City to discuss the fate of the Auchmar Estate on May 20th

SPECIAL ALERT –  Attention all members of the Friends of Auchmar and heritage advocats. On Wednesday May 20th the City of Hamilton will be discussing the fate of the Auchmar Estate at General Issues Committee beginning at 9:30am.

Very Important: We urge  all FOA members and heritage advocates to email the mayor and their own ward councillor and other councillors they know and ask that AUCHMAR REMAIN IN CITY OWNERSHIP!

The full memo for Auchmar discussion can be found here.

SUBJECT: Sale of Auchmar Estate for Adaptive Re-Use (PED15072) (Ward 8)
item 8. 11 Auchmar General Issues Committee Wednesday May 20th, 2015.

CITY RECOMMENDATIONS TO BE DISCUSSED:

(a) That the Council direction for staff to proceed with the development of a comprehensive operational plan, based on the Proposed Use Concept Profile for the Auchmar Estate (Report PED12193) be rescinded.

(b) That the Request for Proposals for The Use, Adaptive Re-Use, Conservation, and Management of the Auchmar Estate in the City of Hamilton (Contract Number C3-06-14) be terminated.

(c) That the Real Estate Section of the Economic Development Division of the Planning and Economic Development Department be authorized and directed to enter into negotiations for the sale of the land and buildings, legally described as Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 on Plan 62R-15401, with a right of way over Part 1 on Plan 62R-15401, as shown in Appendix “A” attached to Report PED15072, in accordance with the “Procedural By-law for the Sale of Land”, being By-law No. 14-204 and substantially on terms and conditions outlined in Appendix “B” attached to Report PED15072, and any such other terms and conditions deemed appropriate by the General Manager, Planning and Economic Development Department.

(d) That the Manager of Real Estate be authorized to retain the services of an independent qualified appraiser, in good standing with the Appraisal Institute of Canada, to establish a fair market value of the subject property.

(e) That all costs, including legal, appraisal and real estate, be debited to 10005 – Revolving Fund-Historic Properties.

(f) That the Manager of Real Estate report back to the General Issues Committee with any potential purchasers that have (i) substantially met the terms and conditions outlined in Appendix “B” attached to Report PED15072, and any such other terms and conditions deemed appropriate by the General Manager, Planning and Economic Development Department, and (ii) entered into an offer to purchase agreement with the City.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

At the September 5, 2013 General Issues Committee, staff were directed to proceed with a non-binding Request for Proposals (RFP) for the potential private use and/or sale of the Auchmar Estate (PED13151). Two submissions were received and evaluated by a panel of City staff, Ontario Heritage Trust staff and external heritage consultants. Neither proposal received a passing score, as reported in an Information Update in April 2015 titled “Auchmar Request for Proposal Update”. Staff advised that no further action be taken on these proposals; however, the City has been a steward of the property since 1999 and there is strong support for the sustainable preservation of the estate from the local and heritage communities.

With the backdrop of unsuccessful attempts to address the adaptive re-use of Auchmar, a different approach is required. Staff are recommending that the City initiate a real estate process to identify and secure a buyer for Auchmar (including all structures and property), making any transaction conditional upon a set of terms and conditions outlined herein including the Heritage Conservation Easement held by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Municipal Heritage Designation and the Statement of Significance developed by the Ontario Heritage Trust, attached to Report PED15072 as Appendixes “D”, “E” and “F” respectively.

The full agenda for tomorrow’s general issues committee meeting can be found here.

The full memo for Auchmar discussion can be found here.

Councillor Contacts

mayor@hamilton.ca – Mayor Fred Eisenberger

terry.whitehead@hamilton.ca – Auchmar ward councillor

Aidan.Johnson@hamilton.ca

Maria.Pearson@hamilton.ca

Scott.Duvall@hamilton.ca – his ward is next to Auchmar

Tom.Jackson@hamilton.ca

Lloyd.Ferguson@hamilton.ca – Ancaster

Matthew.Green@hamilton.ca – new on council

Chad.Collins@hamilton.ca –

Sam.Merulla@hamilton.ca –

Jason.Farr@hamilton.ca – councillor of the downtown core

Arlene.VanderBeek@hamilton.ca – new councillor in Dundas

Robert.Pasuta@hamilton.ca –

Preserving heritage buildings saves landfill space, groups told

Hamilton Spectator By Daniel Nolan

TEMPLAR FLATS

TEMPLAR FLATS Developer Steve Kulakowsky of Core Urban Inc. told the meeting his firm will save $2 million by repurposing two old buildings on King William Street into a condominium development called The Templar Flats, seen here in an artistic rendering.

Preserving heritage buildings saves landfill space and can be cheaper than constructing brand new buildings, a public meeting was told Wednesday.
Developer Steve Kulakowsky, whose firm Core Urban Inc. has gained a good reputation for saving and retrofitting some of Hamilton’s old buildings, told the meeting his firm will save $2 million by repurposing two old buildings on King William Street into a condominium development called The Templar Flats.

This project involves renovating the former Reardon’s Meat Market and Deli at King William Street and Hughson Street North and constructing a new building that links it to a heritage building to the west of the once popular eatery.

While Kulakowsky said the $5.5-million project is not without its challenges, he said tearing the two buildings down and constructing an entirely new building has been estimated at $7.7 million.

“Those are real world numbers,” Kulakowsky told a joint meeting of The Friends of Auchmar and Environment Hamilton at The Empire Times Building, the restored 125-year-old building (and a Core Urban project) across the street from The Templar Flats site.

“They are broad strokes, of course, but they are real world numbers,” he continued. “The argument is it doesn’t have to be more expensive. Absolutely more complicated, but not more expensive.”

Kulakowsky also said preserving the two buildings that will make up Templar Flats keeps 700,000 pounds of waste — stone and wood — from the landfill. He said that is enough to fill 115 waste bins.

“The impact on our landfill is tremendous,” Kulakowsky noted.

About 60 people attended the meeting, which was centred on the theme of ‘Preserving Our Heritage, Improving Our Environment.’ It also featured talks from Environment Hamilton members Ned Nolan and Sean Burak, architect Molly Merriman and an update on the restoration of a 160-year-old garden wall at the city-owned Auchmar estate (built by politician-businessman Isaac Buchanan 1853-1854). Part of the wall collapsed in 2011 and the restoration work should be completed by May of this year.

Nolan showed a picture of the downtown Hamilton skyline in 1948 highlighting entire blocks of buildings that were demolished. He called that an inconceivable amount of heritage. In the context of the environmentalist principle of stewardship and the First Nations principle of Seven Generations, he referred to David Blanchard’s 2014 proposition that maybe a Target could replace some of the pre-confederation buildings in Gore Park. Nolan said that’s like saying to our ancestors who stewarded those well crafted buildings for us: “Thanks anyway, but we’re going to put a Target there so that the seventh generation can buy cheap shoes made in overseas sweat shops with lax environmental laws.”

Burak said preserving heritage buildings allows people to live a greener lifestyle. He said various reports show that anywhere from 10 to 33 per cent of landfills contain demolition waste.

“We put a tremendous amount of effort into recycling bottles, cups and cans, but we don’t think twice about putting an entire building into the landfill,” he added.

dnolan@thespec.com

905-526-3351 | @dandundas

Original source: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5571935-preserving-heritage-buildings-saves-landfill-space-groups-told/

FRIENDS OF AUCHMAR, Annual Chair’s Report, October 9th, 2104

It is a pleasure to present the third Annual Chair’s Report.

I would like to thank members for your participation at meetings and for all your suggestions both in person and via email. I also want to thank your board of the Friends of Auchmar for their regular attendance at monthly board meetings, for their support and for their diligence in working to keep Auchmar in public ownership and suggesting ways to inform and involve the citizens of Hamilton in the preservation of Auchmar. Your board works diligently to further the mission of the Friends to bring together those persons committed to the history, preservation, conservation, rehabilitation and continuing public use of the Auchmar Manor House, its associated buildings and cultural landscape.

As you know, June 20th, 2013 your board submitted a formal document in response to the City of Hamilton’s Request for Information (RFI). We received support in writing from 6 non-binding partners. The City of Hamilton received submissions from 7 groups — the Friends who partnered with Heritage Hamilton Foundation, CoBALT Connects, the Landmark Group, Mohawk College, NovaCare Communities, Sahar Hospitality and Courtyard Marriott.

At the September 5th, 2013 meeting of the General Issues Committee (GIC) the Auchmar  Request for Information (RFI) submissions were reported as received, but not made public. At that meeting, it was recommended that the next step would be Request for Proposals (RFP)

On September 11th,2013 Hamilton City Council directed staff to proceed with a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Auchmar Estate. That recommendation was amended by Councillor Terry Whitehead who added the words, non-binding preceding the words, Request for Proposal. The motion as amended was approved.

In June 2014, Councillor Terry Whitehead and City Manager Chris Murray announced receipt of a secret, unsolicited offer from a local consortium to purchase Auchmar. Since the offer to scrap the RFP was put forward at the same time as Hamilton city council was proceeding with a request for proposals, councillors were divided over the decision. To scrap the announced RFP rankled some councillors, who voted to continue with the RFP process. Some councillors said they did not have enough information to support studying the offer, while others considered it improper to circumvent protocol by going outside the RFP process. One councillor said the secret bid was from a reputable group of local organizations, but not all councillors were in on the secret. It was reported that several mountain councillors and those from the amalgamated towns voted to stick with the request for proposals – to be transparent and follow protocol since the Request for Proposal had been confirmed even though a date for submission had not yet been announced.

One month later in July 2014, the City of Hamilton formally announced the Auchmar Request for Proposal with a submission date of Thursday October 9th. Since that time your board has been working with non-binding partners to draft and submit the RFP for the Use, Adaptive Reuse, Conservation, Management and Environmental Stewardship of the Auchmar Estate

According to the legal requirements set out by the City of Hamilton, no proponent was allowed to contact any member of city council, city staff or other proponents or risk being disqualified. We do not know the names of the other proponents but we will confirm the status of the RFP as soon as we are notified.

Other happening include a meeting of the Friend of Auchmar on Thursday April 24, when Thomas Wickes and Kiki Aravopoulos  from the Ontario Heritage Trust and Anna Bradford, Director of Tourism & Culture, City of Hamilton outlined the role of the Trust and the City of Hamilton for Auchmar’s designation and easement. The standing room only crowd was obviously keen to learn about the designation and the easement at Auchmar.

Due to ongoing repair of the stone walls and entrance gates to the former stables, Auchmar is a construction site. As a result Doors Open at Auchmar was cancelled in May 2013 and again in May 2014. This work was required because the city received a notice from OHT that the walls and gates had to be repaired. As a note of information- the city purchased Auchmar in 1999 – but until a few years ago little maintenance work was done, thus 15 years later the cost to do those repairs has greatly increased. It is thanks to the dedication of Anna Bradford and her colleagues that monies were found for roof and chimney repairs and now for wall and entrance gates restoration.

To further investigate the protection of Auchmar buildings and the heritage cultural landscape, Robin McKee  a founding board member of the The Lower Grand River Land Trust along with me your chair met in August with Marilyn Havelka, Chief Administrative Officer of Ruthven Park, now The Lower Grand River Land Trust Inc. a National Historic –protected site of 1,600 acres. Our purpose is to investigate the establishment of an Auchmar Land Trust.

It was interesting and important to learn that on April 2, 2014 Allison Maxted and Mike Borrelli hosted a meeting in downtown Hamilton to launch a Community Land Trust for downtown Hamilton. We hope to see that Land Trust broadened to include all of Hamilton. Robin McKee is liaising with that group as they begin to organize and form a board.

Thanks go to Frank Bernt, John Kajaste, Robin McKee and John Buchanan who manned the Friends of Auchmar exhibit at the Concession Street Festival in August. Your board and members try to participate at heritage association events.

Thanks to artist Norris Podetz, a member of the Friends of Auchmar, who designed the Auchmar Christmas Card, and thank you cards – all profits are to be used by the Friends of Auchmar. Norris’ current sketches such as the archway into the stables are on display at the front of this room.

Thanks go to Robert Gill, our webmaster who also manages Durand’s Website and Eric Lootsma, a Friends board member for continued upgrades to the Friends of Auchmar website. Please continue to visit the Friends website and forward your suggestions to us for improvements.

Thanks also to Richard Allen, of Renew Hamilton. Richard video tapes most Friends of Auchmar members’ meetings His blog from the Nov 2012 Economics of Heritage Preservation is on both the Friends of Auchmar and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce web sites

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that the Friends of Auchmar‘s Short Term Goal is to Increase education about Auchmar and increase membership through – events

Our LONG TERM GOAL is to have the Auchmar Estate designated a National Historic Site and become a Hamilton Community Land Trust to ensure the Preservation/Restoration/and Maintenance of the entire Auchmar estate and to ensure that Auchmar remains in city ownership which then ensures public access.

We request your suggestions and participation in working out and achieving those goals. These goals are consistent with The City of Hamilton’s heritage designation and the Ontario Heritage Trust’s easement.

This is the 2013 -2014 Annual Report for the Friends of Auchmar.

Respectfully submitted, Diane Gower Dent, Chair.
Friends of Auchmar / October 9, 2014

Thank you

Not included in the Chair’s report but an interesting story

Due to construction, the Friends were unable to host an August Emancipation Day picnic so instead the Friends hosted a members’ tour at the Hamilton Cemetery. Tour leader and board member Robin McKee made the link with Buchanan’s Emancipation Day picnics. by including in the tour the grave of Nelson Stevens, a ex-slave from Virginia, who was born in born in 1832 and found his way to Hamilton in 1865. Robin explained that there is no evidence of how Stevens arrived here, but the Civil War was happening at that time (1861-1865) Stevens evidently crossed the border at Buffalo, in 1865 and signed up in the 25th United States Color Troops. Robin’s research revealed that Stevens trained here then was shipped to Florida for the defense of the coastal forts. At the end of the war Stevens was in New Orleans but in 1866 he returned to Hamilton and married here. According to Robin, Stevens would have had the opportunity to be at the Emancipation Picnic’s hosted by Buchanan at Auchmar. In 1890 Stevens is poor and alone when he dies. His fellow Civil War vets bury him in an unmarked grave in the Hamilton Cemetery. Recently, in 2007 — Robin agreed to tour the American legion in Canada. After the tour, the commander asked Robin about his research on Stevens. The commander then gave Robin an application to retrieve Steven’s grave stone from the US, so Robin sent the application to Washington in. Six months later in  October  Robin received a phone call from the cemetery office saying a stone had arrived. Robin had forgotten about the application so wondered what stone had arrived  but no one knew how it was that the gravestone had arrived and with Robin’s name as the recipient. The parcel was from the veteran’s Affairs in Washington and shipped by the US Federal Government and sent to Robin by order of President George Bush. The gravestone was installed in the Hamilton Cemetery on Stevens unmarked grave and unveiled on Nov 3rd 2007, during the Civil War tour which happened to be Robin’s birthday! So miracles do happen!