The City of Hamilton and the Lister Block and Being a Landlord

There's been numerous projects the city has been a part of and turned out to be bad at finding commercial tenants (or they're bad at assigning the job and parameters to whoever is doing it). For example the Terraces on King, now has at least one tenant, but the ground floor commercial units laid empty for what seemed like forever (although being below 10+ stories of public housing might be part of the problem). The Gore Building's main floor is still empty after years, despite a sign for a while indicating a Coffee Culture is coming. My guess is that the city charges over the odds for rent for the buildings they are involved in (more on that later).

The Spec has an article today about the Lister Block's commercial ground floor and the renting of part of it by Cafe Mezza. These units have been empty for a while:

"The units have been available for rent since last April." At least in this instance tenants were lined up and they won't stay empty forever, just a long time.

The rent though seems quite high for downtown Hamilton:

"Luis Meza was thrilled to sign a five-year lease on an 850-square-foot space facing King William. His bid won over two others."

"According to a staff report to council, Meza will pay about $1,850 a month in rent and operating costs in the first year, climbing to about $2,350 in the fifth year." That's $2.18 per square foot in the first year, and $2.76 in the fifth year. I'm doubting inflation in rents downtown will rise that fast. As a way of comparison, the space that Burrito Boys is in on Gore Park was advertised at $2500 for 2500 square feet or around $1 a square foot. So I think it is pretty clear that rents in city associated projects are more expensive. Sure the Lister is a nice space, but there has to be some realism

I am glad that there is interest in the Lister Block commercially. I'm also glad that the city has gotten involved with projects. But it can't be argued that whenever the city is involved with something, filling the main floor commercial space is a very slow process.