Midtown plans

Mike Hymus at his home near Picton.

Long-vacant Wellington property changes hands, but its future not yet clear

Michael Hymus has trouble sticking to one thing. He makes that work for him. Last week, his purchase of the former Midtown Meats plant in the centre of Wellington was finalized.

Hymus sees the neglected property as a good investment. He purchased the shuttered meat plant, along with the old canning factory property at the end of Maple Street.

“When I drove by, I couldn’t believe it was still vacant and I thought, with all the development going on, this property’s got to be worth more in the future than it is today,” Hymus says.

Hymus has big ideas for the properties. Like some Wellington residents, he would like to see the Main Street entrance to the property turned into a walkway with small shops lining the way, which would appeal to tourists and locals alike. He sees the large building that sits near the school turned into a kind of wine mall, with all the County’s wines permanently displayed. Above that, he says he might build condominiums.

“I believe that there’s a real need for retail space in the downtown core. There’s no retail. So you have all these people coming from the Drake, but they have nowhere to spend their money, unless they want groceries or hardware,” says Hymus.

He would like to see the property on Maple Street become a small subdivision, similar to its neighbours to the east and west, with affordable housing.

Right now these are just ideas. He’s not sure what he will do with these properties, but for now he can’t do anything. He’s waiting for an engineer to study the site and determine any limitations to development. He hopes to see that study completed by the end of the summer.

Born and raised in the County’s south end, Hymus comes from a family that built an estate on the tourism industry that rose from the popularity of Sandbanks provincial park. His parents offered horse rides, ice cream, mini putt—any demand tourists brought, they could meet.

Hymus did poorly in school, unable to commit himself to the institutional nature of learning, and left with a grade 12 education. He picked up a job in the kitchen at the Waring House when it first opened, learning to love the food service industry.

But he could not stay still. So he borrowed some money from his parents, used it to get a loan, and bought a building in Picton, turning it into a bar and grill called Alleycats.

Three years later, his legs began to itch again. Hymus sold the business, and it became Coach’s Restaurant.

By this time he was living in Kingston, and it was time to start over. Hymus decided to go where his customer service and sales skills could be useful, and where he knew he could make a profit. He began applying for jobs selling cars. He quickly secured a job, and within three months he was the top salesman at a Ford dealership.

While he was there, Hymus learned about wholesaling cars in the US market. At the time, the weak Canadian dollar meant American dealerships were buying Canadian-made cars in droves. Hymus had found his stride.

Over the past 10 years, Hymus has built up and now heads the largest car import and export operation between Canada and the US. The highly profitable business has left him with the opportunity to invest. Sales were good, but the market could flatline anytime. So when his son was born, Hymus began thinking about the future.

“Basically, what I did was find the deepest hole I could find and bury a bunch of money in it. And one day, maybe I’ll do something with it, or maybe my son will.”