These historic Duke Street row homes were nearly in ruins. A Hamilton lawyer stepped in to help save them

Hamilton Spectator

23-06-2025

A few years ago, local lawyer Michael Clarke walked along Duke Street in Hamilton's Durand neighbourhood, making phone calls for work.
As he made his way down the street, dotted by heritage buildings and highrises, he looked up from his phone and spotted
Sandyford Place
.
Clarke had 'always admired' the historic set of row homes, but didn't know much about them. Curious to learn more, he walked around the back of the stone building where he met resident Eugene Miner.
Miner introduced himself and shared details about the building and issues owners were facing — and the rest was seemingly history, Clarke told The Spectator.
The historic townhouses of Sandyford Place.
Not long after learning about the woes residents feared could result in the sale of the entire building, Clarke said he stepped in to try and turn the situation around.
Residents of the building were staring down a costly special assessment — an extra, one-time fee imposed on unit owners to cover unforeseen costs or repairs that surpass the typical budget of the property — for repairs to the dilapidated fire escapes and elevator at the rear of the building.
'They were rusted and falling apart,' Clarke said.
The work was estimated to cost roughly millions of dollars to fix, according to
court documents
viewed by The Spectator.
Unit owners also faced exorbitant monthly maintenance fees, Clarke noted, with some having swelled to nearly $2,000 for larger units.
Clarke said other parts of the building, such as the front foyers and exterior stonework, had become 'shabby' and rundown.
He dove headfirst into renewing Sandyford — a process that saw him and another resident, Anna Procwat (Miner's partner), buy out the owners of some units as well as secure loans and use personal funds to make repairs on the building.
Clarke said he helped bring down the monthly maintenance fees by seeking out competitive pricing for services and 'eliminating redundancies.'
The special assessment has since been eliminated, with the fire escapes rebuilt and the elevator repaired — the former with Hamilton-made steel.
New fire escapes and balconies have been built at the rear of Sandyford Place on Duke Street in downtown Hamilton.
'It was a life-changing moment for the building,' said Miner, who has lived there for roughly two decades. 'And for the owners.'
Clarke is now the president of the condominium board, which consists of him, Procwat and another resident. Between Clarke and Procwat, the pair own 10 of the dozen units, while the other two are owner-occupied.
The three have teamed up on the renewal, all bringing different skills to the table, whether that be design, business sense or project management and contracting.
Sandyford isn't Clarke's first experience with revitalizing heritage buildings.
More than a decade ago, he was part of a group of investors who purchased a string of heritage buildings on the west side of James Street North near York Boulevard, restoring them and turning the upstairs units into residential spaces.
Clarke also helped restore the former Hotel Hamilton, located at James North and Mulberry Street, as well as the building now home to Merit Brewing.
Sandyford Place in 1998.
Back in Durand, Sandyford Place was built in the 1850s and was restored in the 1970s amid demolition pressure.
The building remains a rare example of a Canadian row house built for affluent citizens in the mid-19th century, according to a heritage plaque outside the building.
It was built during a time of 'rapid growth' for the city, the plaque noted, with the stonework suggesting it was built by Scottish masons in Ontario.
But Sandyford almost didn't survive the urban renewal trend in Hamilton during the 1960s and 1970s.
Luckily, heritage enthusiasts
came to the rescue
, rallying for its preservation and major restoration, which saw it put back into residential use as condominiums and designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1975.
But things at Sandyford haven't been quite smooth sailing since.
In
2016
, a pair of residents with physical disabilities — one of whom has since died — filed a human rights complaint against the condominium board over alleged discrimination by not repairing an elevator for long periods of time.
And in 2019, one of those residents tried to take the condominium board to court over a lien on her property connected to the costly special assessment, according to
court documents
.
That same year, the entire building was also
put on the market
for $4.9 million, but nothing happened.
Fast forward to 2024, the first Sandyford unit
landed back on the market
in late May with a price tag of $679,000 — with monthly fees brought down to no more than $557 a month.
The living room of a two-bedroom condo listed for sale at Sandyford Place.
The second-floor, two-bedroom condo has roughly 1,000 square feet of living space, soaring ceilings and features such as an ornamental fireplace, hardwood floors and a modern kitchen.
The unit, toured by The Spectator, has been freshened up with warm white paint, a renovated bathroom and new wainscotting and trim. The original windows offer some character, while a brass chandelier hangs over what could be the dining room.
'It's like living in Dundurn Castle or Whitehern,' said Clarke. 'But you get to decorate it whatever way you want.'
Off the back of the unit is the newly constructed fire escape and balcony. There is also an exterior elevator, which offers access to the private parking lot.
A two-bedroom condo that has been listed for sale at Sandyford Place in Hamilton's Durand neighbourhood.
Some of the other units, which are under various stages of renovation, are slated to land on either the real estate or rental market in the coming months, said Clarke.
Martinus Geleynse, a salesperson with Sotheby's International Realty Canada and co-lister on the first unit, describes the situation as a 'rebirth' of a historic landmark.
'This whole property was so stigmatized in the real estate community,' said Geleynse, who is also president of the Heritage Hamilton Foundation, the organization that originally saved Sandyford. 'It just needed a reset, and that's what's happened here now.'
Martinus Geleynse, a salesperson with Sotheby's, and local lawyer and developer Michael Clarke outside the historic townhouses of Sandyford Place.
Fallon
Hewitt is a reporter at The Hamilton Spectator.
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