Le Belvédère Hampstead - 16 étages (2013)

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Welcome to 1986!

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This project has been cancelled.

 

http://www.thesuburban.com/article.php?id=1611&title=Hampstead-Le-Belvedere-Condo-Project-Cancelled

 

Hampstead Le Belvedere condo project cancelled

 

By Joel Goldenberg, June 12th, 2013

 

The Le Belvedere high-rise condominium project, which was to be built on the land of the former Hampstead fire station, has been cancelled, Mayor William Steinberg said at Monday’s town council meeting.

Steinberg made the statement in response to Dr. Stanley Blum, who said he bought a condo at the planned building immediately and sold his house immediately as well.

“I’m homeless,” Dr. Blum said, later adding he is living in a temporary residence. “It’s very sad. They took a diamond and turned it into a zircon.”

Steinberg said he would not comment on the particulars of the marketing of the condo project. He explained that on the first weekend units went on sale, about 30 percent was sold — penthouses and the top floors.

“After that, things slowed down considerably,” the mayor added. “They had promised investors they would make an absolute decision by June 1 of this year, whether they would go forward or not. The decision was not to go forward. I was notified of that, that afternoon. They started calling everybody.”

Steinberg said that for the next step, “everything is possible.

“They could come back to us with another proposal, maybe different in some ways — council would have to look at it. They could get other partners to join them. They could sell the land, and someone else could come up with the same or different proposal. At this point, based on two weeks ago, they had no clue what they were going to do, they had just made that decision to pull the plug. I have no inside information, and I doubt there will be any information for at least a few months.”

But Steinberg added that the town is protected financially. Hampstead sold the land to Groupe Benvenuto-Québec. Inc. for $5.5 million, and clauses say that in case a project does not proceed as planned by March 31, 2014, “the town gets another $1 million, which is a pretty steep penalty.

“We have it in our law, it’s not revocable,” the mayor added. “There are additional penalty clauses that kick in at later points. Potentially, the town could end up with an extra $2.5 million. If the land is sold [to another developer], those penalties and conditions move to the new buyer.

“Within the next five years, I am very confident that something will go on that property. We also get tax revenue on that land. To steal a phrase Councillor Leon Elfassy gave me, this is simply a bump on the road. The land is far too valuable for it to sit vacant. Something will happen, and council will deal with whatever is proposed when the time comes.”

Steinberg also said “we knew [the developers] were financially very solvent, and they did — I understand — return all the money investors put in, plus interest.”

Groupe Benvenuto president Mitchell Abrahams, contacted by The Suburban Tuesday, confirmed that purchasers were fully refunded, plus interest. He also said there are no immediate plans for the next step for the site.

“We’re all upset we were unable to meet the sales threshold in the time we had to confirm that the project was moving forward,” Abrahams said. “But we’re going to take a look at timing, what our options are. It’s a fantastic site and we’ll come back with something exciting for the site when the timing is right. This is part of the challenge of trying to put a big building together in a luxury setting.... It’s a very special and unique building in a great neighbourhood, but it was designed together with Hampstead. It’s quite a big building, and to put 100 luxury buyers together in a short period of time was challenging, and we were unable to get to the threshold we needed to go forward at this time.”n

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