Northern Ontario developments!

[TbayON]

Apparently Costco treats their employees well above the norm for discount retailers. The pay is higher, they receive decent benefits, the company will work with unions to make the work place better, as opposed to the constant fight put up against the items above by other large retailers. I had no idea about this until I read the article where perspective new locations were listed.

======

A tender is out for improvements to the northern entrance into Victoriaville. I am not sure exactly what the work consists of, but I assume it is taking place as part of the larger redevelopment going on in that general area.

One building is pretty well completely framed and closed in at the Waterloo St. development. It appears to be the office/retail spaces judging by the appearance and layout of the building.

The ground has been excavated for footing work at St Martin School on Mary St. The catholic school board is adding a few classrooms to the west end of the building.

[vid]

Out of all the big box stores in America, CostCo is probably the best one to work for.

[Chadillaccc]

I can vouch for that! I used to work at the busiest Costco in the Western Hemisphere (Heritage Meadows), and aside from a couple c*nty managers, it was a great place to work.

[TbayON]

A couple of things happening around town:

The LW store at Northwood Mall is becoming a Big Lots store. I had known for a while that Big Lots (based out of the U.S.) had bought LW (a Canadian store). I didn't know if they planned on changing the store over, but it does seem they are now. Some reno's are also taking place there.

The NWO Innovation Centre now has office space at Confederation College too, in addition to the University. They have moved into the former forestry building, near the residence building.

I was down at the Fort William street fair, and there were more occupied store fronts than I can remember there being in some time. Quite a few stores in the area that I really didn't know were there before today. The area still needs some cleaning up though. Several empty lots in the Victoria and May area where buildings have burnt offer tremendous potential as green space or outdoor areas of some sort that area businesses could use.

[vid]

I was in Victoriaville Mall, right by the Brodie Street Entrance. (My photos will be there until the end of the month; talk to the guys at Lake Superior Art Gallery if you're interested.) The festival did quite well this year! Evergreen and the Crime Prevention Council hosted a Hip Hop festival at City Hall, and along with my photo exhibit, Victoriaville had live music and some farmers market booths, so it was definitely busier this year!

Sad news: When I was speaking to Rene Larson today, he said the Capitol Cinema on Brodie will be demolished this winter for parking.

I have known about LW becoming Big Lots for a while, I think it was mentioned here already?

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by vid

Sad news: When I was speaking to Rene Larson today, he said the Capitol Cinema on Brodie will be demolished this winter for parking.

I guess Habib's plan for it to become a performing arts centre have fallen through then? The property is still listed on his website, not that that means much. I guess someone must have purchased it off of him. Habib probably needs the cash to complete his other projects on the go that have more promise. Won't get too much for parking spots out of that lot, but I guess with the courthouse set to open in not too long, they will need all they can get down there.

Originally Posted by vid

I have known about LW becoming Big Lots for a while, I think it was mentioned here already?

I knew for a while too, I just couldn't remember seeing it here, so I figured I would bring it up. Regardless, the actual work behind changing the name has begun. The rest of the mall is experiencing a decent amount of work as well, with the imminent arrival of No Frills. I wish the owner of the mall would do something with the unit on the north side of the mall that used to be home to a call centre (the name of which I can't remember right now). The front of that building is becoming a bit run down and becoming somewhat of a blight. I don't see any indication the space is for rent, which leads me to believe there is some sort of business being conducted out of the unit.

[TbayON]

Council will be voting tonight on a proposal by a developer to purchase city owned lands at 1101 Syndicate Ave. S. I think this is the former Dresswell Cleaners building property. The developer wants to build town houses on the property from what I understand.

Sale was approved.

Also, council will be looking at transit stops tonight. They will be voting on the purchase of a bus information system and traffic management system. Transit also wants the go ahead to purchase 21 new transit shelters.

The purchase was approved.

[Dwils01]

The sale of the former Queen Street Sault Area Hospital site, bought by TVM Group, a Toronto based redevelopment company, was completed Aug. 29.
TVM Group president Amit Sofer, expressed his pleasure Friday to the news of the completion of the sale of the 19-acre site that includes both the Plummer and General hospitals. “We’re very pleased to finalize the transaction. It’s been longer coming than we thought it would be,” he said. “The hospital has been great to deal with, and so has the City.” The TVM purchase for $65,000 was approved initially by the SAH on May 27, and was targeted to close on July 16. Completion of the sale, however, required approval also from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Although the $65,000 closing price was considerably lower than the $4.9 million asking price when the property was first listed in 2011, Paluzzi stressed that the sale prevented potential costs SAH might have incurred down the road had they continued to hold on to the property.

Sofer hinted, however, that the TVM Group hoped to develop a plan that would create a complementary “bookend” conceptually to the type of redevelopment now underway by Rivers Edge Development at the former St. Marys Paper site. TVM Group has developed both residential and commercial properties throughout Southern Ontario, including Toronto, Cobourg, Port Hope, and Peterborough.

This summer, TVM Group officially opened a 30-residential luxury suite complex, the first phase of a larger project, at the former St. Joseph Hospital in Peterborough, Ontario that the company bought in late 2009.
In August, Sofer told STW his company was considering among its options luxury residential units, either condos or rental suites, or a combination of both, in the former hospitals.

He had said then too that the former hospital structures would not be demolished, but would be refurbished completely while preserving the integrity and historic importance of the original buildings.
Sofer had added that TVM Group also hoped to make low market rent space available at the location for community service providers to create an integrated hub with the residential suites.

Read more here: http://www.cityssm.on.ca/contentadmi...ciallySold.pdf

[Dwils01]

Some news from North Bay

North Bay Mayor Al McDonald and the Villarboit Development Corporation President Guery Goyo and other city officials officially broke ground for McKeown Commons a new 134,000 square foot commercial development 800 McKeown Avenue today.

As we told you last week the development, according to Online descriptions of the new project will include retailors Michaels, Sportchek and Winners, A&W, St Louis Wings and Ribs, Petsmart, Dollar Tree and Sally Beauty Supply.

Goyo says he has wanted to get into the North Bay market for the last four years, especially the McKeown Avenue area and jumped at the opportunity to purchase the property next to Canadian Tire.

Source: http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=53092

Canadore College officials and Mayor Al McDonald ceremonially broke ground on the college's new six-storey, 256-bed residence Tuesday morning.

Construction of the facility is set to begin later this week.

This will be Canadore's third apartment complex. The college is partnering with Campus Living Centres, Canada’s leading owner and manager of student housing.

“This residence is the next phase of our student housing plan,” said Shawn Chorney, vice-president of Student Services. “Both our domestic and international students have a very distinct lifestyle and different set of expectations than a few decades ago. By creating more comfortable and supportive living arrangements, we can attract more students to North Bay to expand on the $90-million annual economic impact the college brings to our local economy.”

Similar to the two existing towers, the new apartments will consist of two private bedrooms, as well as shared bathroom, kitchen and living space, a release said.

Source: http://www.nugget.ca/2013/07/30/cana...-new-residence

[Chadillaccc]

So is the Prince Arthur Landing development on hold now?

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Geez, at this rate North Bay will be very different in five to ten years. It'll likely be unrecognizable for me.

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

So is the Prince Arthur Landing development on hold now?

Haven't heard anything like that myself. I know there have been some delays due to the site and getting the piles and footings completed. A tower crane is on site and things seem to be on the go. You don't want a tower crane sitting on your site idle at many thousands of dollars per day.

======

Both new fire hall locations in the city broke ground yesterday. Officials from a variety of municipal backgrounds held an official ground breaking. Both the new Westfort and North Neebing locations broke ground simultaneously. All told, the new fire halls and reno's to existing fire halls to accommodate EMS services cost $7 million after successful bids were chosen.

A tender is out for interior renovations to the retail unit near Intercity Wal-Mart that will become an Atmosphere store. There is a decent amount of work involved, mostly to the interior, so it will probably take a while to complete.

A few major recent developments occurred as far as the Ring of Fire goes. First, Mattawa First Nations has dropped its legal appeal around the environmental permitting process. I'm not sure if it was a result of a division within Mattawa, or if Cliffs and Mattawa found common working ground finally. Regardless, this removes a major hurdle to development. The second major development, this time a set back to Cliffs, was a failed attempt to have the courts grant easements for a proposed all weather road on lands staked by KWG. See below for details:
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/298888/Rail-over-road
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/298704/Review-ends
Now we just need to convince the government of Ontario that this needs to be more than just a mineral development and transportation network. We can magnify the impact by attracting business and industry involved in the downstream processing and use of the mined materials in addition to the related professional and administrative needs created by the projects. We should avoid subsidies and instead rely on something more creative.

Pizza Hut is opening an Intercity location. The new store front will be located in the long vacant units attached to the Power Centre closest to Central Ave. There won't be a huge restaurant space with take-out being more of a focus.

There is a pretty solid rumour circulating that a business is to set up shop in the former Western Grocers building, across from the LCBO distribution centre. Its a company from southern Ontario engaged in the construction industry. Not going to say just who yet though. There appears to already be at least one other business operating out of the north end of the building. The building was sold sometime in the past few months. While on the topic, I haven't heard anything more about the potential sale of the former Home Hardware Biltrite warehouse and store on Beaverhall. I do not see it on the local MLS listings anymore though.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by TbayON

Haven't heard anything like that myself. I know there have been some delays due to the site and getting the piles and footings completed. A tower crane is on site and things seem to be on the go. You don't want a tower crane sitting on your site idle at many thousands of dollars per day.

Awesome. I just figured it was on hold since no one has mentioned it at all or posted a picture of it in months. In fact, I think the last picture posted of the site was from me last year! I just thought there would be more news about it, as I would assume it is by far the largest development (tower-wise) underway in all of Northern Ontario right now.

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Awesome. I just figured it was on hold since no one has mentioned it at all or posted a picture of it in months. In fact, I think the last picture posted of the site was from me last year! I just thought there would be more news about it, as I would assume it is by far the largest development (tower-wise) underway in all of Northern Ontario right now.

There really isn't too much to see at this point other than a large hole in the ground (at least since I was down there last). I keep meaning to get down to Port Arthur to get some pictures since things are starting to change in the downtown north core. I just never get time.

As far as being the largest development as far as towers go, I'm not sure it the biggest one in the pipeline. Its probably one of the larger ones actually under construction, but I think there are some taller projects being proposed in Sudbury and the Sault. The fact that there are three buildings does make it pretty significant though, especially with all three going up around the same time. As far as height goes though, the three buildings won't even crack the top 10 tallest buildings in Thunder Bay when complete at 30 m for the hotel and 25 m for each of the condo buildings. They were purposely designed to stand lower as not to tower over surrounding properties. They will definitely still change the look of the downtown north core quite significantly though. That is a fact.

=====
Article courtesy of Northern Ontario Business about Innova Park:
http://www.northernontariobusiness.c...-industry.aspx

Good to hear another lot has sold. Seems like the city is against retailers setting up shop in the largely vacant business park. This is a sudden turn considering the city was working with multiple retail developers just a year or two ago on getting big box developments underway in Innova. It will be interesting to see if their new vision pans out. I don't know myself whether it will or not, and I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how it will go. At least the city is trying to create some kind of vision for the area, in what has potential to become the most rapidly expanding business and light industrial area in the city.

[vid]

I don't make it to that part of town very often. I've taken a couple photos but not showing the construction itself. It is ongoing; last time I was by (but didn't take photos) they've got the concrete foundation for the south tower nearly completed, and are moving onto the second tower. (The basement is parking.) If I recall correctly, the buildings should rise over the winter and spring, and then the hotel will begin construction in March.

Landscaping is coming along very quickly at the new courthouse, interior work will bring the project into 2014 though. I can say with 100% certainty that the former Kresge building on Victoria (Newfie's Pub) will be renovated into a law office when Newfie's lease expires in several months. There are no known plans of what will happen to the Newfie's business; this was their third location.

Regarding Innova, I think the city was OK with putting retail in there when there was nothing there, but now that several properties are being developed, at this point you would have to design a retail centre to accommodate that which might involve a variety of exceptions to zoning by-laws that council would have to deal with. A re-organization of the light industrial lands in Intercity (as is happening with the hotels) would be a better option. Remove the strip malls northwest of the Memorial and Dunlop intersection and you've got enough room for a 60,000sqft big box store and it's parking. Or, a 20 storey condominium...

Speaking of that location, signage is down at the old Swiss Chalet. I can't recall what is going in there. It was nothing really exciting though.

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by vid

Landscaping is coming along very quickly at the new courthouse, interior work will bring the project into 2014 though. I can say with 100% certainty that the former Kresge building on Victoria (Newfie's Pub) will be renovated into a law office when Newfie's lease expires in several months. There are no known plans of what will happen to the Newfie's business; this was their third location.

Good news about Newfie's being on its way out again. This should help clean up the area a bit. That building has potential to be something nice if even a little exterior work is done. A second story addition would really add something to that corner, but I am not going to hold my breathe for that to happen. Only the top two floors of the courthouse might be ready by the scheduled completion date for staff to move in to. Bird is going to be out a lot of cash for being late. I only worry about that because they may decide to just not pay their sub-trades, which would screw over a lot of local contractors. I am pretty sure that would get the chased out of town for good though.

The city set out about 2 or 3 years ago to basically eliminate every bar from the downtown south core area and Simpson St. It seems this goal has been achieved, unless Newfie's moves again to somewhere else in the neighbourhood.

Originally Posted by vid

Regarding Innova, I think the city was OK with putting retail in there when there was nothing there, but now that several properties are being developed, at this point you would have to design a retail centre to accommodate that which might involve a variety of exceptions to zoning by-laws that council would have to deal with. A re-organization of the light industrial lands in Intercity (as is happening with the hotels) would be a better option. Remove the strip malls northwest of the Memorial and Dunlop intersection and you've got enough room for a 60,000sqft big box store and it's parking. Or, a 20 storey condominium...

The west side of Memorial was poorly developed south of the Harbour all the way until it becomes May. The railway tracks do kind of throw a monkey wrench in there, but there was an all around failure to capitalize on the potential between the city and businesses. The area south of 11th Ave. between Memorial and Fort William was poorly utilized too. The area serves mainly as a site for intoxication, drug use, crime and other socially undesirable endeavors by those who live on the streets. I don't make that comment meaning to stereotype, but I'm not going to beat around the bush either.

Originally Posted by vid

Speaking of that location, signage is down at the old Swiss Chalet. I can't recall what is going in there. It was nothing really exciting though.

Some local restaurant site posted that it is becoming a Tony Roma's. I am skeptical about that up to this point. Tony Roma's tends to build stand-alone restaurants, and to a much different appearance than the former Swiss Chalet space is in, both structurally and esthetically. It is possible though with the hotels going up in the area. I would bet more money on it becoming a Lone Star Texas Grill though if its staying as a restaurant. Lone Star had ads in the paper around a year ago looking for management staff. I would bet there will be a couple of more hotels coming to the Intercity area in the next few years, so its a good spot for a restaurant.

[Chadillaccc]

Any news regarding either of these? Or are they more of a vision than proposals?

Originally Posted by TbayON

]Several posts have appeared on here in the last couple days about the new Superior Lofts in downtown P.A., so here are some pictures/renderings:
Current Building as it stands now (former Kilroys bar):


After conversion to lofts and commercial space on the main floor:




=====

Here is the rendering for the new Health Services Building on Oliver Rd. at the TBRHSC (image from Northern Ontario Medical Journal).



And the article:
http://www.nomj.ca/2013/03/25/public...es-centre.html

Originally Posted by vid

https://www.facebook.com/ThunderBayEventCentre

[russman]

Work is currently ongoing on the Superior Lofts (first pictures) as well as the Health Services Building. The Event Center is still a few years away.

[TbayON]

Hey Chadillaccc, I put up photos of the Health Services Centre structure going up in my last 2 sets of photos I posted. Take a look back a couple pages and you will see the progress as of about a month ago. The building is visible from most of the city now. Superior lofts, as russman says, has been under construction for quite a few months now.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Did the Hampton Inn proposed for the Thunder Bay airport area ever begin construction?