The last dance looms for Hamilton's only strip club now that the city is ready to sign off on a redevelopment of the storied former hotel and a nearby polluted property.

The city planning committee voted to approve zoning changes Tuesday needed for a five-storey medical clinic and a 45-unit townhouse complex at the corner of Barton Street East and Catharine Street North.

That means the days are numbered for the Hamilton Strip, the last legally licensed adult entertainment club in the city, which will be replaced by the proposed medical clinic.

There's no set date yet for the strip club, which now rents the space, to vacate the three-storey brick icon that started life in 1908 as Hotel Hanrahan. (A manager reached briefly Tuesday would not comment.)

"But I guarantee you, in 2020, the building will come down," said Vince Fulgenzi, vice-president of development for landowner John Barton Investments Inc.

Fulgenzi's group originally got involved on the corner when it bought an adjoining Catharine Street property from the city via a tax sale in 2016 that once hosted an infamous factory full of barrels of suspected toxic waste.

The city eventually got rid of the barrels and razed the building, but Fulgenzi expects to spend up to $2 million on remediation before the site is usable for townhouses. John Barton Investments eventually took ownership of the strip club property, too.

The $30-million-plus project represents a "Cinderella story" for the neighbourhood, said ward Coun. Jason Farr, who spent years responding to residents complaints about the notorious "barrel building" at 245 Catharine St.

"To go from such an ominous history to what they are planning today is wonderful," said Farr, who also gave credit to the club ownership and the new landowner for "very positive" engagement with surrounding residents.

Barton Street resident Alejandro Lopez wrote councillors Tuesday to make suggested improvements around the development related to traffic and parking, but also to "commend" partners on the project.

"We welcome development that will put more eyes on the street and make the Barton Street East neighbourhood a safer and more vibrant pedestrian environment," Lopez wrote.

Ed Prociuk, who retired after 40 years as a strip club bartender last December, said he had mixed feelings about the fate of the building. "In some ways I'll be sad to see it go, with all of the memories and all," said the 70-year-old, who met his wife, LaurelAnn, when she danced at the club in the 1980s.

"But it's an old building that has done its time ... It sounds like they've got some great plans for the neighbourhood. Maybe they can let burlesque (events) back in the city a little more now."

Fulgenzi said the developer will see if some historical elements of the old building, like antique railings and even an old beer fridge door, can be preserved and reincorporated into a new building.

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