[Kiwi]

Stinson's new hotel moves
Combined condo project gets more visibility downtown

April 13, 2009
Denise Davy
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/547490

Real estate developer Harry Stinson is moving ahead with plans to open a 13-storey hotel-condo venture downtown, but in a different location.

Stinson announced on Saturday that he has moved the location of his new hotel-condo venture - called the Hamilton Grand - to the southeast corner of John and Main streets, the site of a former Shell gas station.

It was originally to be located on the other side of John Street, on the site of the former Crazy Horse Saloon and the former Liaison College, between the Royal Connaught and the London Tap House.

Stinson said the new location will give the hotel more visibility.

The new hotel will have 177 suites and 39 offices, he said, plus restaurant and banquet rooms.

Stinson made the announcement during a luncheon at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, which drew close to 200 people.

He said the response to the new location was "hugely positive."

"The motivation is there and the momentum is there," said Stinson.

The boutique hotel will look like a 19th-century building, which Stinson said is "an appropriate feel for the downtown."

"It's a small version of the Connaught," he said.

Total project costs are estimated at $25 million and, said Stinson, will generate at least 100 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs in the hotel, restaurants and banquet centre.

Almost 100 suites have been sold at prices ranging from $199,000 for regular suites and $219,000 for penthouse.

Stinson said an added benefit to the city of Hamilton will be the higher property taxes.

He said, while Shell paid $21,000 in property taxes, the new property taxes would be closer to $700,000.

"This building will increase the value of that land to the city of Hamilton," he said.

Stinson said all of the purchasers who attended the luncheon signed the appropriate documentation to confirm their involvement.

"We will follow up with the rest of the folks this week," Stinson said.

Architects Hoordad Ghandehari and Reza Eslami were among those who attended the luncheon.

 

[adma]

I guess by this evidence, if Stinson wanted to get into the cartoon-distribution business...

 

[sport200]

Is Stinson going to make bank on this project?

The Hamilton Grand features:

132 Suites ($199,000)
44 Premium Suites ($219,000)
39 Offices (guessing $75,000)

Total Sales Revenue: $38,829,000
Project Cost: $25,000,000
Gross Profit: $13,829,000

I am assuming the $25 million does not include land and financing, but the sales revenue does not include annual management fees for the hotel.

Is this accurate?

 

[Bentley]

Is Stinson going to make bank on this project?

The Hamilton Grand features:

132 Suites ($199,000)
44 Premium Suites ($219,000)
39 Offices (guessing $75,000)

Total Sales Revenue: $38,829,000
Project Cost: $25,000,000
Gross Profit: $13,829,000

I am assuming the $25 million does not include land and financing, but the sales revenue does not include annual management fees for the hotel.

Is this accurate?

Well, when he says project cost I assume he's talking about hard/soft costs. I don't think that takes into account financing costs, any under the table greasing, etc. Not to mention budget overruns which I'm sure will occur. And then of course taxes on residential development are huge. This isn't capital gains. He'll be lucky if he clears 5MM I'd say.

 

[beaconer]

You can get a suite on a high floor at 1KW for under $199,000.

 

[catcher_of_cats]

And then of course taxes on residential development are huge.

There might be a city reduction on development fees and taxes since this is in the core. Hamilton has all types of programs to assist new development in the downtown that virtually every other city does not require.

 

[Kiwi]

Without a doubt he'll apply for the Enterprise Zone Municipal Realty Tax Incentive Grant Program.

 

[Kiwi]

From Harry Stinson's email.......

June 2009
Open sales trailer onsite for retail sales
Commence remediation work

October 2009 – spring 2010
Site excavation, shoring, commence foundation installation

Closing project on fall of 2011.

 

[urbandreamer]

Stinson and Freed have some similarities: both are visionairies, control freaks and adopted (by wealthy FH families)!

 

[Uncle Teddy]

http://urbantoronto.ca/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=266351

Harry's still wild about building
Developer tackles a project down the QEW with his name already on it

Peter Kuitenbrouwer, National Post
Published: Monday, September 14, 2009

Harry Stinson has taken over the teachers' lounge at the Stinson School and hung up renderings of his projects that succeeded or failed: One King West (succeeded, but he lost control) Sapphire Tower on Toronto's Temperance Street (failed), High Park Lofts (succeeded) Hamilton Grand Hotel (failed).

But the development to which Mr. Stinson, 56, compares his latest venture is the one not on the wall: the Candy Factory Lofts, a four-storey factory conversion in the 1990s that arguably launched Toronto's West Queen West as a destination. Today Mr. Stinson, a developer with 50-, 80-and 100-storey ambitions, has come back to earth.

"Perhaps the 100-storey tower was a little flamboyant, but here, people say, 'If you get it together, I'll take one,' '' says Mr. Stinson of his latest project.

Mr. Stinson moved from Toronto to Hamilton in January 2008, after the creditors pushed him out of his job running One King West, a condo hotel anchored in a restored bank. He still owes creditors $17-million to $18-million, which he is working to repay, he says, and is fighting his former partner David Mirvish, the impressario, who is suing Mr. Stinson.

Mr. Stinson's first foray into Hamilton real estate -- a plan to reopen the shuttered Connaught Hotel in the city's decrepit downtown, adding a 100-storey tower --collapsed in the past year when he could not arrange financing.

His latest fixer-upper is his first-ever project with his name on it -- quite by chance. Ebenezer Stinson, a grain and flour merchant in the 1830s, had a Hamilton street named after him. In 1894 on Stinson Street, workers erected the Stinson School, a proud three-storey edifice in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. With its red Credit Valley sandstone, peaked slate roofs and an entrance archway leading to grand wood doors, it looks like a smaller version of Toronto's Old City Hall, and won historical designation in 1989.

At March Break 2009, the Hamilton/Wentworth School Board moved students to a new school nearby; Mr. Stinson, raising $1-million from "friends and family," bought the pile in June. Mr. Stinson's crew has since ripped down the drop ceilings in the entranceway to reveal the full 4.5-metre heights.

Mr. Stinson, dressed in shiny new Brooks running shoes and a black T-shirt from One King West, stopped some workers as we entered the school to speak about spots where the plaster has fallen, revealing the lath on the ceiling.

"Just patch them with pieces of plywood," he says. "We'll just paint it out, because we're running out of time."

A sign on the front lawn here promises, "Lofts from $199,900. Soon to be Hamilton's best address." This Thursday, Mr. Stinson's team plans an open house to show off, and hopefully sell, the 70 suites of this building, including a row of townhouses alongside the school. He has hired some workers from nearby rooming houses, and notes that battered five-bedroom homes here sell for under $200,000, but insists that people will pay over $400,000 for two-bedroom units with walkout gardens.

Mr. Stinson runs hot and cold

on Hamilton; the other day he was disgusted to learn that the owners of the Connaught, the hotel he tried to revive, are seeking $18-million from governments to retool the place as affordable housing.

"Everything here depends on government grants," he says. "It's like Newfoundland in Ontario." This slur does a disservice to Newfoundland and perhaps even to Steeltown. With the possibility of an NHL franchise in the air, and crews busy on a dramatic, invasive restoration of the city's modernist jewel of a City Hall, Hamilton has some wind in its sails.

"It is a very family-friendly city," says Drew Hauser, a principal at Stanford Downey architects, who moved his family to Hamilton from Toronto three years ago (and is thrilled that, with Mr. Stinson working here, he has a job near his home). "My wife is a therapist, in two months she was fully booked out. You're a short trip to the vineyard; instead of going to the LCBO you can go to a wine-tasting."

As we are chatting Fred Voytek, a property manager with Effort Trust -- the biggest landlord in Hamilton -- walks in.

"I'm just a curious potential customer," he says. "We have a big house in Burlington. The kids have gone and left." He grew up in Hamilton, and is considering a return. He is encouraged by this project. "Hamilton has suffered from a lack of leadership for so long," he says. "There's no vision."

Hamilton, though on hard times, is a sleeper, full of spectacular architecture. Like many in Hamilton, Mr. Voytek is thrilled that someone sees the potential of his home town. Mr. Stinson is eager to oblige.

"I got nothing to lose," Mr. Stinson says. "So what the hell. I'll give it a shot."

 

[Automation Gallery]

Stinson and Freed have some similarities: both are visionairies, control freaks and adopted (by wealthy FH families)!

Better than deadbeats

 

[maestro]

Stinson is a visionairy period. His visons also leave a lot to be desired.

P.S.He lost control over High Park Lofts as well.

 

[Automation Gallery]

I guess from reading some of these posts slamming Mr.Stinson is that in this business if you succeed your a genius, and if you fail your a loser.

 

[catcher_of_cats]

Stinson back with Grand plan

April 07, 2010
Andrew Dreschel
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 7, 2010)

Developer Harry Stinson's plan for a multimillion-dollar condo hotel in the downtown is back on track.

Almost a year after pulling the plug on the Hamilton Grand, Stinson said he's secured new financial backing to push ahead with a $30-million, 15-storey project at the southeast corner of John and Main streets.
Shell Canada confirms it recently sold the land, the site of a former gas station, to Stinson. According to Stinson, the price was $625,000.
He and Shell also entered into a joint remediation agreement that should see shovels in the ground within 60 days.
Stinson said the Grand -- featuring some 300 residential units, two floors of office and commercial space, underground parking and a 24-hour restaurant -- will be completed within two years.
"Fundamentally, this will be a singles building," said Stinson, the man once dubbed Toronto's condo king for his visionary developments.
Glen Norton, senior development consultant with Hamilton's downtown renewal office, said it's good news for the core because it cleans up a polluted brownfield and promises to bring more residents into the heart of the city.
"We're pretty excited about it," Norton said.
"These are people who will be on the street at nighttime making it feel safer; they will be shopping downtown; they will be animating the whole area."
The project came to a screeching stop last summer after panicky investors backed out in the face of an Ontario Securities Commission investigation of a Toronto-based private real estate investment club whose members were partially financing the venture.
Stinson declines to reveal who his new funders are, other than to say one of the silent partners is local while others are from out of town, as is the case in his ongoing Stinson Street School condo project in central Hamilton.
While the Grand was on ice, Stinson modified the concept, collapsing ceiling heights, shrinking room sizes, extending the building by two storeys and gearing sales primarily to young urban professionals and academics.
"Notwithstanding everyone's wistful rhetoric about restoring downtown, the reality is that the only people who really seem to believe in and like downtown are the younger demographic."
Stinson's design envisions the top two floors as 60 full-service hotel suites.
The ground floor will house a bar and 24-hour cafe. The next two levels will be office and commercial studios.
The rest of the building will be given over to "very compact" studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments that can be purchased for personal living space or for leasing out.
The studios start at $79,000; one bedrooms at $99,900; two bedrooms at $169,900.
Flexibility is clearly a key marketing point.
If buyers choose to lease their condo units, Stinson said the Grand will have a rental program in place to assist them.
If buyers want to move right in, the Grand will sell them a $10,000 furniture package.
Stinson said the idea is to extend the services and amenities of a hotel -- front desk staff, housekeeping, 24-hour security -- to condo owners and renters alike.
"If you are a resident in the building and you want to order a hamburger from room service at two o' clock in the morning, you can do it," he said.
Give Stinson points for frankness.
He said there will be no elaborate landscaping. The building will go right to the curb. And the floor plans are formulaic. The office units -- which will start at $59,000 -- are simply stripped down versions of the residential units.
The brick and stone facade, however, is a different matter. Stinson's concept drawing depicts a classic chateau-style hotel with arched ground-floor windows, a strikingly green mansard roof and mustard-coloured top floors.
Stinson said he wants primary colours up there, lots of jewel tones.
"We wanted to really stand out from all the grey and taupe and beige and more grey (that's in the core)."
Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
adreschel@thespec.com

905-526-3495

 

[urbandreamer]

Stinson doesn't belong in Hamilton. He should try Brantford, Ontario.