Northern Ontario developments!

[russman]

This building on Victoria Ave has been demolished and there is construction going on at the site. Any info on what is planned for this corner?

[vid]

Can't find anything in the city notices section so whatever it is will conform to the lot's zone, which is GC-1. So it could be anything.

[vid]

Plenary Justice has been chosen to design the new courthouse. Construction begins in spring.

[vid]

Some development news:

The province has awarded the $62M contract to four-lane Highway 11/17 between McKenzie Station and Birch Beach Road.

Construction on the DSSAB building begins soon. Finnway General Contractor will build it. It looks pretty good, a 3 storey modernist building with lots of straight lines like I like. The south facade will have solar panels over the windows which will also act as brises-soleil. There will be open houses in the coming weeks to showcase the plans to the public.

The city has acquired the following properties and will be using them for parking, which will include the demolition of any buildings on them. While they are being obtained for parking at this time, the city is open to having any of them redeveloped in the future, likely once a new parkade is built or the existing one expanded in the downtown core.

The Inntowner, as well as the parking lot across from it on the NW corner of Brodie at Arthur

The West Hotel and ANAF Hall on Simpson Street. No news about the Empire Hotel or the ruins of 127-131 Simpson.

411 Donald Street East and 400 Donald Street, the parking lot at the corner of Donald and Simpson across from the EMS centre.

Hopefully the city keeps aesthetic standards in mind when they design these parking lots.

[ccnews]

135 West Frederica, between Black Cat Antiques and Riley's Sport Tavern was demolished this past week.

Word at the Northern Credit Union down the street is they are moving, quite possibly out of Westfort

[vid]

Looking at the minutes of the September 20 council meeting, the city declared surplus and sold to the MTO various properties along the expressway, including land NW of the 11/17 and Balsam intersection (south of the Suny's gas bar), land on either side of the expressway just east of the Terry Fox Lookout, and land at the NW and SE corners of the Hodder intersection. The sale at the Balsam intersection is the most interesting. The province is probably starting plans on grade separating that intersection once the Hodder interchange is complete.

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Today's meeting is going to be very interesting. It begins at 5pm with a closed door session, likely involving the waterfront developers. During the public session, they will be presenting to the public the designs for the condominiums and the hotel. Hopefully they will share the name of the hotelier with us so we don't have to put up with the NIMBY's desperate ranting about it anymore. (Though I am sure they'll find something else to complain about, like thinking that the condos have to be built by March when actually, the stimulus only requires the city's services to be set up to accommodate them by then--the stimulus isn't funding the private development, so it is exempt from time limits.)

A tender award and Stage 1 summary, both apparently related to the waterfront development, were pulled from the agenda and will come before council at a later date.

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Five properties are recommended to be added to the Heritage register:

· 400 Archibald Street South (George Graham Residence, SE corner of Archibald and Ridgeway, it is obscured by giant trees. It actually looks like nothing is there..)
· 302 Archibald Street South (John King Residence)
· 400 Catherine Street South (Ross Residence)
· 219 May Street South (Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame)
· 1001 Montreal Street ("Canadian Car & Foundry National Historic Site of Canada", ie, the Bombardier plant.)

[vid]

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=110955

I guess they look OK. They couldn't announce the hotelier yes because of legal issues, but I am guessing that it is Delta based on their redevelopment in Sault Ste. Marie earlier this year. They seen more interested in expanding to the north than any other chain.

[vid]

411 Donald East, which will be demolished for 8, maybe 10 parking spots.



McKellar Suites:




That deck area isn't anything like what the original plans had in store, but it is better than nothing.

Isabella retirement home:



Waverly Tower reclad:

[vid]

Totals for waterfront contracts so far. Site remediation will be awarded Tuesday.

[tjernobyl]

Originally Posted by russman

This building on Victoria Ave has been demolished and there is construction going on at the site. Any info on what is planned for this corner?

Dental clinic.

[vid]

City Council approved the locations of Horizon's wind farm turbines. If the by-law is ratified next week, it will move on to the province and probably become a done deal.

The province gave about 1 million dollars to McKellar Place to help complete the facility, as some of the first residents (who will be moving to the Seniors Centre of Excellence when it opens) move in.

[F. Lionel]

Been around the city a few times in the last week and saw/heard some things -

5 Forks restaurant is finished and open (I believe) next to the Days Inn at Golf Links and Oliver. The building next door to it still needs to be finished though.

The signs are up at Leon's which I don't think it any uglier than any of the buildings at RioCan or the Thunder Centre - of course that's not saying too much.

Northwood Foods is supposed to be opening a location at County Fair by month's end as a replacement for Quality Market. However, the mall also just went into receivership so who knows what is actually going on.

There is a new business/building being built beside the former Teak Furniture store between Park and Lincoln in PA. It might be a workshop facility for the new furniture store next door but I didn't get close enough to actually see anything.

The Picture Store at Intercity Mall moved to the only vacant commercial space next to Zellars. The new tenant is not yet revealed for the old location but I was told "It's not going to be another clothing store." The Tailor shop in the Mall has gone out of business as well.

The walls are going up at Walmart and a new coat of paint is going on the exterior.

There is construction happening behind the Memorial McDonald's where the fire had taken place.

Bell Mobility is doing a cellular build out in Thunder Bay and Dryden with HSPA+ towers scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.

Landscaping is almost complete at the Canada Games Complex for the area around the new parking lot. Lot paving should start any day now.

Took a drive into Parkdale last weekend. It is filling up quite nicely if not too quickly. I would suspect that within two years the section of development next to the expressway will begin to be filled as the side facing Weiler Blvd should be almost full.

I thought I saw a sign for a Tim Hortons Express going into the lot beside the rebuilt Canadian Tire gas station on Arthur. The new Tim's down Arthur where the Modern Motel use to be and the new Burger King seem to both be coming along.

The CanOp gas station on Memorial is now completely gone.

I think that was everything.

[vid]

The reason I find Leons so ugly (probably because I have a bit education about architectural styles) is the fact that they've tried a sort of mish-mash of modern and historic architectural features but not with enough effort to make it look passable (like the Thunder Centre). The large warehouse with featureless walls (except for the signs, which are twice the size the by-law allows) is also a major detractor. It lacks the balance that the other mega stores have. The windows are also really bad. I think it might actually look less bad if they weren't there. It also has a 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 palette.

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Thunder Bay Business article about 5 Forks.

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The new furniture store on Park is actually an old furniture store from Miles. They relocated because the waterfront development will make that area more attractive to the customers they want. No idea what the development might be, I was down there a month ago but didn't notice anything so it's new.

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I was wondering what happened to Primary, people still talk about it as if it exists but I didn't see it.

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Stuff I have noticed:

The building at the corner of Simpson and Victoria (used to be an office supply store, then Eagle's Cry Centre) was painted taupe. I like the word taupe, so they win points for using it.

The location of the DSSAB has been fenced off and they're digging the pit to put in foundations. There is fencing around the Inntowner which will likely be demolished in a few days. The building on Donald has been cleared out and will probably be razed after the Inntowner, then the West and ANAF on Simpson will be demolished (they already have utility lines painted around the buildings). Still nothing at the Empire Hotel and 127-131 Simpson remains a toxic pit. We're halfway through month 9.

The owners of the former Queen Elizabeth Public School (Agape Assembly) is requesting a zoning change from NIN to RM2A, so that the building can be renovated for 19 apartments.

The city will hold a meeting regarding the Kam River master plan on Wednesday, October 20, starting at 5:30 (presentation at 6) at the Knights of Columbus centre at May and Arthur. This will be to showcase what they've come up with based on the maps made by citizens at the previous meetings.

[F. Lionel]

Originally Posted by vid

I was wondering what happened to Primary, people still talk about it as if it exists but I didn't see it.

Primary Photo actually relocated from the strip mall off memorial to across Central Avenue from the Police Station, next door to the Pool place.

The Picture Store was the one that sold the different prints and art pieces as well as the framing services.

Heard a rumour today too that Dollarama is looking to open a store at Northwood Mall. Take it for what it's worth I suppose.

[vid]

Well either way it is still open.

Does Northwood Mall still have that "largest dollar store in Canada"? I think they should just demolish that place and put up some apartments or something. Same for County Fair. They can't possibly be making enough revenue to cover their taxes with such high vacancy rates.

And speaking of Northwood Foods, is it related to Westfort Foods or are they separate?

[ccnews]

Hi Vid

no, the Dollar Store at Northwood closed a few years back, the place is sitting empty, except for Frank Pullia has his mayoralty office there

as far as Northwood Foods and Westfort Foods being associated, I'm not sure, other then they both carry Safeway products

[vid]

Quality Market carries Safeway products too. I think Safeway has a franchising programme for that.

Lynn Peterson's campaign office is also in Northwood, in the strip mall up the street.

[tjernobyl]

They are confirmed to have different owners.

[vid]

Horizon Wind is suing the city for $126,000,000 after Brian McKinnon flip-flopped last night during by-law ratification. Council amended the by-law to approve 14 of the 18 turbine locations, and Horizon is suing for potential losses. The city says that their lawsuit is unfounded.

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=115055

I don't think council even got to talking about the zoning by-law like they were supposed to. What a mess.

[tjernobyl]

The West Hotel and the ANAF building have been destroyed by fire. Hoping for some good pics from vid.