Royal Connaught unveiling

(Updated)

After ten years of neglect, the Royal Connaught Hotel on King Street has had a facelift, and the developers are showing off the new lobby to prospective new condo owners.

This building is 98 years old. Tonight, a sneak preview — lobby — under construction since November, and model suite — go on sale this weekend. The first units should be ready for move in by 2016.

Each of the chandeliers took seven days to install. LED lights make them sparkle from 23-foot ceilings, next to original ornate mouldings and columns — so new condo owners feel like they’re living in a grand old hotel. The suites themselves will also have high ceilings — this model is the only one complete so far.

Ted Valeri: “The stone part of the building is our phase one, the brick portion is our phase two.”

The plan is to erect three condo towers in the empty lots around the Connaught — an eventual 700 units. Initial interest has been overwhelming.

Rudi Spallacci: “Based on registrants, we have three thousand. I’ve never seen those numbers before. And they’re from different areas, even Toronto.”

Other condos coming to Hamilton’s core include the former federal building — a third of those sold out in three weeks. The former Tivoli Theatre is becoming condos and so is the former James Street Baptist Church — currently being dismantled by its Toronto-based developer so that heritage elements can be saved.

“Hamilton is well deserving of where it’s sitting today. It took a long time to get it where it is. I think the dynamics have changed, the politicians, the locals are supporting their city, and not only Hamiltonians, Torontonians are seeing it.”

Hamilton’s manager of urban renewal lives in this reno’d condo building near James North, with a view of the bay. He says there’s a North American trend to downsize and move downtown, and it’s hitting Hamilton now.

“It really is unprecedented. We’ve never seen anything like this in such a short period. Right now, between those recently occupied, under construction or about to start, we’ve got 2,000 units and another two thousand in the planning process.

And he expects that they’ll sell, especially with the ongoing migration of people who can’t afford to buy in Toronto.

Hamilton’s condo market is so new, we don’t have an absorption rate. In Toronto, developers can know on average how quickly a unit will sit on the market. In Hamilton, there hasn’t been enough of a market to measure absorption until now. The more competition the better.