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Harry Stinson is not dead

PinkLucy said:
We considered buying into one of his projects years ago. So glad we didn't!
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Did you get hooked by the late-night infomercials? (I will admit that my first exposure to Stinson was the infomercials). As I understand it, he got in a LOT of trouble for those.
 
No, a friend had seen something in the paper, we went to the presentation centre, read about the development. When we ran it by someone, he had issues with the financing (or rather, lack of it) so we didn't go ahead with it. We were also concerned with the model suites -- lots of little issues that were concerning.
 
LOL i remember those sleazy used car salesman infomercials. Harry claimed One King will be "5 Star living" without the 5 star price. I was extremely skeptical. i stopped by the week the hotel opened and pretended i was interested in buying a unit. One of the sales associates gave me a tour of the place. I have stayed in several condo/hotels so i knew kind of what to expect. To my surprise, these units weren't condo's, they were just tiny hotel rooms! The rooms i saw looked no different than a room at the Holiday Inn. I wasn't expecting the Ritz but at least they could have put a bit more effort into the room, especially the bathrooms! I found it odd for condo/hotel there was no oven/stove, only a microwave, with a mini fridge plopped down on the counter. (Later on they added burner tops in the units)
The rooms in the tower section are really cramped. I couldn't imagine living long term in one of those units. The other rooms located in the Dominion Bank were more spacious and had better layouts.

I believe back then the units were starting at 300 thousand! That's like paying for a Porsche and ending up with a Kia.
 
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voxpopulicosmicum said:
^I lived at 7 King E. at the same time he did (I assume he no longer does, but I don't know). ...
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He lives in a under-furnished home along Hamilton's Mountain Brow overlooking Downtown Hamilton. He clearly spent too much money on his Hamilton home to afford teeth and/or clothing.

Since we're talking about funny Harry-encounters, I remember (I believe it was 2008) when the City of Hamilton was first presenting it's B-Line LRT plans at a Public Info Session, Harry showed up and decided to give City Engineers a dose of Rapid Transit Plans..

It was something of a hybrid between Teleporting and FedEx.. something like packages can be shipped anywhere, why can't people!? A former Mayor of Hamilton (the late Jack Macdonald) was sitting behind me at the time, laughing and giggling like a lil schoolgirl at Harry's 'ideas' (though Jack's ideas were as moronic, rest his evil soul). I remember hearing Jack mutter "Rapid Transit? It's called A CAR!" to his lil friend beside him.

@ Gabe - his plans for 1 KingW have obviously been resurrected in his Hotel Hamilton plans; a 'condo' bldg for students and busy business travelers aka a boarding house!! No wonder the City of Hamilton keep blocking the project in red tape, it's clearly going to cause boarding house problems!
 
Gibson School Lofts

He's baaaaaaaccckkk…

Harry has purchased the Gibson School on Barton St E @ Birch and plans to convert them into lofts like his Stinson School Lofts (which are finally occupied):

http://www.gibsonlofts.com

So much for his Hotel Hamilton project at Main & John (and Hotel Niagara) I guess??
 
DC83 said:
He lives in a under-furnished home along Hamilton's Mountain Brow overlooking Downtown Hamilton. He clearly spent too much money on his Hamilton home to afford teeth and/or clothing.

Since we're talking about funny Harry-encounters, I remember (I believe it was 2008) when the City of Hamilton was first presenting it's B-Line LRT plans at a Public Info Session, Harry showed up and decided to give City Engineers a dose of Rapid Transit Plans..

It was something of a hybrid between Teleporting and FedEx.. something like packages can be shipped anywhere, why can't people!? A former Mayor of Hamilton (the late Jack Macdonald) was sitting behind me at the time, laughing and giggling like a lil schoolgirl at Harry's 'ideas' (though Jack's ideas were as moronic, rest his evil soul). I remember hearing Jack mutter "Rapid Transit? It's called A CAR!" to his lil friend beside him.

@ Gabe - his plans for 1 KingW have obviously been resurrected in his Hotel Hamilton plans; a 'condo' bldg for students and busy business travelers aka a boarding house!! No wonder the City of Hamilton keep blocking the project in red tape, it's clearly going to cause boarding house problems!
Click to expand...

Perhaps this is what he was thinking of? http://www.theonion.com/articles/fedex-confirms-more-than-600000-people-try-to-mail,35693/
 
DC83 said:
He's baaaaaaaccckkk…

Harry has purchased the Gibson School on Barton St E @ Birch and plans to convert them into lofts like his Stinson School Lofts (which are finally occupied):

http://www.gibsonlofts.com

So much for his Hotel Hamilton project at Main & John (and Hotel Niagara) I guess??
Click to expand...

If it's like Stinson school, run away! we have family friends there who have a place, and it's tons of issues. There kitchen wasn't done until after occupancy, flooding, no shows from contractors etc. workmanship is sub par and much still not finished. The best part is Harry thinks he can get sky high prices, many of the condos are more than houses in the surrounding areas.

I don't think he has much financing support yet, when we were there a month ago at Stinson School Harry kept trying to pitch us to invest in houses across the street, he would teach you do be a developer for a mere 10,000 investment. In my head I was like all you are doing is converting two houses into duplexes , why can't you do this on your own or have other backers you have worked with in the past finance you? Instead of random people who are visiting friends.

Apparently he is not well liked in the building, much of it still for sale/lease.
 
What a bizarre story.
This shouldn't have happen in the first place. The buyer should've presented a $5,000 deposit cheque before even considered to purchase the unit, just like any real estate transaction. It's just an example of pure stupidity.
This incident was no loss to anyone, so it's rather a silly pointless story in the end. I find it rather fitting that it happened to a person as bizarre as Harry Stinson.

I saw some of the units in this development and it's really crudely designed and finished. There is a lack of thought and refinement in the conversion of this building, it's like a first year student designed it. They should have offered to sell it core & shell to attract more buyers. This development has been on the market for a long, long time for these reasons. This could have been a great loft building.
 
Harry Stinson should give up the condo game and do something he actually has a chance to excell at; such as becoming the next Mr. Olympia.
 
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