Hamilton, ON

Government Grants Downtown Hamilton

　

　

City to offer $650,000 grocery store prize

Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator

　

The pot:

$1.4 million — The amount of money available over three years for incentives as the city targets three key areas for downtown improvements

The incentives:

$650,000 — Goes to someone willing to bring a grocery store to Hamilton’s downtown.

$50,000 — A matching grant for any property facing Gore Park making improvements that will mean better use of the building. Grant includes up to 75 per cent of the cost to replace oversized old signs with smaller and more architecturally respectful ones.

$10,000 — Grant for façade improvements in a larger core area from Victoria Street to Queen and along King and Main as far west as Highway 403.

This is one heck of a grocery store coupon.

The city has budgeted a one-time $650,000 prize to someone willing to bring a grocery store to Hamilton’s downtown.

The details of the incentive have yet to be approved by council but the plan by staff is to open a request for proposals in May, asking proponents to outline their proposed location, size of the store, the breadth of product offerings, price points and any related services offered such as dry cleaning.

Competing bids will be scored.

The grocery incentive is part of a package of three new incentives aimed at boosting the core which total $1.4 million over three years.

The lack of a grocery store in the core is a catch-22, says Glen Norton, the city’s manager of urban renewal.

"The grocery stores are saying there aren’t enough people living downtown to make the investment and the developers are saying people are complaining because there’s no grocery store downtown. So it’s a matter of who’s going to go first. We’re trying to break that logjam and get someone to take that risk."

He added that land prices downtown are more expensive than elsewhere in the city and that the grant can help bridge that gap and make a grocery store a viable venture. He’s not aware of another municipality offering such an incentive.

The grant will be open to any individual or company, whether that’s a large grocery chain, an independent entrepreneur or existing vendors at the Hamilton Farmers’ Market.

Norton says the idea is not to create competition for the farmers’ market but to provide a venue for daily access to fresh meat, fruit and vegetables, a variety of dry goods and household essentials such as toilet paper and pet food.

Norton says The Spectator’s Code Red series, which analyzed health and poverty data, pointed to the importance of ready access to affordable, fresh food. "Otherwise, people have no choice but to make bad choices which are both more expensive and unhealthy."

The second new incentive program is a $50,000 matching grant for any property facing Gore Park making improvements that will mean better use of the building. That could be used for fixing store fronts, installing elevators or patching up a leaking roof to make upper floors inhabitable, for instance.

"Gore Park strikes a real chord with people," said Norton. "They won’t feel the downtown is revitalized until Gore is. This goes right at that."

An interesting element of the grant is that the city will pay up to 75 per cent of the cost to remove a large sign and replace it with something "smaller and architecturally respectful," Norton said.

Many of the signs on buildings facing Gore Park do not conform to current sign bylaws but have been grandfathered. "We want the façade show through on these buildings. I don’t like the carnival atmosphere in our downtown," Norton said.

A third new incentive offers a grant of up to $10,000 to property owners improving facades in the city’s community improvement project area (roughly Victoria to Queen, Hunter to the CN tracks, James Street and the newly added King and Main from Wentworth to the 403). Work can include new windows, repointed brick, signs, awnings, stucco or anything else that improves a property’s street appearance.

There is $400,000 allocated in the city’s 2012 capital budget for the program.

mmacleod@thespec.com

905-526-3408 | @meredithmacleod

It took me 18 yrs, but well worth the wait.

Shortly after I got into the business, and in the days when you could still telephone and solicit expired listings, I decided to brave up and go visit a mansion on a hill.

This house was literally perched on a hill at an awe inspiring address. Needless to say, just the taught of ringing the door bell petrified me.

I was greeted by a very stylish lady, the type that wears full make up and a caftan around the house, always presentable and cosmopolitan.

After my palpitations, facial ticks and tremors subsided she gave me a tour of the house and promptly and unceremoniously ---- dismissed me.

She listed with someone else, the listing expired again, I showed up at her door again. I do remember parking some ways away with my rusty batmobile. She listed with someone else again. The listing expired again.

I didn’t pursue her relentlessly, but I did mail to her for the following eighteen years with an occasional phone call and eighteen years later, she called me to list the house.

It all seemed somehow different now; I could not help registering how I had changed, she appeared more fragile, the house seemed smaller, I parked in the drive way, we both felt the physical passing of time, there was a bit of melancholia in the air as we sipped a liqueur while I wrote up the listing agreement.

It was really all kind of sweet.

I love everything art deco; from furniture to architecture to jewlery; there is something about that style that is glam, elegant and simple in a sophisticated way.

Hamilton has some real jewels of art deco architecture.........

and here are photos of homes in and around Hamilton, in their beauty.

So, suddenly, it is no longer inappropriate to publicly voice your concerns about being overtaxed, overworked and worried about retirement.

Maybe 2008 was the “awakening” for a lot of people.

Talking to clients, acquaintances and friends most are unhappy about being in debt and overextended and are not embarrassed to voice it any longer.

Re-fi is an option of course, but if you’re rolling your debts into your mortgage for the third time or grovelling for a consolidation loan, YOU”VE GOT TO STOP!!!!

Call me debtors anonymousJ

Your motto or credo should be “if I can’t pay for it cash, I don’t need it”

Debt should be reserved only for something that will make you money.

Drum roll; this is where I come in.

Pension funds worldwide are wobbling and it’s time to put your future in your own hands.

Think of buying yourself a small part time job.

Buying a small investment property, such as a triplex, duplex or single family home could be a sure and steady way to secure and augment your pension income or creating an enforced saving plan.

Your choice of purchase will depend on your capabilities;

A single family home will give you a single tenant to deal with but covering the cost of mortgage and property taxes with the incoming rent will be very close, you may have to occasionally add to the fund.

For example, you could buy a little, compact home for about 150,000.

The mortgage payment will be about eight e hundred dollars, plus two hundred for property taxes, plus one hundred for house insurance totalling $1,100.

These calculations are based on minimum down payments but you may need to supplement a hundred bucks every month.

The upside is that a single family home is easier to manage, the down side is that if your tenant leaves and you have a vacancy, you will feel it in your wallet.

You could opt for a triplex. You now have three tenants to deal with, they are more mobile and can move easier than a large family in a single family home, but if you have a vacancy, you still have two tenants paying your mortgage.

If you approach this from a calm, cool perspective, you could, in theory, have a house paid off in 15-20 years

At that time you would have the equity AND a net income stream.

If your arguments are that you can save $150,000 in that time on your own, my suggestion is to;

a/ review your saving history to date, if you’re a saver, perhaps you can, if you’ve not saved any money, than this plan can really work for you

b/go for both. Establish savings plan and start your investment strategy.

A bolder choice would be a six or eight unit compact building. You can buy something in this league for between $350k-$600K or upwards of $50,000 per unit.

The investment is greater, yet the risk is smaller as you will always have rents coming in. Maintenance is also reasonable, as despite the larger investment, you have one roof, one furnace, one back yard, one place to pick up rents at, etc.

Buying a long term investment is a cool, unemotional strategy and the only things to consider are

1/location

2/structure

3/the numbers

4profile of future tenants, analysis

If you’re in your thirties or older, and have just enough to cover your expenses when the next batch of bills rolls around, it’s time to do something about it.

Get yourself a part time job as a land lord and start working on your financial security.

Believe me; no one else is giving you and your future a second thought.

Cheers

The cold cellar is a pre-fridge, pre-electricity survival invention, also known as a root cellar, where root vegetables and cured meats were stored to prolong their life, through the long winter.

Initially it was literally a hole in the ground, covered with earth and evolved into being a part of the main house but the important components of it being dark and temperature- consistent have remained.

Typically it is stocked with canning, potatoes, onions, carrots and such. Some store wine in their cellar, smoked meats such as prosciutto, smoked cheeses etc.

When we hit the indulgent eighties, people completely lost interest in the fruit cellar and used it for storage of patio furniture etc and now, the cold cellar is back and back with a bang.

The consciousness of the home owner has turned to conserving energy, saving money, eating healthy and the fruit cellar serves all those purposes.

It runs on zero energy, can keep out of season vegetables and fruits over the winter, along with dry goods like rice and pasta or homemade canning.

The cellar is usually built under the front stairs or porch and according to some builders it’s making quite a comeback in new construction.