Leap of faith: Hamilton church converted into apartments

When word spread that Tal Dehtiar planned to renovate a 150-year-old downtown church into apartments, a few skeptics came out of the woodwork.

He'd run into heritage hurdles. It didn't compute financially. His timeline was unrealistic.

Maybe ignorance is bliss, or whatever the expression is," Dehtiar says.

But he has transformed the 14,000-square-foot stone church into 19 bright and airy units in less than a year - albeit two months or so beyond his original goal.

For Dehtiar - normally a serial entrepreneur with a focus on footwear - the project was a leap of faith.

The Oakville resident bought the West Avenue South church at the corner of Main Street East from Carisma Pentecostal for about $1.5 million.

But Dehtiar says he couldn't afford to let the project drag on for years while paying interest.

Working to his advantage, the property was already zoned for multi-residential use, which saved him time.

He was also very fortunate" to have a bank take a risk" on financing a substantial portion of the roughly $5-million project, which the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation then backed upon refinancing with that original lender.

His aim was to preserve as many heritage elements of the building (originally built as St. Thomas Anglican) as possible.

The units - which range from bachelors to three-bedrooms - feature original trusses, stained-glass windows and arches. They're renting from about $1,600 to $2,700 a month.

The adaptive-reuse effort comes to fruition during a time of dwindling congregations struggling to maintain their vast, aging structures.

Indwell, a non-profit that develops affordable housing, has partnered with Wentworth Baptist Church to create residential units in the century-old sanctuary at Cannon Street East.

Meanwhile, heritage advocates have urged New Vision United Church to restore St. Giles instead of demolishing it for housing on Holton Avenue South.

The project also coincides with a housing crunch and city hall's focus of increasing residential density with a forecast 236,000 people expected to make Hamilton home by 2051.

The great thing about churches is that they're just open canvasses," Dehtiar said during a recent tour of 16 West Ave. S.

Some apartments - taking advantage of the sanctuary's lofty ceiling - have two floors. Each has washer/dryer units and an individual furnace.

There were challenges along the way, including pandemic-related supply-chain woes.

Anticipating delayed deliveries, Dehtiar says he bought appliances well in advance" and put them in storage for months.

He also purchased wood as needed. Some days were high; some days were low."

To meet building requirements, he installed dormers and skylights for natural light and used fire-rated drywall and paint.

And there were surprises. For instance, a larger water line had to be installed, which meant digging a trench from the street across the parking lot.

In the dirt basement - which Dehtiar muses has an Indiana Jones" quality - the crew had to clear clay to make room for dozens of footings to support the floor above.

There was a lot of hard labour down here. No machines. Just shovels."

Dehtiar credits the project's success to a legion of small tradespeople, including designers, framers, electricians, plumbers and pavers.

I did the math," he said. Like roughly, there were 145 hands that touched this property in the past year."

By contrast, not having partners expecting big returns allowed him to stick with the plan and not build a highrise into the church.

As it stands, Dehtiar figures he won't make a grand profit on the project but says it's for his four boys.

And now that congregations have noticed what he did on West Avenue, asking prices for churches seem to be rising and maybe out of his reach.

Will this be my last? Maybe, but I'm OK with it."

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com