WINDSOR | Construction - News and Development

[yupislyr]

From AM800

LAND FOUND FOR NEW ARENA 2006-11-06 21:16:34

The city of Windsor has secured the land needed to build the new arena complex in the east end. The city is swapping a small piece of land near the Art Gallery of Windsor with a London developer. In return, they receive a 40-acre site near the Lear plant on Lauzon Road.

[Blitz]

They better rebuild that stretch of Lauzon Road then, it's one of the worst roads in the whole city.

[upinottawa]

Arena site 'perfect'
Council swaps riverfront land for $1.5M and 40 acres off Lauzon Road

Roseann Danese, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, November 07, 2006

With a week to go before the election, city council left its final mark Monday with the approval of a $47.9 million arena on 40 acres of land off Lauzon Road.

The east-end site will be part of a $3.5-million land swap with London developer Shmuel Farhi, who owns the parcel of vacant land east of the Lear plant and sandwiched between Lauzon Road and Little River.

In exchange, the city will give Farhi a 1.1-acre parcel it owns next to the Art Gallery of Windsor, overlooking Riverside Drive, which was appraised at roughly $2 million, plus $1.5 million in cash. Farhi has asked the city to hold on to the cash, which he intends to use as a credit for the future costs of developing the land. He will have a year to do that and if the credit is not used, the city will pay him in cash.

Mayor Eddie Francis described Farhi as the man responsible for the revitalization of downtown London and the owner of about "70 per cent" of the land in that city's core. His plans for the Riverside Drive land will likely include condominiums, Francis said.

"He's anxious about development. He's got a couple of ideas already in mind," Francis said. "He called up this afternoon indicating he's already looking at potential tenants."

The city acquired the Riverside Drive land from the province after the interim casino closed.

City councillors chose the east-end site after an in-camera debate.

They were looking at Farhi's land and another parcel owned by four individuals and located behind the Rona store off Lauzon Parkway.

Francis said the arena will be easily accessed by residents across the city, using E.C. Row Expressway, Lauzon Parkway or Lauzon Road. McHugh Street, which will connect to Lauzon Road when it is eventually extended, will also cross Little River.

Spitfires owner Warren Rychel said the site was "perfect."

"It will be easily accessible, that location by everybody, east, west, south, Riverside, E.C. Row, Wyandotte, Tecumseh Road," Rychel said. "It's very good for the community."

The Lear plant is still operating and it will remain at its current site, said Michael Duben, the city's general manager of client services. The deal must still receive environmental approval.

After approving the land swap, council turned its attention to final approval of the arena itself. The $47.9-million price tag on the 6,500-seat arena, with three ancillary pads, is being guaranteed by the contractor, PCR, a firm owned by the Collavino construction family.

Renzo Collavino said his firm will start construction as soon as possible, with an anticipated opening date of September 2008. "As soon as we get the contract signed up, we're going to start right away," he said. The goal will be to have the facility enclosed by next winter, which will be an aggressive schedule. "We've got to hustle," he said.

Representatives from minor hockey and figure skating associations attended the council meeting to show their support. "It's a big time arena now for the kids to play in," said Dean Lapierre, president of Windsor Minor Hockey Association.

Lapierre gave credit to city officials for listening to the future users of the ice pads. "They didn't have seats until I said, 'Listen we need some kind of seating. This ain't a soccer venue where you can set up chairs.'"

The architects added bench seats that will accommodate 150 people in each arena. Another 50 seats will be on the second floor, overlooking the ice surface. There will also be room for people to stand on either end of the ice, plus spectator seats will be placed behind a wall of glass on the second floor outside the arena.

A firm was hired to complete an independent cost analysis of the $47.9-million price tag. Greg Curan, of Curan McCabe Ravindran Ross Inc., said the costs were "reasonable and represent a fair market value."

He also reviewed the city's budget for items such as flooring, emergency generators and the sound system, and found the $4.5 million figure to be "adequate," said Don Sadler, the city's manager of parks.

The cost of servicing the site with hydro, gas, water and sewer hook ups has been set at about $5.3 million, which also includes the cost of providing parking spots for about 2,000 to 2,500 cars, Sadler said.

A bottom line budget on those items will be brought to council at a later date for final approval.

The project was approved unanimously by city council. Coun. David Cassivi, who'd voted against it when council gave preliminary approval of the PCR deal, decided to support it now "because I think the public is deserving of an arena."

Coun. Fulvio Valentinis acknowledged that council was moving "at a fast clip" but he said its been able to do so because of the experience accumulated over the years from other projects that have been proposed. He cautioned city administrators to come back to council with an accurate final budget on fit-out costs and site servicing costs "so there are no surprises down the road."

© The Windsor Star 2006

[westerntragedy]

Is this the site we're looking at for the new arena? I'm not too sure where the Lear plant is exactly..

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=42.319478,-82.926393&spn=0.006981,0.014634&t=k&om=1

[upinottawa]

I still think they should let the Spits play in Tecumseh for 10-15 years and then build a stand alone arena downtown. All the city needs to do is remove the 6500 seat arena from the planned complex.

[Blitz]

They can let the Spits play in Tecumseh after Windsor annexes Tecumseh.

westerntragedy, that is the parcel of land...the Lear plant is that big boxy thing on the left. They'll be extending McHugh Street from Lauzon Road eastward across the Little River.

[arnold]

that plot of land is so far removed from the centre of town, the spits may as well be playing in tecumseh...

but that development deal next to the AGW could be pretty interesting. anyone care to speculate wildly about what will go up on the spot? my guess is a high rise condo that is a bad fit for the parcel... furthering the riverside drive 'fence' effect.
what i'd like to see is something that is scaled to act as a gateway to the river. maybe a nice 3 floor lowrise condo/retail development that steps down from the highrise across the street.
either that, or a giant, 30 story parking garage to make detroiters really jealous...

[yupislyr]

This London developer is claiming he has big plans for Windsor. We shall see...

PLANS FOR WINDSOR 2006-11-07 15:21:15

A London Developer is planning big projects for land around Windsor's new east end arena. Shmuel Farhi, owner of Fahri Holdings, traded 40 acres behind the Lear plant for some Riverside Drive property. But Farhi still owns 70 acres east of Lauzon and he wants to build a hotel and more. He says it only took him 14 seconds to make the decision to swap land in Windsor.

[upinottawa]

The man behind the new arena has more to come

Roseann Danese, Windsor Star
Published: Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Windsor's newest investor describes himself as a businessman with a big heart and deep pockets.

Shmuel Farhi, the man who played a central role in the city's ability to acquire a 40-acre parcel of land off Lauzon Road for its new arena complex, says the $3.5-million land swap will be the start of a long and fruitful relationship.

Farhi gets 1.1 acres of prime waterfront land, west of the Art Gallery of Windsor, in exchange for 40 acres next to the Lear plant. He will also receive $1.5 million in cash, to be held by the city for up to one year for use in future developments.

Farhi said he will use the year to line up potential buyers for a "first-class" condominium development overlooking Windsor's waterfront, with retail on the ground floor.

"The building next to the Art Gallery is going to warrant a first-class facility," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I am not building anything unless it is first class."

He said he isn't worried about having a residential development next door to the city's new transit terminal. A bus depot is "a very important element" to a city centre, because it provides quick and easy access for people who depend on public transportation.

He said the bus depot has been designed to fit into the vision for the urban village. "It's a very intriguing building. It's going to be a very nice building," he said.

He says he's excited about the city's plan to redevelop downtown and thinks the move to create a campus for about 700 St. Clair College students was brilliant.

"If we see other opportunities in Windsor, trust me, I have deep pockets and I will spend money in Windsor."

The 45-year-old London developer has been described by Londoners as a colourful figure.

He's the largest landowner, with about 70 buildings, in downtown London. The majority of buildings are old heritage sites that were bought by Farhi and revamped.

"To know me is to love me," he said. "We are just visitors on this earth. I want to give back to the community while I'm alive."

But Farhi has had recent run-ins with London city officials -- both elected and administrative -- over the lack of parking in downtown London, which is affecting the ability of landlords like himself to attract office tenants.

The city has been reluctant to spend millions on money-losing parking garages and Farhi has been critical of the foot-dragging.

"He's good for London," said Janette MacDonald, manager of Mainstreet London, a downtown revitalization organization.

"If he hadn't bought these buildings, Lord knows what would have happened to them."

But for now, Farhi has turned his attention to Windsor. He said London politicians ought to take a page out of Windsor's book. "A lot of municipalities can learn from Windsor how to welcome entrepreneurs," he said, praising Windsor's mayor and the city officials who hammered out the deal.

Francis and Farhi met for the first time about a year ago at a wedding in London.

Farhi contacted Francis shortly afterward to hear first-hand about the mayor's plans for Windsor.

"A week later, he calls and says, 'Meet me at the Lear plant. I just bought it,'" Francis said.

Farhi arrived in Windsor by helicopter and told the mayor he liked what he'd heard the week before about where the city was heading. "He's made that very clear to us, he wants to invest in Windsor," Francis said.

About one month ago, Farhi was the one to get a call. It was the City of Windsor, wanting to know if he was interested in doing a deal with his land next to Lear.

"I was very taken by their honesty, very taken by them coming and asking me to help" in the revitalization of downtown.

He says he took "14 seconds" to say yes. "If it takes me more than 14 seconds to make a decision, it's a bad decision."

Farhi came to Canada in 1986 from Israel with "a suitcase and a few bucks in my pocket." Slowly, he started buying up old properties that no one else wanted, vowing to "make an impact."

Farhi owns the entire parcel of land on which the Lear plant sits -- a total of 110 acres.

With the swap of 40 acres to the city, Farhi will be left with about 70 acres to develop.

He is also working on attracting a call centre to the 90,000 square feet of office space he owns in the Lear plant.

Farhi said he foresees the Lear plant moving to an industrial area in a few years, which would pave the way for him and other landowners in the area to create a commercial and recreational hub surrounding the new arena. "This place, the way I see it, it is going to be transformed into a new development."

- - -

LOTS OF PROPERTY

In addition to his London holdings, Shmuel Farhi owns properties in St. Thomas, Sarnia, Woodstock, Kitchener, Hamilton, Oshawa, Kingston, Ottawa and Stoney Creek, as well as others in northern Ontario.

© The Windsor Star 2006

[ldoto]

The city of london is going to lose Farhi

Wed, November 8, 2006

By NORMAN DE BONO, FREE PRESS BUSINESS REPORTER



London developer Shmuel Farhi has cut a big deal in Windsor.

He's agreed to a land swap that sees him get 0.4 hectares of prime downtown waterfront land in exchange for 16 hectares in the city's east end where the new arena for the Windsor Spitfires Ontario Hockey League team will go.

Farhi plans to build a $45-million, 20-storey condominium tower on the downtown site and another $50-million commercial and residential development near the new arena, he said yesterday.

The deal may be just the beginning of what he sees as an ongoing relationship.

"They called me and said they wanted to make a deal," Farhi said.

"Here's a city that picked up the phone and said they wanted to work with me. They sent people here and we got a deal done in three weeks."

Farhi has been at loggerheads with the City of London in recent years over developing parking in the downtown for his commercial buildings.

At a recent city council meeting, he threatened to tear down his London developments or invest elsewhere.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said the new arena was the driving force behind the deal. The city wanted to look at building in east Windsor and contacted Farhi, who owned the large parcel.

"We are excited to bring someone here who has a track record of development downtown," Francis said.

"He's an individual who makes things happen."

Windsor also will develop a four-hectare property, immediately behind the land Farhi now owns, as a downtown urban residential area and Francis said he expects Farhi to bid on the development.

[arnold]

this developer sounds like good news to me. after all, i've always thought that windsor should borrow some of london's recipe for success... and it looks like they just might get it...

i'm interested in seeing what he has planned for the area around the arena. i'm hoping that its not just the same kind of tightly packed condos across the street from typical big-box retail that seems so popular down here in the so-cal suburbs. because while these condo developments may increase population density, they are still 100% car dependent.

[upinottawa]

That plot of land west of the AGW is definitely prime land. It would have been great to see a mini museum district on that block, but downtown could certainly use more people -- and the condo building should help to do that.

An aside: I wonder if anyone knows whether or not Windsor has a master plan for downtown? It appears to me that it does not -- it would appear that development is "we will take what we can get" rather than making development adhere to a vision for downtown.

[arnold]

^i bet that blitz or border city boy could answer that.

i remember seeing a model in the lobby of city hall (about five years ago now) that had some sort of plan laid out. all i really remember is that there was a sizeable collection of highrises along wyandotte, west of ouellette that have never materialized. oh, and the western super anchor was there as well...

[Blitz]

There's no "master plan" for downtown but there is a city centre revitalization plan that originated in 1995 and was updated last year.

There are community improvement plans for the urban village lands and the Glengarry/Marentette area (lands just east of the casino).

[arnold]

yet more arena drama...

City riles builders
Construction group demands rest of arena work be tendered

Roseann Danese
Windsor Star


Thursday, November 09, 2006


The Windsor Construction Association accused city council Wednesday of financial irresponsibility and negligence when it awarded the $47.9-million east-end arena project to the Collavino family's PCR firm without tender.

The association wants assurances the rest of the project will be put out for bids and that PCR will be required to tender all subcontracts over $2.4 million.

"We're concerned about the fact the city didn't follow proper procedure on a $50-million award," said executive director Jim Lyons.

Lyons said the association's lawyer concluded that council "misused the language in their (purchasing) bylaw."

Lyons said the bylaw states "sole source" means "the purchase of a good and/or service where there is only one available supplier of that good and/or service that meets the needs or requirements of the City of Windsor."

"What process did the city of Windsor utilize to determine PCR was the sole supplier available to meet the needs or requirements of the city?" Lyons asked in a letter to the city.

Mayor Eddie Francis defended the city's move to give the long-sought arena contract to PCR. He said PCR had architectural drawings and much of the preliminary work completed because their original project was designed for a facility in Port Huron. When that fell through because of financing difficulties, the project belonged to PCR and the architectural firm of Brisbon, Brooks, Beynon.

"The drawings do not belong to the City of Windsor," he said.

"You cannot tender something if you do not have drawings for it."

Francis said the arena project would have been indefinitely delayed if the city had decided to open the project to a proposal call. "People wanted us to make a decision on this file," he said. "We would have been into 2011, 2012 before we'd have a new facility and everyone else would be passing us by."

PCR owners Renzo and Paolo Collavino could not be reached for comment, but they have publicly stated the $47.9 million price tag was based on tenders, which were sought from subcontractors in the city. "I'm advised they did put it out to tender and that's how they got a fixed price," Francis said.

He added that he's been assured by city staff other aspects of the project, such as site servicing, road and parking lot construction, will be publicly tendered.

Lyons said the association had to get its board's approval before sending the letter of protest to the city. He said the timing, just before the Nov. 13 municipal election, was unavoidable.

The association says the city's bylaw for sole sourcing a multimillion-dollar contract states it can be done when the purchase is "clearly in the best interest of the city."

Lyons said there's no documentation to suggest the PCR proposal was in the city's best interest. "Knowing full well that these questions will be difficult to verify as a result of not being properly undertaken, we believe that administration and council are acting financially irresponsible ... and we are confident that if investigated by the Ontario Municipal Affairs office, their findings would be consistent with ours."

The association didn't realize the deal would be receiving final approval Monday night because it -- like many others in the city -- wasn't aware the issue was on the agenda.

"There was no public notification to us," Lyons said. "But that seems to be the way this council wants to move forward. That's the atmosphere we're working with these days."

The city's lack of transparency has become an issue in the election, but Francis defended council's record on openness. "This file has been open to the point that the average citizen knows more about this file than in any other jurisdiction."

Tecumseh struck a deal with the proponents of Project Ice Track without a word leaking out about the discussions until the agreement was signed and sealed.

The Ice Track group had been offering to build an arena complex in Windsor, on Windsor Raceway lands, but pulled the plug on that offer after getting the impression the city supported the Collavino group.

Francis noted that the association's complaint about sole sourcing would have applied to Windsor Raceway's proposal for the Ice Track arena, since that would not have been tendered either if council chose that project. "That would have been sole sourced as well."

© The Windsor Star 2006

[upinottawa]

^ Well, at least the Windsor Construction Association is seeking a political rather than a legal solution.

Has there been any word out of Tecumseh with respect to the Ice Track arena? Any AHL affiliate lined up? Any talk of downsizing the size of the crowd capacity of the rink?

I think the city of Windsor could benefit from a plan that focuses what type of development should be (ideally) located where. The city has a number of holes (i.e. empty spaces) to plug and such should be done in a coordinated fashion. Addtionally, some "vision" for downtown would have prevented that Hilton, Radisson, Clearly fence on Riverside.

[westerntragedy]

I noticed they had ripped up what was a plot of grass near the alley behind Prince of Wales School, as I walk by there to class every day. Looks like this project has already started:

U of W unveils new engineering building
By Chris Vander Doelen, The Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, November 09, 2006

The University of Windsor’s sprawling new engineering building will be “by far” the largest structure on campus when the $53-million centre opens to students in 2009, school officials said Thursday Topped with windmills, and boasting a treed central atrium enclosed by solar glass — as well as a “green” roof of grass designed to absorb rainwater — the three-storey engineering building will also be the most technologically advanced on campus. “We’re going to make the building itself a lab,” said Graham Reader, dean of engineering at the university. “We’re going to use it to teach students about environmental technology, building construction — whatever we can.” Not to mention automotive engineering. The success of the school’s auto engineering programs is a large reason the school is investing so much in its most ambitious construction project ever. Fundraising is not yet complete. The project, which has been in the works for four years, received a provincial contribution of $2 million Thursday toward the design costs of the new building. The grant is the first of more to come, said MPP Dwight Duncan (L — Windsor-St. Clair). The structure will fill most of the parking lots that now occupy university land between the former Prince of Wales school and the former St. Anthony’s school on California Avenue. “It’s going to make a huge difference to this school, to the province and to the country,” university president Ross Paul said of the new building. “It’s going to have an incredible impact on the students because it’s finally going to bring everybody together.”

[Blitz]

^ Good stuff, that's gonna be huge for the school. I see the University even managed to move up in the Maclean's rankings this year. With that enormous parking lot on California disappearing, I think they should seriously consider building a parking garage somewhere on campus.

[westerntragedy]

^ Amen to the parking garage idea. They could manage some serious consolidation of surface lots, and make more room for buildings with a multi level garage. Add to that maybe a pedestrian walkway over Wyandotte so students don't keep getting hit while trying to get to class

[arnold]

^
parking garages and pedestrian overpasses?
sounds to me like you guys have been taking lessons at the 'Troy School of Urban Planning'.

but that's really good news about the engineering building. doubly so for it being so green. and for thoses of us who aren't very familiar with the UofW campus, where abouts will this new facility go? on california st. north of wyandotte or south? east side of the street or west?