Radio Arts condos in last push to completion
The 14-storey development at King and Caroline has risen from the ashes of a massive fire and is expected to be welcome occupants beginning next summer.
A condo project at 206 King St. W. that had to contend with a massive fire in 2022 is about three-quarters complete and about 95 per cent sold.
Developer Vernon Shaw said the plan is to complete construction of the Radio Arts building at King and Caroline in June or July 2025.
Radio Arts will have 122 units, ranging from a 363-square foot studio to 713-square-foot three-bedrooms.
“It’s an important day, a milestone,” Shaw told a crowd gathered in a future unit for a celebration last week to mark the completion of the structure.
“This building has emerged from nothing more than my imagination.”
Shaw, who leads Canlight Realty Corporation, credited Burlington's KNYMH Architects (who also worked on the conversion of the Royal Connaught hotel into condos) for “taking my vision and brilliantly designing this building.”
It features a four-storey brick podium and arched windows that are reminiscent of the original 1908 architecture, and another 10 storeys of black and white glass and staggered terraces and balconies.
The interior was designed by Burlington-based Baudit Interior Design.
Shaw said he looks forward to when the building is occupied and functions as a community. The building will feature plenty of shared spaces, including a gym, work space and a rooftop terrace. He said he’s just not interested in developing soaring towers, but rather boutique-sized buildings where people can get to know one another.
“People will live, work and play here, hopefully happily and contentedly. And they will be oblivious to all the work that has been done here. And they should be. That’s the measure of success.”
Shaw said he hopes retail space on the ground floor will be taken up by a neighbourhood coffee shop in the vein of Central Perk on Friends.
Guests were then invited to the windy rooftop, which offered views in every direction.
Shaw anticipates that construction will be complete in June or July. That will mark three years after a massive fire on June 17, 2022 destroyed the four-storey brick building on the site that was a textile plant, radio station and kitchen equipment distributor over its 114-year life.
A 42-year-old Hamilton woman of no fixed address was charged with arson and break and enter a few days after the fire, which left behind a massive pile of rubble to be sifted through and cleared.
Canlight had applied for a demolition permit but intended to salvage heritage items from the building to be used in the new structure. Lost elements included metal barn doors, original beams, plumbing fixtures and a Radio Arts tile mosaic in the lobby that will be replicated.
While many condo projects appear to be stalled in a broadly sluggish market, Shaw told HAMILTON CITY Magazine that the Radio Arts project is roughly 75 per cent finished and in terms of timeline and budget, is “almost spot on.”
“We had a couple of delays due to weather and a crane breakdown but otherwise, things have gone well.”
This isn’t Shaw’s first project in Hamilton. His company stepped in on the conversion of the iconic 1929-built Pigott Building – Hamilton’s first skyscraper – on James Street South in the mid-1990s when another developer went bankrupt. Canlight completed the transformation from office building to condos.
“People said that no one would buy a one-bedroom in downtown Hamilton but we sold 112 units in four months.”
The Radio Arts project is mostly sold, too. The developers have held back just 15 units until a final release but the rest are spoken for. Remaining units are listed for between $536,990 to $720,990.
Though he’s long been optimistic about the fortunes of Hamilton, this is not a project Shaw intended to take on. He met a man from Montreal who was interested in real estate in Toronto.
“I told him that in my view the best place to invest is Hamilton.”
The King West property wasn’t listed for sale but Shaw was acquainted with the owner and negotiations began. But when it came time to finalize a deal, the Montreal investor was out.
But Shaw wasn’t ready to walk away.
“I love the location and I love that the LRT will run past the door,” he said.
He says that migration of artists, restauranteurs and other creatives from Toronto to Hamilton makes it an attractive residential market.
“This is the place. There is lots happening here. There are so many developments in the planning stages here that in 10 years it will be a different place.”
Shaw said he convinced two partners to get on board – Gary Silver, who has developed residential projects across North America, and Hunter Milborne, a Hamilton native who has built his real estate business around condo sales.
The partners finalized the acquisition of the building in 2016 and want to contribute to the renaissance of Hamilton that is built on “youthful, creative energy,” said Shaw, who was a co-founder of the Mississauga-based Canlight Group, which includes property management and development divisions.
The original building opened in 1908 as the Regal Shirt Company (later McGregor Shirt). By 1959, it was home to CHIQ, an independent classical radio station that broadcast on 1280. The studios then moved east to the Terminal Towers building and in 1965, 206 King St. W. became home to Hamilton Store Fixtures, a commercial kitchen equipment distributer that infamously clad the building in brown metal siding. It closed about a decade ago.
