Brantford Colborne Point | ?m | ?s | Vrancor Development

[jswag]

Found this article:
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2458118

Lofty ideas take shape
Posted By MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
Posted 3 days ago


Brick by limestone brick, most of a dilapidated block on the south side of Colborne Street at the threshold of the downtown is moving into the future while regaining its old charm.

Telephone City Developments, Adler & Associates Construction and MMMC Architects are transforming a jumbled stretch of greyfield buildings from 351 to 365 Colborne into the McCutcheon Lofts.

The $5-million complex, between Alfred Street and Park Avenue, will offer 34 affordable housing units with a mix of one-and two-bedroom apartments, most with unique designs and layouts.

Also installed on the west side is the new community health centre.

The moniker recalls the old McCutcheon Bakery that once dominated the site.

Rather than undertake a wholesale demolition of the existing hodge-podge of structures --as is about to happen further to the west where 40 buildings will soon come down --this developer team has sandblasted the timeworn limestone facades, gutted the interiors, added reclaimed brick, and retrofitted entirely new rooms with the latest construction technology.

It will have eight two-bedroom apartments, five of which are lofts, and 26 one-bedroom apartments. Four will be modified, barrier-free units for disabled tenants.

The first floor will be the health centre's permanent home. The second floor is slated for completion and occupancy in August.

During a public tour on Friday of the complex under construction, spokesman Amos Adler said in an interview his Toronto-based company is proud to reclaim the stretch.

"We came from Toronto and saw what people living here don't see," he said. "People are used to saying 'Oh my God, look at our downtown. It's bad.'"

"We said 'what an opportunity for renewal! This spot is ripe for change. We could build a new building from the inside out."

The opportunity to put old buildings to new uses doesn't happen all that often, he said.

"It's nice to see something that began as an idea actually happen. We believe in the future of downtown Brantford, especially in the vision and direction that it is heading."

During the tour, Coun. John Bradford, the acting mayor, praised the developers for their work as he handed them a certificate of recognition.

Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith called the endeavour an "amazing transformation" of a greyfield.

"I was in there a lot before when there was a bunch of tunnels through that group of buildings. It was becoming very neglected and very empty," said the five-term councillor.

"This is a great adaptive reuse of buildings that have been there for a long time. I like the high ceiling apartments and the loft look they are achieving. They look like very livable spaces and there is quite a lot of choice in design."

Seems that it can be done in Brantford, despite what Brantford council might tell the public. And this site is down the street! Shame on them.

 

[MarieJ]

Found this article:
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2458118




Seems that it can be done in Brantford, despite what Brantford council might tell the public. And this site is down the street! Shame on them.

It is basically like spitting in our face really, I felt anyway.

Notice the two councillors present for this event?
The same two councillors pictured at this event?
The same two councillors praising and being praised for this event?

They are two of the SIX who are pushing this demolition full steam ahead.
One of them insulted the wealthy developer in order to raise the pedastal of a local developer, who has done NOTHING for our heritage (demolishing and rebuilding "historic" buildings means nothing, keeping just their fascade or trying to recreate their fascade to seem "historic" means little either), and said it was too late...
The same councillor said these buildings were empty, when the very next day or so the "last tenant evicted" who was the ONLY tenant who owned his own building for 56 years, removed from his home by force. And yet the buildings have all supposedly been empty for 20-30 years. Shortly after that the two final businesses, of the five or so businesses once existing on the Souh Side, were officially evicted. But these buildings were all "empty" said the six councillors (including our current mayor and the councillor using this as his mayors campaign).

 

[adma]

It is in our History Books.
I did not believe it at first either, but it was all over our History Books and anything dating back to the first days of Brantford.
It was because we had the canal and the railway, and the street cars.

You'd have to offer concrete proof of that.

Then again, it might be a misreading, because I can see Brantford having the third biggest *economy* at some point or another, due to the agricultural-implement industry, etc...

 

[ShonTron]

I wouldn't be surprised if at one point, Brantford was in the top five industrial economies of Canada because of all the concentration of those factories such as Massey-Harris and Cockshut. Not only is the still half-barren south side once huge tractor plants, but everything immediately south of Colborne, where the casino and new big-box mall is, plus factories on the west side near the Grand River.

But population-wise, or even economic-size, it was never that major. About 25 cities in Ontario had streetcars, like Kingston, Peterborough, Cornwall, London, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo.

 

[flar]

Brantford might have been third largest in Ontario sometime before 1850. It definitely would have had to compete with the likes of Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Hamilton and London. London has always been a sleeper city in Canada, steadily hanging out with the ten largest cities from early on. Hamilton is younger than its own suburbs like Dundas and Ancaster. By 1910, Brantford was around 13th or 14th largest in Canada, about half the size of Vancouver at the time, if I recall correctly.

 

[CityPlaceN1]

So is it a done deal or can it still be saved?

 

[Student99]

any updates on this? did demolition go through?

 

[sabbatical!]

It's not over yet! We had a quickly-organized protest last week, about 60 people out, some decent press coverage. There has been some massive backlash from the city, with one of our organizers threatened with legal action by the city, and the city also trying to worm personal details of who was making complaints to the province about the city's handling of this. (The province asked the city to provide environmental, heritage, and archaeological assessments before any site disturbance. The city proceeded with gutting the buildings while doing an environmental assessment, which was supposed to have gone to the province this week. No word on heritage or arch. assessments. I doubt they will do them. The evidence would be too damning. They will provide something and then proceed and hope the province will not be bold enough to step in.)

http://www.brantnews.com/news.cfm?page=news&section=read&articleId=7232

Brantford’s general manager of engineering has said the demolition of the 41 properties on the south side of Colborne Street could begin as soon as Mar. 22.
Despite the looming wrecking ball, the city’s heritage advisory committee will still go to council that same night to seek designation for all 41 properties.
“We have to continue advocating for heritage because that’s what we do,” chair Jack Jackowetz said.
He has no illusions about a change of heart by city council on Monday, but doesn’t want to write the buildings off just yet.
“Until the buildings come down, it’s not over,” he said.
Jackowetz said if the buildings do come down, people would miss them.
“It’s going to be such a drastic change to the fabric of the community,” he said. “Harmony Square won’t be a square any more. Just imagine driving down Colborne Street without any of those buildings on the right.”
Coun. Dan McCreary will be supporting the motion on Monday, but said it will fail by the same 6-5 vote.
“There are so many reasons to slow things down,” he said. “I think this motion represents exactly what a lot of people in the community feel, but I have no doubt about what the outcome will be.”

 

[the_yellow_dart]

Curiously, the only person I know from Brantford (a distant friend) wrote me saying "stop wasting your time, I LIVE and WORK in Brantford unlike you and these buildings are an embrassment. The sooner they are gone, the better!"

I grew up in Brantford and I thought the same thing when I first started reading the thread... however the more I read all the posts and the more I thought of other successful heritage downtowns, the more I swing far in the other direction!

I used to think that there just wasn't the money in Brantford to support buildings this old - I thought, Queen West can afford it, Brantford can't. However, then I think of Paisley, a tiny town of a few thousand with a relatively thriving heritage downtown. If they can afford it, I'm sure Brantford can.

 

[ShonTron]

Interior gutting is going on. Here are some pics from last weekend:

 

[Redroom Studios]

it seems clear to me that this is some sort of back room money deal for a local develope. Such a lost opportunity to refurbish these buildings and maintain our history...

 

[Edward]

Its a shame but its also been 30 years of inactivity. Sooner or later this was going to happen.

 

[Mongo]

it seems clear to me that this is some sort of back room money deal for a local develope. Such a lost opportunity to refurbish these buildings and maintain our history...

I agree, something reeks. The whole pattern of events does not make sense, unless you assume that councillers (and the mayor?) are being paid off.

The fact that the city is ignoring provincial requests for heritage assessments before proceeding with demolition is suspicious in itself, and the fact that the six councillers who are pushing this plan have been caught lying about the buildings (claiming that all 41 buildings were empty, when in fact there were a number of people still running businesses in them) indicates that they are so determined to demolish them that truth and legality are of no concern to them.

But my biggest alarm flag is simply that these buildings would be far more valuable after being restored than the empty plots they stand on would be worth. As the OP said, they represent the largest contiguous stretch of pre-Confederation buildings in Ontario -- and there are no more being built after all.

It looks like their demolition is unavoidable. But I am sure that within five years, the people of Brantford will be greatly regretting the pointless loss of much of their town's historic fabric.

 

[wyliepoon]

It's not over yet! We had a quickly-organized protest last week, about 60 people out, some decent press coverage. There has been some massive backlash from the city, with one of our organizers threatened with legal action by the city, and the city also trying to worm personal details of who was making complaints to the province about the city's handling of this. (The province asked the city to provide environmental, heritage, and archaeological assessments before any site disturbance. The city proceeded with gutting the buildings while doing an environmental assessment, which was supposed to have gone to the province this week. No word on heritage or arch. assessments. I doubt they will do them. The evidence would be too damning. They will provide something and then proceed and hope the province will not be bold enough to step in.)

This heavy-handed approach sounds very much like what happens an authoritarian country like communist China, not Canada. Shame!

 

[adma]

It looks like their demolition is unavoidable. But I am sure that within five years, the people of Brantford will be greatly regretting the pointless loss of much of their town's historic fabric.

It may depend upon which people. After all, those like Darkstar416's Brantfordian friend are probably just as much of the persuasion to knock Toronto for not sweeping out ugly eyesore swaths of so-called "heritage" Yonge Street. And if downtown Brantford still goes down the tubes, they might claim it's the urban metastasis resulting from their not tearing down this crap soon enough.

Yeah, I know, it's "if she wasn't such a bitch I wouldn't have hit her" logic...