'Huge, generational project' planned for Stelco lands will give east-enders waterfront access: developer

Adriana Harris grew up as the proud daughter of a mother who was a chemical engineer at Stelco, in an era where women were rare in engineering and manufacturing.

Harris's father worked for the steel company for a time as well, as she did, as a summer student one year. The family drove a Saturn in the 90s that was made with Stelco steel, and has photos of the sprawling plant up on the wall at home.

"I was proud of our industry," says Harris, who lives now near Gage Park, a "10-minute bike ride" south of the plant site. "And I am also really pumped to see it being remediated."

Harris was one of dozens of members of the public who visited a now-unused building on the 800-acre steel plant site on Monday to see plans for the area's revitalization.

Purchased by developer Slate Asset Management in 2022, the site is set to be revamped over the next decade into a mix of industrial, commercial and public–use waterfront — a "huge, generational project," as Harris sees it, that will give Hamiltonians in that part of the city access to the bay for the first time in decades.

"That's what I was thinking about [when] visiting the open house," said Harris, who has three children between the ages of two and eight.

"Will my kids remember me taking them to this dilapidated shack and looking at plans when they come here in the future?"

'More industry and more jobs'

The massive property stretches from around Sherman Avenue North to Ottawa Avenue North, and north from Burlington Street to the Hamilton Harbour. The area is three times larger than Hamilton's official downtown core, according to Steven Dejonckheere, senior vice-president at Slate and the project lead for the development, known as Steelport.

"It really is city-building," he said, describing the scale of the project, which will be clearly visible from the Burlington Skyway Bridge.

Stelco will continue to use part of the property. According to a report Slate submitted to the City of Hamilton planning department in February, "Stelco's current operations consist of a single remaining coke battery scheduled to be decommissioned in the next few years and the cold-rolled steel mill which is intended to remain for the foreseeable future."

The goal for the rest is to be developed into the mixed-use space, said Dejonckheere, describing a plan that involves public roadways throughout the now blocked-off area. 

"The plan is focused on bringing in more industry and more jobs," he added. "Some of those will be larger-scale, heavier users, but not on the scale of the steel mill."

Closer to the pedestrian waterfront and other public areas, the buildings will be tailored to businesses such as coworking spaces, creative hubs, life science companies, and film studios. He said several potential tenants have already reached out, and while nothing is yet firm, the location could potentially house businesses in food production, energy production, and "electric-vehicle-adjacent" manufacturing. 

The preliminary designs show a public waterfront promenade as well as marshland areas with walking trails, which Dejonckheere said will be developed from an existing network of industrial water treatment lagoons and stormwater management areas.

He evoked redevelopments in steel cities such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh in describing how the former mill's features could be included in the new designs. 

"We'd like to see public spaces that [weave in] the heritage of the site," he said. 

An area between eight and 16 hectares of the site is targeted for active remediation from contamination left by the mill, he added, while saying the rest passes the bar for new commercial and industrial development.

The report Slate submitted to the city in February was a draft plan of subdivision, which lays out the location of future roads and city blocks – the "overarching master plan," as Dejonckheere described it. "We're not designing buildings, just figuring out where the buildings will go" at this phase, he said.

"In an ideal world," the city will conditionally approve those plans later this year and construction will start in 2025, he said, adding it will take about eight to 10 years to build out the roads and blocks before the next phase of the project begins.

The city told CBC Hamilton it received the draft plan earlier this spring, planning staff reviewed it and the application for the project was "deemed complete" on June 6. "A statutory public meeting will be scheduled in the coming months to ensure community members have an opportunity to share their feedback on the plans," Anita Fabac, acting director of planning and chief planner, wrote in an email. 

Industry meets care for the environment

Other open houses, like the one that took place Monday, are expected in future. Harris, the local resident, is hoping to take her mom next time to see the plans in the works. 

"She would love it," Harris said. "I didn't realize how on-site we were going to be. 

"You could smell the old coke. She would have liked that."

Harris said she was excited to see Slate's vision come to life, particularly as it weaves together Hamilton's industrial legacy with more care for the environment. 

"We can have both," she said. "Or at least do our best shot."