21-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
First review of Gore Park building collapses flags enforcement ‘gaps'
Boarded-up
heritage buildings crumbled
to the ground at Gore Park amid 'gaps' in communication between city departments and enforcement efforts, an initial staff review of last fall's twin collapse has found.
And despite notification to owners of 273 vacant buildings in Hamilton, 122 haven't been signed with a municipal registry meant to keep closer tabs on issues at derelict addresses.
The city's bylaws are 'strong,' but 'enforcement tools like escalating penalties and interior inspections need strengthening,' says the interim analysis before council Wednesday.
The initial review responds to Mayor Andrea Horwath's call for a comprehensive analysis of how the city deals with at-risk buildings after the
two 1870s-era buildings collapsed
at Gore Park just hours before Remembrance Day ceremonies.
'It's an awful situation,'
Horwath said at the time.
'We have to figure out why it got to this point and what else is out there, because this is not acceptable.'
'It's an awful situation,' Mayor Andrea Horwath said after two heritage buildings collapsed at Gore Park on Nov. 11, 2024. 'We have to figure out why it got to this point and what else is out there, because this is not acceptable.'
The facades that crashed down on the King Street East promenade were part of a stretch of brick-and-stone buildings that had been vacant for more than a decade amid stalled redevelopment plans.
After the collapse, the consortium behind the project demolished the other connected addresses, which were deemed unsafe, leaving a gap in the downtown streetscape.
The loss, which included pre-Confederation buildings from the 1840s, sparked outrage from heritage advocates who'd long vied to protect the facades.
In the aftermath, the city noted staff had issued 'multiple orders,' including one in February 2023 that cited roof deterioration, and had returned to the site as recently as the week before the disaster to address outstanding issues.
David Blanchard, manager partner of the Hughson Business Space Corporation, said in an emailed statement that the consortium had completed 'many of the measures' the city flagged in a July order, but one of them 'was determined unsafe to complete by structural engineers.'
The interim review before council Wednesday provides a chronology of project milestones — including complaints, inspections, orders and applications — from December 2012 to November 2024.
After two heritage buildings collapsed at Gore Park on Nov. 11, 2024, other connected historic addresses that were deemed unsafe were demolished, leaving a gap in the downtown streetscape.
Enforcing vacant properties 'can be complex' and often spans several city divisions, the report says, noting heritage, building and bylaw officials can all play a role.
To help break silos, staff are looking at how to better share information and have struck a multi-divisional working group focused on vacant buildings.
'An interim process has been developed that creates a high priority list of vacant buildings with heritage designations to use as a tool to identify, monitor and prioritize enforcement.'
The last of the Gore Park heritage buildings comes down on King Street East in November 2024.
Staff have also drafted an 'unsafe building enforcement operating framework' that guides how to launch probes into potentially risky properties.
A more involved review of the Gore collapse and recommendations to help prevent other vacant buildings from crumbling is expected later this year.
The city has hired an engineering firm to analyze what caused the King Street buildings to collapse, but the consultant hasn't finished that study yet.
