It likely won’t come as a surprise that construction firm Amico hopes to recreate the facade of the McGibbon Hotel as it constructs a 10-storey condominium in its place.
The noteworthy thing is, the company also plans to refurbish, edit and affix the iconic McGibbon sign in its original location.
“By the time Amico became involved with this project, the issue of the sign had been discussed pretty thoroughly in the community. There was a real determination to restore the sign and keep it hanging on the corner as it had for so many years,” Amico VP of development Cindy Prince told HaltonHillsToday.
The condo building concept was originally conceived in 2015 by the company Silvercreek Commercial Builders. It was cancelled in 2018, only to be revived by Amico two years later.
A red electric sign, roughly in the shape of the letter “I,” beckoned revelry seekers toward drinks and music during the McGibbon's heyday.
It was removed and crated up in 2021 by Amico and is currently waiting in the company's warehouse in Cambridge. 
A third party has yet to be tapped to do the restoration work. Amico says it plans to change the text on the sign to read McGibbon Condo On Main. The horizontal text at the top of the sign will continue to read “McGibbon,” the middle portion will be changed to “condo” instead of “hotel,” and finally the horizontal at the bottom will read “On Main.”
“We were a little bit concerned about the confusion that a sign hanging out front that said the McGibbon Hotel might cause,” Prince said. “If you were travelling through the downtown and you saw a sign that said McGibbon Hotel, you would think, oh, I can go in there and get a room for the night.”
The refurbishment process is part of a larger goal of heritage preservation. Each brick of the front facade was expensively and painstakingly dismantled and stored. When reborn, the McGibbon Condo’s frontage will be the next best thing to the original wall.
“[The original bricks were] something the community felt very strongly about. It was a requirement of the project that we were aware of prior to our involvement. We agreed to do so because we want to work with the community,” Prince said.
Amico is aiming to receive a building permit by the end of January. The company expects the project will be completed in roughly three years, barring any delays.
The sign overhaul is expected to take six months to complete.
