King William Businesses
Sad news, but I've hear rumours Reardon's Deli & Meats (down the street from Lister Block) will be closing this December after 99 years.
The owner blames the closure of King William St for streetscaping purposes in relation to Lister's reno. I blame their poor customer service as the few times I attempted to browse/purchase anything in there, I was ignored or had other customers served before me (though I arrived first).
However, another King William business (Thai Memory) is also rumoured to be closing due to the street being closed off for the better part of 2011.
So perhaps Reardon's has some truth to their claims (though I still lay part-blame on their terrible customer service).
The City got quite the bum deal on Lister, and renovating to office space with little streetfront retail over Condo/Lofts with a Grocery Store at streetfront wont do much at all for 'redeveloping' downtown Hamilton. In fact, due to Hamilton Public Health moving from their current Right House location (King & Hughson) to Lister, there will be another empty historic structure left in Lister's wake.