Northern Ontario developments!

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

I will say it again, Northern Ontario should be divided into two provinces between the Northwest and Northeast region; as both of them have a bigger population then the province of P.E.I.

I see your point and I am not by any means going to say that dividing Northern Ontario in two is impossible but... You have to remember PEI is tiny compared to Northern Ontario. In the time it takes to go from Thunder Bay to Nipigon, you would be pretty well across the whole province of PEI. The issue lies mostly in infrastructure. It would be very difficult, even though the populations are larger than PEI, for the people of Northern Ontario to maintain the vast highway system alone, never mind hydro corridors etc. These new provinces would have to be firing on all cylinders economically to support themselves, something that is currently not occurring as a result of actions by our far-removed pharaohs in southern Ontario. Then you have all the political BS and ramifications as well, and the worry about setting a precedent breaking up a province etc etc etc and it becomes less likely all the time.

I'm not saying you have a bad idea, I am just saying its not even remotely possible at this time and I very much doubt it will be for a very long time unless something extraordinary happens. A more regional model of governance is very likely the best option for Northern Ontario. That way, we still have the benefits of being part of a larger province but we can also better manage our lands and control our destiny locally. And, whether the Ontario government and Northern Ontarians realize it or not, there is currently a movement towards the "regionalization" of Northern Ontario underway right now.

[Dwils01]

Some construction sites from Sault Ste. Marie.
West End Community Centre on Goulais Avenue by Korah High School.




Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School on Bennett Boulevard by Wellington Street East.








Ecole Notre-Dame-du-Sault french catholic school extension on North Street by Northern Avenue.




Algoma University Student Residence at Algoma University on Queen Street East.








PUC Headquarters on Second Line East by the Sault Police Station.








Extendincare Homes at the eastern terminus of Northern Avenue by Sault College.








All pictures by me from Thursday July 05, 2012.

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by Dwils01

Some construction sites from Sault Ste. Marie.

Things look pretty busy on the construction front in the Sault. How is the city doing? One never hears that much about Sault Ste. Marie. Is the population growing and how is unemployment, is there new business moving to town etc? My father's side of the family is from Thessalon so I have a connection to the area and its nice to see what is happening there every now and then.

Thunder Bay had a good June in terms of housing starts, with 39 builds getting underway. This is 13 units above the ten year average and 11 more starts then last year, which was considered a pretty good year. There weren't any multi-unit starts, but that will change in the coming months. Thunder Bay bucked the Ontario trend, where housing starts are relatively flat.

United Airlines is going to fly from Thunder Bay to Chicago direct starting in February 2013, which is certainly a welcome addition to the Thunder Bay Airport.

My 200th post! Only 31 390 to go now until I catch up to Vid!

[Dwils01]

It's doing okay right now. The city has been growing since 2008. Unemployment is slowing going down unless OLG leaves the Sault. A plus is that vacancy rates for apartments are at 1% so there is high demand for apartment building and there are three sites right now that there are proposals for such buildings.

[vid]

Thunder Bay's apartment vacancy is also extremely low, but so far only condos are being proposed. We've lost apartment units by the dozens every year so far.

[shreddog]

Just thought I'd add a little tidbit about the housing market in T Bay - we put my mother's house in Northwood (Laurentian Dr over looking the Neebing) up for sale on the 4th, had 2 open houses on the weekend and on Monday (the 9th) had 7 offers including 4 over list price with the winning price at over $45K over list ($265K) ... and we originally expected that the house would sell at $180K!!

The agent had told us that there was a dearth of houses in that size and price range, but I must admit I was fully gobsmacked by how fast it sold and for how much. Hopefully this is an indication of the strength of the local economy!!

Sadly though, this does mean that the pop of T Bay will be decreasing by one as she is now moving to Ottawa ... though the people who bought the house do plan to start a family ... so in the end it will be a net gain!

[TbayON]

I am not 100% sure why developers seem to be avoiding putting up apartments in Thunder Bay. Anyone care to share any insights? I would assume it comes down to the following: people in T-Bay seem to like owning their property (hence the condo developments), developers may be leery of the clientele their units will service (pretty much stereotyping I guess), more money in condos, or maybe owning apartments is just too much of a headache (which would make this more of a provincial or national problem than local). One would still think there would be a developer out there somewhere seeing dollar signs with all the pent up demand and low vacancy rates and put up a decent number of units. In other words, you think the market would correct itself eventually, but it doesn't seem to be.

As for shreddog's comment, the CMHC recently said housing prices will rise 15% over the next two years in Thunder Bay. I believe, if things stay as they are going, that is a pretty conservative prediction. Try finding a decent bungalow in Thunder Bay right now, its nearly impossible. You pretty well have no choice but to bid over if you want to even have your offer looked at, never mind considered. I also hope its an indication of strength.

[vid]

A lot of people that are buying into the new subdivisions have been unable to find builders because everyone is busy building other houses. We're getting really close to running out of planned subdivision space. In the next year I expect we'll see a lot of new plans of subdivision before council, so that will be interesting.

One of my coworkers is looking for an apartment. There are no vacant one-bedrooms in the city right now, and very few two or three bedrooms. On Kijiji, the vast majority of ads in the apartments section are people looking for apartments, not people offering them.

I think a large part of the lack of investment in rental units is because the return isn't as good as condos. A lot of our apartments have actually been converted to condominiums. There is also the issue of a large impoverished aboriginal population here needing a place to live. A few months ago, the owner of an abandoned church was charged with renting it to a large number of low income people. All the hotels are full, too. It's kind of ironic that in a shrinking city, there isn't enough housing for the people that are left. I don't think any social housing has been built since before Harris established DSSABs.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

I will say it again, Northern Ontario should be divided into two provinces between the Northwest and Northeast region; as both of them have a bigger population then the province of P.E.I.

I think Northern Ontario just needs to separate from the South. Both sides of Northern Ontario understand each others issues and will coordinate efforts to solve them if they had regional autonomy from the south, while the South couldn't give any less of a flying f*ck about anything in the North.

The province's name should be Winnipekwa and the Capital Sault Ste. Marie or North Bay.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by vid

A lot of people that are buying into the new subdivisions have been unable to find builders because everyone is busy building other houses. We're getting really close to running out of planned subdivision space. In the next year I expect we'll see a lot of new plans of subdivision before council, so that will be interesting.

One of my coworkers is looking for an apartment. There are no vacant one-bedrooms in the city right now, and very few two or three bedrooms. On Kijiji, the vast majority of ads in the apartments section are people looking for apartments, not people offering them.

I think a large part of the lack of investment in rental units is because the return isn't as good as condos. A lot of our apartments have actually been converted to condominiums. There is also the issue of a large impoverished aboriginal population here needing a place to live. A few months ago, the owner of an abandoned church was charged with renting it to a large number of low income people. All the hotels are full, too. It's kind of ironic that in a shrinking city, there isn't enough housing for the people that are left. I don't think any social housing has been built since before Harris established DSSABs.

Yayyy here's hoping for a new 20 story apartment tower in one of the downtowns sometime soon!

[vid]

There isn't much muddy water here. Calling the province that wouldn't make sense. But neither would Keewatin since we're further south than Western Canada.

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by vid

A lot of people that are buying into the new subdivisions have been unable to find builders because everyone is busy building other houses. We're getting really close to running out of planned subdivision space. In the next year I expect we'll see a lot of new plans of subdivision before council, so that will be interesting.

They are also unable to find buildings because there just aren't that many of them around either. Quite a few builders have retired over the years, and a lot of new apprentices are going through the union and trying to get into commercial and industrial because there just isn't as much money working with a journeyman on houses. We also don't have the Gateway's of the 1970's that could put up 300+ units a year.

There is quite a bit of subdivision space already before council (a few I can think of):
-2 locations on Mountain Rd., about 100 lots
-next phase of Mount Forest is cleared now
-I am hearing behind Nor'wester View School will also be opened up soon
-a couple pieces around the former Silvertree
-another piece of Parkdale just opened, but it seems many of the lots are spoken for
-Olie-Poo subdivision that has been cleared across from the Whitewater entrance

That being said, there is still need for more than that, especially on the north end of town. I am hoping for some urban renewal within the part of the city bounded by the expressway will result from the demand for housing. Increasing housing prices are also going to drive more people into the older neighbourhoods of town, which may help clean them up a bit.

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

I think Northern Ontario just needs to separate from the South. Both sides of Northern Ontario understand each others issues and will coordinate efforts to solve them if they had regional autonomy from the south, while the South couldn't give any less of a flying f*ck about anything in the North.

The province's name should be Winnipekwa and the Capital Sault Ste. Marie or North Bay.

The capital would definitely be Sudbury. The only other city that would be considered would be T-Bay. The Sault and North Bay are smaller centres and aren't regional centres to the level of the first two.

If Northern Ontario separates, I understand from a local economist we will assume part of Ontario's debt (ouch! Its a bit nasty too right now). Call it a farewell gift I guess. All of Ontario would be better off if they let us run our own affairs as a semi-autonomous region. We would be the richest part of the country if we could control our power generation infrastructure and sell power to the big smoke and the states, but I think I'm dreaming big there. Queen's Park will hold that generating capacity and never let go.

[TbayON]

More details concerning the purchase of Terrace Bay Pulp have been released:
http://foresttalk.com/index.php/2012/07/13/7354/

It turns out the chairman of the purchasing company, AV Terrace Bay Inc. (a subsidiary of Aditya Birla) is Frank Dottori. Frank Dottori is well known as the creator of forestry giant Tembec, which he founded in the 1970s. Frank is also the current chairman of Thunder Bay based CRIBE. He has a keen interest in transforming Ontario forestry sector from a producer of primary commodity products to an industry based on a multitude of bio-products and he believes Thunder Bay should be the place where this all happens.

Thunder Bay Port Authority's new crane is arriving in the city today. A crew of workers from Austria will take the next couple of weeks to assemble the thing and get it up and running. The new crane is a multi-million dollar investment, and should help the port diversify its cargo movements, increase its competitiveness and increase the amount of traffic through the port. I am not sure if the crane is meant to move container traffic, anyone know about that? The reason I am thinking that is the port has a huge opportunity to act as the eastern terminus for Winnipeg's Centre Port project.

Janzen's Pharmacy is opening another new location. This time its in Northwood in the former RBC Bank building across from the Northwood Mall (on Edward). I don't remember seeing it posted here yet, so there you have it.

[vid]

Glass is being installed on the south side of the courthouse.



This first row is applied to the area between floors, so those aren't windows, just curtain wall.



More glass waiting to be installed.



A small portion that has a finished facade. I think this is electrical. You can see from the front of the building that they're starting electrical work. Fire suppressant has been sprayed on the steel frame as well.



Archibald Street is being reconstructed, and unfortunately they've taken out all the nice big trees along it.



Archibald construction and view from the west



Miles Street facade

====

The empty lot behind Superstore now has a fence around it and is filling up with shiny new Nissan automobiles. Nothing happening yet on the other side of Superstore where the hotel is supposed to go.

Janzen's Pharmacy is opening a fourth location in Northwood this fall.

Sister Margaret Smith Centre on Court Street is now stripped to its frame and being dismantled. Unfortunately this project has also resulted in the removal of a large number of mature trees on the property. I think the new building might end up facing Court Street, we haven't seen renderings yet.

[tjernobyl]

Behold, a rendering!

From http://www.sjcg.net/aboutus/capital-projects/hospital-east-wing/main.aspx :


It's hard to tell from the perspective, but it looks like it more-or-less occupies the same footprint as the current building, though a few stories shorter.

[vid]

Looks like a parking lot on what was once a nicely treed greenspace. Congratulations! Jesus's step-dad would be proud.

[TbayON]

I guess all the trees had to go on Archibald because of new sidewalks and/or utility and services work? There are ways to work around trees during construction, but maybe it wasn't possible in this case. However, they do look like ash trees and once emerald ash borer arrives, they very possibly could have been history anyways. Let's just hope they don't plant ash back again in place of what they just cut.

I can't say the new wing at St. Joe's looks very appealing. Its not terrible though. I suppose an effort was made to design it to match the existing hospital and surrounding buildings, which would make sense as it looks like a building designed for decades past now.

The new office/washrooms/family gathering place building at Mount View Cemetery on Broadway Ave. is under construction. There is a sign there with a rendering of the completed building on it, and it somewhat resembles the new Mary J.L. Black Library in terms of exterior finishes to be used. I wonder if the city likes that design, and is adopting it for new civic buildings?

Tom Jones Construction is busy pounding piles in at the new Toys R Us in the Thunder Centre.

LH North is busy renovating a shop and fairly large yard just past Twin City Crossroads on Arthur St (well Hwy 130 actually by that point).

It looks like tons of rock and earth has been moved around the new Thunder Bay Country Club condo's, but not too much else is happening just yet. I understand they hit a lot of rock once they starting digging down, which may have slowed construction a bit. They could be forming behind the piles of earth now, maybe it just isn't in view of the general public.

[vid]

I think they're doing a full re-build of the sidewalk on Archibald. While it is sad to see the trees go, it is obvious that that sidewalk was designed by someone who didn't intend for anyone to actually use that sidewalk. Before the construction started I always found it really tricky and bizarre to ride a bike on the sidewalk on Archibald because the trees are in the middle of the sidewalk and there wasn't much room to move around. The design requires pedestrians to zig-zag around obstacles and that isn't very fun.

I don't think they did any underground work when they did Brodie so I don't think they'll be doing anything under Archibald, but they do have to connect the courthouse to utilities somehow. I don't know which direction they're all coming from but I am pretty sure they're in the back alley, so they might come off of Archibald and not Brodie?

[TbayON]

More details on the possible re-commissioning of the former iron ore trestle on the Thunder Bay waterfront:

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/222376/Iron-man

I see this as a very positive thing for the port if it all comes together. Unfortunately, I believe this project is possibly the next big thing everyone in town complains about on the waterfront. The naysayers are already out complaining this will ruin the view from the condos they don't want. I, for one, believe there is a large segment of the population out there who find watching ships come into port and seeing an industrial port at work quite interesting. The place isn't going to resemble the Kuwaiti desert either. The days when you can create clouds of dust that blanket the city are looonnnnngggg gone. Unfortunately, too many minds in this city are stuck back in those days, and can't see that times have changed.

[vid]

Originally Posted by TbayON

Unfortunately, too many minds in this city are stuck back in those days, and can't see that times have changed.

Those minds will be dead soon.