Downtown Hamilton church is ‘outside the box’ apartment project for Oakville man
The price was right. So was the zoning. The building?
That - a roughly 150-year-old stone church in downtown Hamilton - would require creativity.
Knowing that, with 16 West Ave. S. listed for $1.5 million, Tal Dehtiar made his offer.
Now it's his, and with a building permit in hand, he plans to create 19 market units in the vast space at the corner of Main Street East.
This is me thinking outside the box," Dehtiar says.
The heritage exterior, including its bell tower and stained-glass windows, are to remain.
He also aims to incorporate interior heritage touches - wooden trusses, a memorial display with the names of congregants who died in the First World War.
Dehtiar has converted single-family homes into apartments, but the Oakville resident doesn't describe himself as a developer.
I just like buildings that have some sort of character."
A graduate of McMaster's master of business administration program, he's the founder of Oliberte, a footwear company that started as a fair-trade operation in Ethiopia.
The church he bought was built as St. Thomas Anglican, but the last congregation in its pews was Carisma Pentecostal.
Church leaders couldn't be reached for comment Monday, but Carisma now lists its address as a one-storey commercial building on Main Street East near Ottawa Street.
Dehtiar's project comes amid an era of shrinking congregations struggling to maintain cavernous, aging structures.
Wentworth Baptist Church, for instance, recently sold its building to Indwell, a Christian-based non-profit that develops affordable housing.
The plan is to save the 97-year-old sanctuary, demolish a newer addition and create 40 affordable units.
Heritage advocates, meanwhile, are pushing New Vision United Church to preserve St. Giles instead of razing it to develop housing on the Holton Avenue South site.
Dehtiar's project ticks off more than one box, says Donna Bacher, president of the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington.
The city desperately needs" more rental housing and the focus on heritage preservation deserves praise, she says.
This architecture, once it's gone, you're never going to get it back and it's very worth preserving," Bacher says.
Dehtiar expects the 19 apartments in the roughly 14,000-square-foot space to be ready for occupation by next spring.
Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com