A Piece Of The Connaught

by Darrin DeRoches June 5 - 11, 2014

This Saturday, June 7 2014, the sales for the Royal Connaught condo will be available to the public at 9am. Over 3,000 people have signed up on their mailing list and I am curious to see the response to the sale. Personally, I will be there with a client looking to snap up several units but there are only 122 available in the original building with more to come in the future towers. They have not set out prices or announced the amenities and all of the focus is on one demo suite and the grand lobby. I believe this is the best project in the city for today and the future and it will be very interesting to find out how it will be received. The property has sat empty for over a decade and in this time we have had a few condo projects built with varied success and failures.     The Core lofts were the fastest selling condo when they came to market and made a huge splash, and then a few years ago it made another interesting mark when the condo owners had to pay out 20 to 40 thousand dollars per unit in a special assessment. The Witton lofts are the most recent and they were also well received and are a great success.     I predict that the Royal Connaught will be an overwhelming success and only hope that everyone gets a fair chance at buying a unit. Some want them as an investment and others as a piece of history. This sale of our downtown will set the standard for our future condo development.     There are other projects happening and selling but all eyes are on the Royal Connaught. The last special project of this magnitude would have been the Piggott building in the 90’s. The building is grand and well–appointed with well thought out units. Unfortunately, the builder went bankrupt and the receiver came in and sold the units under value. They were surprised how quick all of the units went and took their money and moved on. These same units have increased over the years but never reached their full potential.     The pricing on the Royal Connaught will be important not only to the condo market itself but the future of downtown. You only get one shot at getting it right and hopefully they will not undervalue or overvalue the units. The units will be from 550 to 1050 sqft and you have to decide what is the best size and value when speculating on a project that is 18 months from completion.     The risk is there but so is the reward. I will be there with cheque book in hand making the decision for my client to buy one, two, three or even four units if it all makes business sense. If it does not add up then we would have to walk away and wait for the next opportunity, but when can you own a piece of Hamilton history? Saturday morning in downtown Hamilton, that’s when. 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 sold@uniquerealty.ca.