WINDSOR | Construction - News and Development

[north 42]

Nice to see the Windsor airport cargo hub finally moving forward, this is great news for the region and the airport!

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/10...startup-grant/

[Symz]

The University of Windsor is finally getting on with the project to convert the former Windsor Star HQ into it's new school of social work. This project will inject over 500 students,staff and faculty into the downtown.

There will still be the 2 other projects remaining, the Armouries conversion and the old Greyhound bus station conversion.

Full article here:
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/10...by-university/

[north 42]

Wow, this has been one sad, long stretch of nothing on this thread!

[Jacob]

It's been a long stretch of nothing new in Windsor this fall, unfortunately.

[Symz]

Something might be stirring with the University again, this time with the Paul Martin Building.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windso...town-1.2443482

The University of Windsor faculty of law may be moving to the Paul Martin federal building on Ouellette Ave, sources tell CBC News.

But, all Eddie Francis will say is that he is in discussions with University of Windsor president Alan Wildeman about locating another campus to the downtown district.

"The mayor and I have discussed how to bring a new faculty downtown and we have a very clear understanding of that," said Wildeman.

That's in addition to new campuses being developed in the former Windsor Star building, the armouries and the Greyhound bus depot.

In his annual state of the city address yesterday, Francis told an audience of more than 500 that a new and more modernized central library will also be relocated somewhere downtown.

There's also a plan for a new city hall.

It will be located at the parking lot adjacent to the existing building.

The mayor says it should be ready by 2017.

An undisclosed tenant will share the new building.

[north 42]

Some great news for downtown!

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/12...ulty-downtown/

[Symz]

The projections on this project regarding the Faculty of Law at U of W and the Paul Martin Building suggest the university may move into the building ~2019-2020 (the feds vacate the building in 2017).

DOES THIS MEAN WE HAVE TO LOOK AT THAT AWFUL SCAFFOLDING FOR 7 MORE YEARS???

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

The projections on this project regarding the Faculty of Law at U of W and the Paul Martin Building suggest the university may move into the building ~2019-2020 (the feds vacate the building in 2017).

DOES THIS MEAN WE HAVE TO LOOK AT THAT AWFUL SCAFFOLDING FOR 7 MORE YEARS???

I would hope the Feds would fix the exterior before handing it over, but I wouldn't hold my breath!

[Jacob]

Windsor is getting another JYSK, Dollar Tree and its first Marshall's:
http://windsorite.ca/2014/02/marshal...vonshire-mall/

proud to say i submitted the tip that led to this story.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Jacob

Windsor is getting another JYSK, Dollar Tree and its first Marshall's:
http://windsorite.ca/2014/02/marshal...vonshire-mall/

proud to say i submitted the tip that led to this story.

It's about time that this property gets redeveloped, it's a great location near Devonshire Mall.

[ED.SA]

There's another Jysk and Dollar Tree just a few minutes away, wish it was Ikea

[north 42]

Originally Posted by ED.SA

There's another Jysk and Dollar Tree just a few minutes away, wish it was Ikea

There's no way an ikea would open up here in the Windsor area, they need a much larger population than the almost 400,000 we have in Windsor-Essex, plus there is a store just over the border in Plymouth Mi.

[ED.SA]

Yeah I thought this article originally said it was going to be Ikea but just people hoping for one.
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/09...division-road/

[Symz]

I have been too lazy to post in the last few months. The aquatics centre is still seeing finishing touches, the farhi garage reno is complete, and the university of windsor project at the old windsor star is currently underway with demo and excavation in progress. In the spring we should see some steel going up.

I'm guessing maybe late summer/fall we will see some movement on the former Armouries as I often hear that is the next project slated for the U in the downtown, then followed by the old bus station.

As time passes by and the more I read the more I begin to think Windsor needs to rethink it's downtown development strategy, and development strategy in general. Taxes are still too high, development fees are still too high and 1 more thing.

With the city issuing a city wide CIP (Community Improvement Plan) which is offerent 10 year tax breaks on new developments that meet the criteria, by making it city wide does that dilute the efforts to bolster the downtown? Why not focus the effort on downtown and make it so it's unavoidably appealing for developers to look at developing downtown. I think we should look at efforts made in London in the last 15 years. You can see that the strategy to densify their downtown is working, maybe we can learn from them because obviously our strategy isn't working as of yet.

I honestly think that a lot of these efforts will see minimal reward if the city does not manage to bolster the residential population of the downtown core. I believe that should be priority and then the commerce will begin to follow.

[Symz]

small update on the u of w project

pics by me







The origional render

source: http://www1.uwindsor.ca/transformati...-star-building

The new render shows the southeastern glass portion of the building not there. It was quoted afterwards that it will be a possible future expansion, leaving that corner of Ferry and Chatham about as dead looking as it currently is with the small parking lot opposite The Loop.

new render

source: www.windsorstar.com

And finally i just found some new aerial photos of the project on the U of W's website. These aerials are a little older than the pics I took and posted above, but they offer a rarely seen aerial view.

source: http://www.uwindsor.ca/11032/photogr...-star-building

[y2k_pony]

Originally Posted by north 42

There's no way an ikea would open up here in the Windsor area, they need a much larger population than the almost 400,000 we have in Windsor-Essex, plus there is a store just over the border in Plymouth Mi.

I wouldnt put Windsor/Essex at even 300,00 people. What, windsor is barely if even 200,000. Plus with the recession, alot of people have moved away.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by y2k_pony

I wouldnt put Windsor/Essex at even 300,00 people. What, windsor is barely if even 200,000. Plus with the recession, alot of people have moved away.

Lol, you're way off! Windsor and Essex County had a population of 389,000 people in 2011. The city has 211,000 and Essex County has 178,000 people. The region has been growing by about 2,000 people a year for the last few years, so we will probably close to 400,000 in a year or two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_County,_Ontario

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

I have been too lazy to post in the last few months. The aquatics centre is still seeing finishing touches, the farhi garage reno is complete, and the university of windsor project at the old windsor star is currently underway with demo and excavation in progress. In the spring we should see some steel going up.

I'm guessing maybe late summer/fall we will see some movement on the former Armouries as I often hear that is the next project slated for the U in the downtown, then followed by the old bus station.

As time passes by and the more I read the more I begin to think Windsor needs to rethink it's downtown development strategy, and development strategy in general. Taxes are still too high, development fees are still too high and 1 more thing.

With the city issuing a city wide CIP (Community Improvement Plan) which is offerent 10 year tax breaks on new developments that meet the criteria, by making it city wide does that dilute the efforts to bolster the downtown? Why not focus the effort on downtown and make it so it's unavoidably appealing for developers to look at developing downtown. I think we should look at efforts made in London in the last 15 years. You can see that the strategy to densify their downtown is working, maybe we can learn from them because obviously our strategy isn't working as of yet.

I honestly think that a lot of these efforts will see minimal reward if the city does not manage to bolster the residential population of the downtown core. I believe that should be priority and then the commerce will begin to follow.

I totally agree with you on the city needing to make DT more attractive to developers and new residents. Hopefully something can be done to stop the core area from deteriorating any further!

[Symz]

A few more aerial shots of the progress at the New U of W School of social work downtown. They still haven't got totally to just the facade of the old Windsor Star building and it seems the facade that was supposed to be saved of the old adjacent apartment building is almost half torn down. Maybe they had some trouble with it as they took it down. It seems there are some I beams in place to help reinforce the facade. I assume it will be rebuilt.

source: http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/02...star-building/

[north 42]

I noticed today that the construction crane is now up at the UW downtown campus for social work. It's just nice to see a crane in the DT again, wish we had more!