Barton st. revival

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It doesn’t have the best reputation around town, but the Barton street area is gaining more attention from GTA entrepreneurs. There are several new businesses and a new condo development in the neighbourhood, that could change the stigma attached to the area.

Matt Cowan is getting ready for the launch of his new restaurant. The Heather on Barton street is a 12 seat, 7 course tasting joint. Cowan, who is orginally from Toronto says he gets mixed reviews when he tells people the location of his new busniess.

“Its been a 50/50 split with people thinking that we are crazy but there’s a lot of people with kind of forsight that know that this strip is going to take off.”

It was the vibrancy of the neighbourhood that drew Cowan and his wife in but at $76 per person for dinner, they are expecting to draw people from other parts of town.

“What we’ve built is a destination restaurant. I think, with my years of chefing what Barton needed was kind of a spotlight where we are attracting not just the neighbourhood but outside of the neighbourhood.”

The city’s economic development office say entrepreneurs from the GTA are very interested in the Barton street area and realtors agree when people don’t have pre-conceived notions they’re more likely to find this neighbourhood appealing. Local realtor Jay McQueen says central Hamilton is still the cheapest area in town but prices in the Barton street neighbourhood are on the rise.

“Sale prices in this area are up 25% year over year that’s about $60 000 more this October than last October”

The owners of The Heather know that his area isn’t going to change overnight, but they are confident that within the next five years, Barton street will be a popular place,similar to what James street north is now