McMaster buys 9 houses near campus for planned student residence

McMasterUniversity has bought a cluster ofnine houses adjacent to the campuswith plans to build a multi-storey student residence with room for 800 beds.

The university bought the parcel from Scholar Properties, investors who'vebeen buying up properties in the leafy, residential neighbourhoodin recentyears. The investors havebeenplanning to tear down the homes and build a mixed-use, multi-storey student residence there, CBC Newsreported last September.

And McMaster has now paid $9.5 million for nine of the homes the group assembled, a total of 1.45 acres.

The homes are directly south of a strip of land McMaster already owns along Main Street West. Combined, the twoareasgiveit a large piece of property directly east of the campus.

McMaster said the land will give it room to build a multi-storey structurecomprising up to 800 beds.

The university plans to "tier" the building with its highest height on Main Street West and lower heights toward Traymorein hopes of "creating interesting architectural elements, eliminating any shadows on area homes and reducing the impact on neighbours across the street."

The building, which the university is developing with real estate company Knightstone, will be run as part of McMaster's student residence program.

"We've had positive meetings with neighbours and the neighbourhood associations as the project begins and look forward to working with the city as the planning phase continues," saiduniversity communications directorGordArbeau.

'Pressing need ... for increased student residence space'

"The pressing need we have is for increased student residence space, because we think it leads to greater outcomes for students and allows the university to meet demand," Arbeau saidin September.

"Without being on campus proper, it is close very close to campus."

The investors had assembled 14 properties on Forsyth, Traymore and Dalewood the length of the city block between the eastern edge of McMaster's campus and Dalewood Recreation Centre.

After selling nine to McMaster, they still own the other five, a cluster of houses on three-quarters of an acreright next to campus.

The group maysell the remaining lands or develop themselves on that site, they said.

"We always understood them to be the pick of the litter when it comes to the possibility of aresidence," Ross said, "where we believe the most density is justifiable."

Ross said he still envisions a "purpose-built, mixed-use student/academic purposes" development on that corner.

'The kind of student housing we like'

Rossstarted talking with the city more than a year ago about the project and a plan to request rezoning for as many as 15 "contiguous lots" at the corner of Main Street West and Forsyth Avenue South, according to emails obtained by CBC News under access to information.

The neighbourhood's single-family homes already house dozens of students, sometimes five or more to a house. Projects on the street would put students within close distance to an LRT stop.

The investors appear to make a hefty profit on the sale of the nine properties.

Ross declined to share purchase price details on the properties. But public land registry records show purchase pricesfor the homes on Traymore and Dalewood in the range of $600,000 to $750,000 each.

Gary Samuel, a Hamilton native and one of the investors, called the sale "a unique opportunity for McMaster" in a Scholar Properties announcement of the sale.

Last fall, Ward 1 councillor Aidan Johnson referred tothe idea of a denser, multi-storey projecton the site as "the kind of student housing we like."

kelly.bennett@cbc.ca