Some kind of a hold up on construction progress at the Bridgewater site – new owner in place for the hotel – it was going to be a Marriott.

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

September 25th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The Carriage Gate development on Brant Street opposite city hall has begun.

Gallery demoliition work

Little by little the back hoe rips apart the buildings that fronted on Brant Street as the Gallery begins to become part of the street.

The demolition along Brant Street is well under way for what will be called The Gallery.

No word yet on when work will start on the Adi Development Group Nautique tower. Water table testing has been done and the bungalow that was on the north part of the site was torn down some time ago.

Construction on the Bridgewater development on Lakeshore seems to have stalled. New Horizons president Jeff Paikin explains that “We had two strikes to contend with and a lousy building winter.

In a previous email conversation with Paikin we were told that the hotel had asked for different windows on the building they were to occupy and that slowed things down – other than that said Paiken everything was fine. But not much in the way of construction activity on the site.

Bridgewater from the west - higher elevation

It was to be a legacy structure – a landmark on the edge of the lake from which you might be able to see Niagara Falls. Some happened – word yet why construction workers aren’t crawling all over the site.

When New Horizons took over the marketing of the development and its construction Paikin faced a situation where he had to get shovels into the ground and sell units.

The development is made up of two condominium towers and a hotel – with the hotel and the 22 story condo tower fronting on Lakeshore Road.

The deal that Paikin had with Mayrose Tyco – they approached him – was that he had to take ownership of the hotel site with Marriott being the operator.

Paikin was interested in finding an owner – he didn’t have all that much interest in being the owner of a building that had a five star operator.

The Pearle Hospitality Group in Ancaster found Paikin, or he found them, and they put together a deal that has Marriott out as the tenant and Pearle Hospitality in.

Pearle is a well-recognized and highly regarded hospitality operator who run the Old Mill in Ancaster, as well as some of the most popular restaurant properties in the region, including two Bread Bar locations in Hamilton and Guelph, Spencer’s at the Waterfront in Burlington and catering and wedding hosting operations.

Pearle is run by Aaron Ciancone, son of late family patriarch Ron Ciancone.

Aaron Ciancone, along with his mother and sister, oversees the business.

Good tenants with good reputations; can’t ask for much more than that.

Bridgewater Aerial-rendering-1024x758

It had the makings of a fine addition to the downtown core. It seemed to take forever to get all the approvals in place but the paper work was done. Then a developer was brought in to market and build. That arrangement fell off the tracks. Then New Horizons was brought in to do that job – they got off to a fine start. And things seemed to have stalled.

Now to just get the building completed and have a waterfront that will be accessible to the public from the hotel and the condominium areas. This has taken far too long – or is it that there are other problems. Paikin, who is usually open to questions. Not this time.

The Court Yard area in the centre area of the buildings look spectacular in the model the public was shown.

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1 comment to Some kind of a hold up on construction progress at the Bridgewater site – new owner in place for the hotel – it was going to be a Marriott.

  • Alan Harrington

    “It was to be a legacy structure – a landmark on the edge of the lake from which you might be able to see Niagara Falls…” (wow!)

    If viewing Niagara Falls is its raison d’être, then there’s a whole bunch of BETTER vantage points for this thing instead of dumping it in Burlington by the lake.