Development plans for the site of Hamilton’s Old Canadian Hotel remain in limbo, according to property owner Thomas Powell.Mr Powell last month submitted plans for mixed use development of the half-acre site at junction of Reid Street and Court StreetDesigns for the aging property have been on the cards for nearly ten years.An office block was proposed in 2002 while the Canadian Hotel was still in use as a low-cost rooming house for men. The Canadian ceased boarding early in 2006.Stonehaven Development Company Limited, in which Mr Powell was a partner, then proposed an up-market new hotel for the site, and in 2008 its backers acquired a Special Development Order (SDO) for an 81-unit hotel and residences project.That proposal was unable to drum up financing, and has remained on hold. Mr Powell said: “They weren’t able to follow through, and in the current economic climate, all developers are in limbo.”Asked if he had been disappointed, Mr Powell said: “I guess the parties that were working on it were disappointed. My life is too busy for disappointments.” Right now, he said, he puts in 14 hours a day maintaining his business at The Spot restaurant on Burnaby Street.“For me, real estate has been more of a sideline.”The mixed use plan was first approved for the site in May 2007. Planning gave permission again in 2009, and that approval will expire this June. Mr Powell said he has simply resubmitted the proposal to Planning.The L-shaped allotment, which he said was “probably the only city half acre lot available”, runs just short of 100 feet on the east side of Court Street, and for 200 feet along Reid Street’s north side.The proposal notes that “many of these buildings are reaching the end of their economic life”, and would demolish them to make way for up to seven new structures though facades of two Reid Street buildings would be incorporated into the development’s southern face.The current proposal offers 123,200 square feet of new building space, with 87,950 square feet given over to office space, 8,860 for retail, 5,560 for an auditorium and 20,850 square feet of basement parking. A traffic impact study notes that 350 to 400 people could be employed in the development, if it were fully occupied.However, Mr Powell said, any actual development depends on obtaining backers.“Right now, the economics have just pushed it out of question,” he said.“If someone’s interested, they can take my development plan and do something with it. If anybody wants to pick up the SDO and fly with it, that’s great. There are all sorts of options possible for that site. It’s a prime city block for development of any sort, and I get enquiries about it at least once a month. I’m not young enough to develop it myself, but if anyone comes knocking with a plan, I’ll sit down and talk.”