For developer Harry Stinson, the name of the old school in Hamilton he was considering purchasing and transforming into condominiums was too hard to resist.

Comprised of a north building constructed in 1894 and a 1914 south wing — with a gym added in 1950s — the Stinson School is a huge red brick, red sandstone and limestone structure located on 1.5-acre site on Stinson St., just off the downtown core near the juncture of Main St. E. and Victoria Ave.

“The school was named after the street, not the person,” says Stinson, in a reference to Ebenezer Stinson, the early 19th-century politician and land developer who built that part of the city.

Now his 21st-century counterpart — no relation — is also transforming the area. Stinson is nearing the end of a four-year process of converting the school to a 66-unit residential loft complex similar to what he achieved with the Candy Factory Lofts in Toronto in the early 1990s. The project also includes the creation of another five units in two houses directly across the street from the school.

The Stinson School will be comprised of a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom units and penthouse suites with skylights. Prices range from $179,900 for a 586-square-foot studio with built-in furniture with a wall bed, to $699,900 for a 1,653-square-foot penthouse with 22-foot ceilings and a staircase rising through the original brick chimney.

The project is slated for completion in January 2013 and the name Stinson School will be retained.

Although there has been considerable work right up to opening day, the construction has been “the easy part,” Stinson says. The most difficult aspect has been obtaining the zoning and other municipal approvals, creating the design and securing private financing, he says.

In a way, the Stinson School was born out another one that didn’t go the way Stinson had envisioned. At one time dubbed “Toronto’s condo king” for a portfolio of projects such as the Candy Lofts, High Park Lofts and the Knitting Mills, he was the failed visionary behind One King West, a condominium hotel at that location. But the development spiralled into lawsuits with his former partner, David Mirvish, and after an Ontario Superior Court hearing he lost control of the project.

“One King West was painful. But I am proud of it and some day the story will be told and it will make a very interesting story.”

In the ensuing controversy and media coverage, he recalls making a comment to a journalist about “going Stateside.”

The interview prompted a telephone call from Hamilton architect John Mokrycke suggesting that instead of moving south, he consider the city’s untapped redevelopment potential and “unrecognized demographics.”

That was in 2007, and Stinson says that from September to December of that year he conducted research on the city’s demographics, economic health and housing development, almost all of which he discovered was single family housing.

“I talked to bankers, to realtors and to builders.”

Most contacts in the real estate and housing industry felt there wasn’t a market for multi-unit housing. But the research suggested otherwise, he says.

“Hamilton isn’t steel town anymore. About 50 per cent of the population in the Hamilton and Burlington area work in education, medicine, healthcare, and technology, and two times as many work in the entertainment industry as in steel.”

Stinson believed that shift would provide the base for a multi-use housing market, especially as real estate prices in Hamilton are considerably lower than in the Greater Toronto Area. But it would be another two years before he could follow on those findings. Then, in 2009, local ward Councillor Bob Bratina — now mayor — let him know that the Stinson School was being closed as part of a major building consolidation by the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board and would be sold.

“It was somewhat surreal that it was coming up for sale.”

Stinson made a successful bid and then — “with some creativity” — enticed private investors to invest in the project.

While most loft conversions are often fraught with unforeseen complications, Stinson and his partners have access to the original drawings created by A.W. Peene, a prominent Hamilton architect. ICON Architects are overseeing the conversion.

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What also sets Stinson School apart from many other conversions is the school’s location in the heart of a residential area — rather than industrial district. The “fortress like” building was also structurally sound and hadn’t been subject to neglect and vandalism.

“It had never been abandoned and there was still food in the refrigerator (on possession).”

And because the “school was built for people and not machines,” it has a number of features and amenities that make it ideal for loft units, such as high ceilings that range from 13 feet in the classrooms — about 60 per cent of the suites — 10 to 17 feet in the first level basement, which is half above grade, and 22 feet at the peak in the penthouse suites. Other characteristics of the building include solid maple floors, red pine doors, exposed beams and windows ranging from eight- to 12-feet high. In an era when there was little or no electricity available, high windows were a necessity for a school, Stinson notes.

While the building’s architectural character and heritage features are being preserved, the conversion includes the installation of an updated mechanical system, new plumbing and electrical systems, plus new thermopane glazing for the windows.

While the all the suites will have deluxe kitchens with six stainless steel appliances, the original construction combined with present-day building techniques will ensure that “each is different.”

Just one example will be a sprawling main level one-bedroom-plus-den suite with double brick arches leading to what could be a perfect wine cellar/billiards room, says Stinson.

Located almost immediately adjacent the Niagara Escarpment, the school is about a 10-minute walk from the nearest GO train station.

Approximately 75 per cent of the units have been sold, mostly to purchasers “who have some connection with Hamilton.”

At this point in the construction schedule most of the suites haven’t been finished. When that occurs, prices will rise, says Stinson.

“Harry’s project is located in a neighbourhood with an excellent stock of large older homes, many of which had been turned into low-rent multiplexes,” says Bratina.

New owners are now turning those houses back into elegant single-family dwellings, says Bratina, who describes Stinson “as the first developer to show confidence in the area. In short, it’s a signal to others that you can make money in the downtown residential areas.”