The Capital Markets Tribunal has denied Harry Stinson’s last-ditch appeal seeking to vary the payment schedule for financial penalties issued by Ontario’s securities regulators, a decision that his lawyer states will likely end the redevelopment of the Buffalo Grand Hotel and leave investors with minimal or no return.
The appeal, which sought to reshape the December 2023 order, was denied following a hearing on Tuesday, October 21, 2025.
According to Richard A. Wellenreiter, counsel for Stinson, the denial means the restoration of the Buffalo Grand Hotel “will not be able to proceed and the investors will most likely receive nothing or minimal return.”
Wellenreiter told the Tribunal that existing orders were “preventing the progress” of the Buffalo project. He requested the Tribunal ‘reshape’ the payment schedule of the $600,000 Ontario Securities Commission penalty and the $166,000 costs order to follow the hoped-for completion of the Buffalo hotel project.
The Tribunal’s decision comes as the City of Hamilton is conducting a tax sale of the Cannon Knitting Mill, and the City of Buffalo is filing a ‘notice of intent to commence an abandonment proceeding’ to seize the Buffalo Hotel property.
Wellenreiter told the Tribunal that investors representing 84 per cent of the approximately $13.177 million (Canadian) and $364,000 (US) raised through the sale of securities related to the Buffalo Grand Hotel formally supported Stinson’s request for relief. He emphasized that the investors viewed the appeal as the “only possibility of recovery.”
Kirsten Thoreson, Counsel for the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), opposed the appeal, arguing that the evidence provided was insufficient, lacking the necessary specific and verifiable supporting information. She stated that the project’s success remained “too speculative” to address concerns regarding investor redress and protection.
Thoreson noted that even in a best-case scenario of the Buffalo Grand project succeeding at the top end of estimates, the funds available in January 2030 would “fall largely short of the amount that is ordered into disgorgement.” The OSC also cited other liens and tax warrants against Stinson’s companies and properties.
Stinson’s lawyer advanced a claim of impecuniosity, but did not provide evidence to support this.
The chair of the three-person tribunal panel, Russell Juriansz, questioned Wellenreiter regarding a lack of an accounting for the capital that was raised, and stated he had serious concerns in light of this and other evidence.
Following just over two hours of arguments, the panel briefly retired. They returned and stated they were dismissing Stinson’s application with written reasons to follow.
With this appeal dismissal, the tax sale of the Knitting Mills, and the proceedings to take the Buffalo Grand Hotel, it appears that Stinson’s developments are at an end.
At his peak in the early 2000s, Stinson was one of Toronto’s most high-profile developers. His success with the Candy Factory Lofts brought him fame. Alongside David Mirvish, he completed the 1 King West condos in the heart of Toronto’s Financial District.
Mirvish and Stinson had an ugly falling out, with legal battles that followed.
Arriving in Hamilton in 2007, Stinson pitched a 100-storey tower addition to the Royal Connaught Hotel in early 2008. The project went nowhere. Other projects followed and failed to proceed. Finally, Stinson completed the conversion of the former Stinson Street School into condos, with the building opening in December 2013.
For the past decade, Stinson has not succeeded with the Knitting Mills, the Buffalo Grand, or the Gibson School project in Hamilton.
Stinson’s first entrepreneurial venture came when he was 18. He created Toronto’s famed The Mad Hatter children’s party space.
With the collapse of his development empire occurring on multiple fronts, it appears Stinson’s development career is at an end, with no rabbits left to pull out of his hat.
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Published: October 24, 2025
Last updated: October 24, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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