The apartment building on the northeast corner of Locke Street South and Pine St may soon house a coffee shop in its basement level.
The owner of the building is requesting a variance from the City of Hamilton to allow a take-out only coffee shop to be constructed in place of a current apartment unit.
The shop will be very small by Locke Street standards, and will not be allowed to have any seating or counter area for customers. The fire code will permit only two staff and four customers to be inside at a time.
James Street South is the only other commercial area of the city I can think of with basement shops (UPDATE – @kevinthom notes there are already basement shops on Locke. Thanks Kevin!). This change reflects how strongly businesses on Locke are performing.
The variance request is in front of the committee of adjustment tomorrow. If (once) approved, the owners will need to apply for building permits before beginning the conversion.