Allen Le Nam has big plans in a city he has good memories about.

The Vietnam-born developer — with warm feelings about Hamilton after having lived here for seven months in 1993 after he came to Canada as a refugee — has emerged to take on the redevelopment of the former James Street Baptist Church into a highrise condo project.

"I want to do something for the city because I was so treated so well when I first came here. It was like the city took me in. I made some good friends," says Le Nam, 42.

"Hamilton has been associated with the best things that ever happened to me, it was so much better than what I was facing in Vietnam."

Le Nam says he also fell in love with the old British-style architecture of downtown buildings that were so different than what he knew in Southeast Asia.

So ingratiated by all things Hamilton, he says, he used to collect keepsakes with the word on it, like Hamilton watches or antiques from Hamilton.

Hue Developments — which was co-founded by Le Nam as a subsidiary of Vietnam-based Hoa Binh Corp. — plans to break ground on a $100-million project in late spring, carrying forward a modified version of the previous condominium plan by Stanton Renaissance known as The Connolly.

He estimates construction will take between two years to two-and-a-half years.

The Connolly was an $80-million project to turn the 135-year-old church into a highrise condo building. After knocking down all but the front of the crumbling church in 2014 — to preserve a heritage face on the street — the developer went into receivership in June 2017 without any new construction taking place.

The new owners recently received variances from the city committee of adjustment to add an extra storey and more units from the original proposal, along with parking relief. The newly proposed 31-storey tower would include 315 units, rather than the previous maximum of 259. He says one-bedroom units will sell "in the high $300s."

Asked how certain he is that the front façade can be preserved in the final design, Le Nam said, it "will absolutely be maintained and enhanced throughout the building. A heritage permit was granted in December 2018. The team's focus is to do a better job at celebrating the church. Lots of original features will be preserved so that all residents will be able to enjoy them."

The development company also hopes to use the face of the highrise as a giant backdrop for eye-catching light displays at night. (In February, the company built a temporary light tunnel in front of the building with 150 Vietnamese silk lanterns for pedestrians.)

Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr says, "I think it is fantastic. They are a class act. I think people all over Hamilton are going to be impressed with the final product.

"To see the building back on track, I'll tell you for me personally, it's very exciting."

Farr says he is "very confident" the project won't run into the snags that it did under the previous developer, because of the size and experience of the parent company that is backing the work.

Durand Neighbourhood Association president Chris Redmond said that, like Farr, members of the association have met with representatives of Hue.

"At the moment we are pretty happy with it. They are pretty serious about actually building something. Compared to the previous developer, it's a pretty big difference."

The outstanding fear for him is unforeseen difficulties with trying to retain heritage elements of the property and compromises being made to the final design.

Allen Le Nam standing in front of the former James Street Baptist Church | Gary Yokoyama, The Hamilton Spectator

But Le Nam insists he can manage it. "The project we understand is very important for the city. But to us it is a very small project."

Parent company Hoa Binh Corp. has more than 45,000 employees around the world with more than 80 ongoing projects in six countries. The company is one of the biggest developers in Southeast Asia with two decades of experience.

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It will be the first Canadian project for the subsidiary company Hue, and Le Nam says he is currently looking at two other possible deals in the city and another one in Niagara Falls.

"I am looking to work more in Hamilton," he says adding that he recently bought a house in the east end of the city, and will be moving his wife and three children here from Vietnam.

Le Nam originally immigrated to Canada in 1993, after fleeing Vietnam with his mother and sister five years before.

The journey on the boat from Vietnam to Hong Kong, he says was a wretched one reminiscent of what so many Vietnamese went through following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

The family was crammed onto a boat that was far smaller than what they the were promised by the booking agent. It was under powered and took eight weeks to cover a distance that was supposed to take a week.

"We had to sit and sleep in an area that was the size of a square metre," he said. "It was awful."

The family first moved to the Chatham area before Hamilton and the GTA. After an undergraduate degree in business from York University he went on to get his MBA at the University of California.

In 2004 he moved back to Vietnam to work in the development industry and has been working at Hoa Binh for the past five years. More recently he pushed for the company to develop projects in Canada, and because of his familiarity with Hamilton he wanted the first one to be here.

He looked around for options and "when I saw the James Street church I fell in love with it."

He particularly likes the promise of how it will be a blending of the old with the new.

"It will show how Hamilton is growing and changing to be a more dynamic city but keeping its original path."

Correction Published: Developer Allen Le Nam attended University of Toronto for business studies, not York University as reported in Tuesday's Spectator. We apologize for the error.

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