This morning I received an email from a friend whose son live in Hamilton, Ontario, a city that is much like our own. Over the last couple of years, Hamilton has been making some significant development strides, similar to Buffalo’s own stepped up efforts to reinvent itself. To that end, my friend sent along a fascinating link that highlighted a new development along Hamilton’s waterfront – Pier 8 Development.

The West Harbour Key Project – Pier 8 Development – is being touted as the future of Hamilton. Currently, five monumental development projects are being considered for this fallow land.

On December 15, 2017 the City formally launched the Request for Proposal (RFP) process with the Prequalified Proponents. The Preferred Proponent of the RFP phase will be granted the exclusive opportunity to negotiate with the City for the purchase of, and right to develop, the Pier 8 lands.

Each of the projects is backed by developers, architects, planners, thinkers, etc. The key components of each of the development is as follows:

Approximately 1500 residential units

Approximately 13,000 square metres ( 139,930 square’) of commercial and institutional space

of commercial and institutional space Over 1400 parking spaces

Following are four video submissions, starting with:

Gulf Dream

Core Team Members: Great Gulf Enterprises, Dream Asset Management Corp.

Lead Architect(s): Hariri Pontarini Architects

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Next up is Tridel

Core Team Members: Tridel Builders Inc.

Lead Architect(s): architectsAlliance

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Followed by Urban Capital/Core Urban/Milborne Group

Core Team Members: Urban Capital Property Group, Core Urban Inc., Milborne Real Estate Group

Lead Architect(s): Saucier + Perotte, RAW Design

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And finally, Waterfront Shores

Core Team Members: Cityzen Development Corp., Fernbrook Homes Group, GFL Environmental Inc., Greybrook Realty Partners Inc.

Lead Architect(s): KPMB Architects

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All of the proposals will be evaluated upon the following criteria:

Concept Plan

Residential Program

Place-making

Environmental Sustainability

Public Presentation Materials

Urban Innovation

Ownership & Financing

Project Delivery

Project Stewardship & Change Management

Financial Proposal

How the top 5* teams were selected: The teams were evaluated based on predetermined criteria including: their alignment with the City’s vision for Pier 8; proof of financial capacity and stability to finance and execute a large-scale, multi-phase development; and a previous track record of developing projects with characteristics similar to the Pier 8 development.

There was not a video presentation available for the fifth team – Daniels

Core Team Members: The Daniels Corporation

Lead Architect(s): CORE Architects

Additional information can be found at Hamilton.ca site.

The Pier 8 Development goes hand-in-hand with a Pier 8 Promenade Park.

Forrec Ltd, has been selected by the competition jury as the winner of the Pier 8 Promenade Park Design Competition for their proposal “Hamilton: Hammer City”.