Front Page News!!
Front page of the print edition and electronic edition of the Hamilton Spectator, but strangely not on their web page. Here is the full article.

The Hamilton Spectator

The Hamilton Spectator
thespec.pressreader.com thespec.pressreader.com

For those that can't access the electronic edition, there is not much that we don't know except
“It’s an opportunity to really do something stylistic that you’ll see from the street... [and] 325 James, its three-storey companion that dates to 1910...will be a standalone building on the redeveloped site. The project calls for 127 rental units at market and below-market rates, but not subsidized.", Kulakowsky said. "We want it to be a building that can house many walks of life in Hamilton, which I think pays homage to the history of that site.... [It] will also feature about 13,000 square feet of commercial space, to which Core Urban aims to draw smaller retailers, including a grocery store."

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I also got another email from the planner group where they clarified their earlier email:

I can confirm that we did in fact make a substantive change to the placement and scale of the tower portion of the building (Floors 5 – 12) as the initial building had zero separation along the west boundary, adjoining the lower rise development to the west along Barton Street.

In direct response to the feedback from City staff and the Design Review Panel the tower placement was shifted away from the west lot line to provide an appropriate transition in scale from the existing development to the west. The separation is increased to 6.0 metres to the building face with minor projections for open balconies, an appropriate response to the feedback form the Panel.
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Doing a bit of digging on the James St zoning, it seems this property is zoned for 6 storeys with the ability to go to 12 assuming it meets various conditions. I expect this to be approved in it's current state quite quickly. The meeting seems to be more of an attempt to correspond with the local neighbourhood and ask if there are reasonable expectations to have the community feel involved. I don't expect any slowdowns since it's zoned for 12 storeys and they're not going to reduce the height.
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Attended the informal information session tonight. Mostly the same information that has been shared before. The top portion has been pushed slightly into the east reducing the unit count. The first floor parking space has been lowered to allow a turn around space. Not much else for us nerds.

Speaking to Steve, he did say he's hoping to get something similar to the Greystone Market style grocer here, but it's a ways off still. He said they hope to start this year and expect construction to take 18 months.

Site tonight:
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Chris R. said:
Attended the informal information session tonight. Mostly the same information that has been shared before. The top portion has been pushed slightly into the east reducing the unit count. The first floor parking space has been lowered to allow a turn around space. Not much else for us nerds.

Speaking to Steve, he did say he's hoping to get something similar to the Greystone Market style grocer here, but it's a ways off still. He said they hope to start this year and expect construction to take 18 months.

Site tonight:
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Whats the site looking like these days? Any new updates? I own an investment property across the street from the site but live in the US so curious about what the latest is
 
siiiiiiiiid said:
Whats the site looking like these days? Any new updates? I own an investment property across the street from the site but live in the US so curious about what the latest is
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Looks identical to prior photos. As mentioned they hope to start this year, but that will likely be in the Fall from my last conversation with Steve about this development.
 
Haven't seen any work being done here for a while. Anyone have any insider info? The Augusta development is done (except for the restaurant), so i'm surprised they haven't really started on this one.
 
TheHonestMaple said:
Haven't seen any work being done here for a while. Anyone have any insider info? The Augusta development is done (except for the restaurant), so i'm surprised they haven't really started on this one.
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From last I heard they are refining the design and reviewing their plans and they are planning to start no later than December with a probably start in the fall.

I'm not in the direct know though so that's subject to change.
 
innsertnamehere said:
And... the largest retail space is 2,200sf. No grocery store is going here. If anything goes here selling food, it'll be more of a convenience store.

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Steve said they plan to have something similar to the market on James St S, but perhaps a bit more hip considering the location. We'll have to wait and see what actually comes to fruition though.
 
Just from a physical space perspective it will be tough. IIRC the Market on James is around 5,000sf - so over twice the size of this retail space.

It may end up being a (very) small market, but I think it would be disingenuous to call it a "grocery store". The space is closer in size to a convenience store and about 1/10th the size of a standard grocery store like a No Frills or Food Basics.

These things evolve over time too. At this point in the process for the Augusta Block, the plans were labelling the Market On James space as a medical office space.
 
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