Raise the Hammer

Stinson insists that everything is copacetic. Just very low-key and introspective. Although earlier this year he had spoken of "full-blast construction anticipated March 2012."

http://www.thehamiltonian.net/2012/01/checking-in-with-harry-stinson.html

In a September interview about his Niagara Grand project, Stinson remarked that "Oftentimes, the challenges of getting financing for a non-Manhattan or non-Toronto project are significant. Financing will drive this bus." (Although he obviously had a million or so handy to bid on the Niagara Grand.)

http://www.lawjournalbuffalo.com/news/article/current/2011/09/15/103401/rebirth-of-hotel-niagara-hinges-on-public-funds

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2012_1st/Feb12_HotelNiagara.html

The Hamilton Grand site was never remediated, AFAIK. As a former gas station it would require considerable work and the removal of truckloads of contaminated material. Remediation supposedly took place in the summer of 2010. All we ever saw was hoarding, a mound of dirt and a Bobcat. The hoarding has begun to come apart and the signs have vanished. What was once pitched as a 15-storey build collapsed to ten and then six storeys. The Grand's site had sold a handful of commercial spots and no residential suites the last time I checked.

In January 2012, Stinson told The Hamiltonian that "it's probably safer and more diplomatic for me to bare my soul in a year, when the School and the Grand are more mature; the past 5 years have been personally draining for me for many reasons."

http://www.thehamiltonian.net/2012/01/checking-in-with-harry-stinson.html

Coincidentally, the week before that interview apperared, Stinson told the Spec it'd be finished by summer 2013.

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/648908--condo-projects-showing-promise-in-the-core

The Hamilton Grand was originally to have been completed by summer 2012 but since it launched, the Stinson School project and the Niagara Grand projects have competed for funding and attention. The result seems to be a stalemate.