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The City of Hamilton has placed a proposal from a local developer to “gift” an affordable housing building in the lower city on pause after flagging concerns for the project.

Developer Darko Vranich owns the parcel of land at the corner of King Street and Sanford Avenue, across from the Budget Inn and close by the Catholic Children’s Aid Society.

Vranich says he wants to build an affordable housing building on the site and cover the costs of the roughly $150-million project and eventually gift it to the City of Hamilton.

“The need in the legacy planning is to subsidize the building of deeply affordable units, with the view that his estate would donate those properties to municipalities. He wants it to be Hamilton, but really could be any community.” said Mario Frankovich of Vrancor.

Though it may not be Hamilton after Vrancor’s proposal was rejected by city staff.

“One is a set back from the street, which we didn’t believe was a material matter. The other is the height…and it’s a little higher than the current OPA for the site.”

With the project set to be along the LRT route, Vrancor was expecting some leniency regarding the height of the building.

The other point of contention comes from the fact that there is a taller building right across Sanford Avenue.

“We were surprised…we might find out that there are resolutions to that…we are happy to chat and find out if there is a way to resolve that…if there isn’t we’ll do something different.”

Had the plans been approved, Frankovich says the whole project likely would have been built by the end of next year.

The City has yet to comment on the matter, though the CEO of City Housing Hamilton said in a statement that they are aiming for March for a report back to the board on this proposal.