Coffee Round Table

by Darrin DeRoches October 18 - 24, 2012

I was invited to a coffee round table by Glen Norton our Urban Renewal Manager which featured Mathieu Langelier – Executive Director, Hamilton Halton Builder Association and Cameron Nolan the President of Realtors Association of Hamilton Burlington. To be honest, I thought that it would be a boring, stuffy type of stale coffee, big winded talk from people who had an agenda and who were forcing it down your throat kind of deal. But I was totally wrong.     The meeting was held at the Mulberry Coffee Shop, which provided the space, great coffee and amazing muffins. The informal setting and talk really brought out a casual, yet I say, cool – vibe. The open form brought out architects, realtors, investors, property owners, landlords etc. Everyone had an open forum to discuss topical points that related to our city. The two big topics were the new but dreaded legalizing apartments and the creation of more condos/apartments in the downtown. Everyone is up in arms in registering all apartments with the city. It is not the costs of doing it; it is the ramifications that come with it. Every landlord wants their units to be legal since it will make insuring and renting easier but at what costs? The zoning nightmares will be insane, costly and next to impossible. The second topic about bringing new builds to the downtown boiled down to the same concerns – City Hall. Builders are not worried about selling the units; they are concern with all the red tape in city hall – period.     It is easy to blame City Hall and our politicians for all of our problems but from a neutral point of view – City Hall has made vast improvements but it still has a way to go. Twenty years ago I dealt with city hall for a business downtown and they were like dinosaurs in the building department. I had to challenge, argue, go to the OMB and finally just correct all of their assumptions with the facts in order to move forward on a simple 15 person patio. In today’s building department there is still a pass-the-buck, cover-your-ass type of attitude. This culture has to change and it has to change from the top down. The city says they are open for business and they are BUT and it is a big but, the building department has to get up to speed. I can sit here and suggest what they should do but really they should sit with a bunch of builders, realtors and landlords and ask them what needs to be fixed and FIX IT!     Our downtown and our city as a whole can grow exponentially if only we really open the doors to the developers, builders and businessman who are scratching at our door but are afraid to really commit.  Streamline our building department, remove obstacles and let our city grow to its full potential – it may all just start with a simple conversation over a coffee. V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca.