The new owner of a landmark Cambridge building is excited for its future.
The Preston Springs Hotel, at the corner of King and Fountain streets and the bottom of Shantz Hill, was only on the market for about a month before a buyer emerged.
Realtor Karl Innanen conducted more than 20 tours of the property and received four offers. In the end, the property was sold – for near its asking price of $1.3 million – to a familiar face in Cambridge development circles.
Paul de Haas might be based in Toronto, but he’s best known around Cambridge for the Waterscape development on Water Street in Galt. His company, Haastown, has also worked on projects in Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Toronto.
“There’s an opportunity here. There’s an opportunity for the city to see this building come back to life,” says de Haas.
The Preston Springs site is currently zoned for residential and institutional uses, but de Haan says he’s not yet certain on his plans for the 2.4-acre site. He says he sees potential for the hotel to be a retirement home, a boutique hotel and spa, or even converted into loft-style condos.
Formerly known as the Del Monte Hotel, the Preston Springs Hotel sits on a natural sulphur spring. The site once attracted flocks of tourists who believed in the sulphur spring’s health benefits.
“It was a hub of activity. It was a world-renowned health spa and hotel, and you can imagine people coming and going from all over the world,” says Cambridge city councillor Karl Kiefer.
Alan Hodge, who owned the five-storey building in the 1980s, says he’s happy to see someone excited over his old property.
“It’s a gracious old building, something should be done with it. It’s got a lot of potential,” he says.
People in Cambridge say that after Hodge sold the building, which was originally built in the late 19th century, it fell into disrepair. A previous attempt to restore the building failed 10 years ago.
The deal is expected to close early in 2013.
