Hamilton Development

[jeffster]

Ok first off this discussion was meant to be purely fantasy urban planning talk because I want to live in a beautiful world class city. 
Second to be honest I am a giant urban dreamer. Constantly thinking of ways to improve the cities landscape. So in fact if I did have the money and I did own the block. I would demolish it in a heart beat. Build something to reinvigorate the king street front, maybe build a nice square to play homage the the city hall roots. Obviously if I was an extremely wealthy developer I would probably be looking to make a profit, but at the end of the day I would more concerned about try to create a beautiful function space for the city I live in.
Of course conestoga isn't going to build something until they know the market for their expanded business program.
That renovation on university ave was 58 million dollars. Personally I would prefer they use that to buy and construct a new campus even if the did it over by the climbing gym. Might even help jumpstart the development around borden station. Rather than extend the life of a failed mall and a blight on kitchener heritage and urban planning record.
I can't believe I am in an argument with someone over market square, I thought it would be universally hated on a forum like this. Goes to show how much a bubble I can live in sometimes. 
I understand what you are saying. all I am saying is if Hamilton can redevelop a failed mall we can too. But due to the conestoga college situation I don't see it happen this decade, which I think is unfortunate.

To be honest, I don't think anyone loves Market Square. And I don't think we're arguing. The issue is that there are not enough people with deep pockets to actually do something with that building, especially since it would displace a major tenant, The Record, who are likely under some sort of lease agreement.

However, I did look at the Conestoga thing as a major positive for Market Square and DTK and I can see it going under a major transformation over the next decade, along with other unimportant and non-heritage buildings in that area.

As for Hamilton, it looks like the future was so dark for that mall (basically littered with dollar stores and other low profit businesses) that it probably ran out of options. That whole area (Jackson Square, Hamilton City Centre, Stelco towers, First Ontario Place) is not that successful. That area of Hamilton seems to have a lot going for it, but for whatever reason, it's not great. So it's nice to see them get something in there that should help out that area a lot. I've always liked that part of The Hammer, it has a big city feel without the traffic and chaos.