The wheels are in motion to restore a piece of east end nostalgia in Hamilton.
The city’s public works committee has approved a motion, presented by Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla, to incorporate the old City Motor Hotel sign into an affordable housing development at the currently vacant site.
Merulla’s motion sets aside up to $150,000 in Ward 4 discretionary funds to assess how the sign can be integrated into the CityHousing Hamilton project.
After the City Motor Hotel was built in the late 1960s, near the Queenston Traffic Circle, Merulla notes it was a “luxurious establishment.”
“There were weddings, weekends,” Merulla said. “Coun. Farr and I and those who were born in Hamilton will remember all of this.”
Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr agrees, noting that “TiCats would essentially live there season after season, some of the best players in CFL history, from that high school graduations and even movie sets.”
As people moved out of the city core in more recent years, Merulla notes that the City Motor Hotel declined, eventually becoming “an extreme blight in our community” before it was torn down in 2013.
The first phase of the property’s $21.6-million redevelopment calls for 40 rent-geared-to-income units to be built within a six-storey building, to be completed by summer 2023.
The sign is currently in storage at a city yard on Burlington Street East.