn, maybe start rooting for the young guys who weren't rich kids who actually care about what they're doing and are doers. We have enough empty talkers in the world and boomers who don't care about anything of the next generation. It's hard enough for us coming up.
 
TheHonestMaple said:
How is better than Vrancor? Love him or hate him, at least he builds stuff. This company is either just some sort of money laundering operation, or a play place for some rich people's kids. They aren't serious, and this is probably the worst possible company that could have purchased this lot.
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pure ignorance. While I do agree with the comment about Vrancor, he's a builder.
 
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