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  #81  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2011, 4:45 PM
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^^^ Yup, right call on the mayors part, this decision should be good for all parties.
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  #82  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2011, 6:00 PM
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Hot off the presses the University of Windsor has officially announced that they will buy the Windsor Star building. This means the Windsor Star will relocate to the current Palace theatre downtown @ University & Oullette completely renovating that building and breathing new life into the heart of the core.

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Wind...628/story.html


Quote:
WINDSOR, Ont. -- The University of Windsor has announced it will buy the Windsor Star building, kicking off a flurry of activity which will see the Star move its downtown offices into the Palace Theatre complex.

“The purchase of the Windsor Star property is the first step in the University of Windsor’s plan to transform the landscape of our campus to more firmly anchor our commitment to being a student-centred university,” Wildeman announced at the Windsor Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “This acquisition is part of the broader vision to support the priorities identified in our strategic plan with capital projects.”

The acquisition will allow the university to move its School of Social Work and the Centre for Executive and Professional Development in the the Star’s building at Pitt Street and Ferry Street, behind the St. Clair Centre for the Arts.

Star publisher and editor-in-chief Marty Beneteau said “it’s exciting for us that the university has taken this project on and given us the chance for a rebirth and relocation in the Palace complex.”

The School of Social Work is made up of about 830 students, faculty and staff who currently work with several agencies downtown

“Moving the social work program downtown presents an opportunity to significantly broaden the bandwidth between important academic programming and needs of our community,” said Wildeman.

In May, the university also announced plans to move its Music and Visual Arts and Film Production programs into the downtown Armouries thanks to the City of Windsor’s capital donation in addition to $10 million in funding and the provincial government’s contribution of $15 million.



Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Univ...#ixzz1eYK9zsHa
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  #83  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2011, 7:49 PM
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A sad but true article on the CBC website about Windsor.

Quote:
Windsor is losing part of its future
Part 3 in CBC Windsor's series No Place Like Home, a look at the city's generation Y

Windsor is losing part of its future. Statistics show young people are leaving the city at an alarming rate.

Between 2003 and 2008, Windsor had a net migration loss of more than 6,600 people between the ages 18 and 44.

Those numbers equate to missed opportunities and untapped economic potential for the city, according to the regional economic development corporation.

"We really need to be diligent about tapping into ... our youth," said Karolyn Hart of the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation. "And we want them to know that we are excited you're here and we are here to work along side of you. We want to ... unleash you and we want that to happen here."

Several local groups are working together to stop the brain drain.

A group called GenNext organized a gathering of young professionals earlier this week. It was a chance for young, ambitious professionals to network and discuss how to better engage the community.

A group called Workforce Windsor-Essex is busy trying to link young people with local jobs so they don't get away.

"You want people [here] during the age when they are forming a household because that's when they've got to buy the house all the baby stuff and they're buying their career wardrobes," Donna Marentette of Workforce Windsor-Essex said.

Karolyn Hart says surveys show generation Y is a largely entrepreneurial group and small business is the back bone of the economy.

"They like to create their own destiny," Hart said. "So one of the things we're looking at is, in conjunction with our small business enterprise centre, is how do we tap into that and and [make them] really understand that in Windsor-Essex, this is a great place if you're an entrepreneur to test it, to be here and to get out there and do those things."

That's precisely what Ben Davidson did. Davidson doesn't just work at Green Bean Cafe. He owns it.

"When this opportunity presented itself we just started dreaming and thinking about what it could look like and making a business plan and drawing out the space and we got excited," Davidson said.

Davidson said Windsor's low rent, low cost of living and lower housing prices, some of the lowest in the country, means young people can take bigger business risks.

Davidson moved to Windsor from northern Ontario at 16. He eventually fell in love with the city. But it took a while.

"To be honest my plan was, when we moved here, was that as soon as I'm done school or as soon as I get the chance, I'm out of here," the university grad said.

He's now confident more millennials will eventually stay.

"There's a momentum in the city right now. There are young people doing things in the city," he said from his bustling cafe. You're going to come and talk to other people in a couple of years and say, 'how is it that so many people are choosing to come to this city?'"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windso...aid-drain.html
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  #84  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2011, 8:36 PM
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^^^ It's not just Windsor that has a hard time attracting and keeping young people here. Small and medium sized cities throughout Canada and the US are always trying to find ways to keep their young from heading to the largest urban centres that they are attracted to for school and then work.
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  #85  
Old Posted Nov 24, 2011, 4:30 PM
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I can't remember a time in the city's history when so many big projects were announced for downtown!


Downtown the big winner in Star, University deal

Move added ‘catalyst for growth’

By Dave Hall
The Windsor Star
Nov. 24, 2011

Calling it a decision that will transform the University of Windsor and the city’s downtown core, school president Alan Wildeman said Wednesday the U of W plans to move into The Windsor Star building and the former armouries. The Star in turn will move into the Palace Cinemas building at the corner of Ouellette and University avenues.

“The purchase of The Windsor Star property is the first step in the university’s plan to transform the landscape of our campus to more firmly anchor our commitment to being a student-centred university,” said Wildeman. He said the university will move its school of social work and the Centre for Executive and Professional Development into the newspaper building at Ferry and Pitt streets. In addition, the school’s music, visual arts and film production programs will be moved into the former armouries on University Avenue East. Wildeman said the development ball “is now in The Star’s court. When they’re ready to vacate their property, we can start renovating it for our use.”

David Mady of Mady Development Corp., which owns the Palace complex, said he still had some tenancy issues to deal with and once they’re sorted out, construction of The Star’s new premises should take eight months. “I can’t say right now when we would begin but obviously we’d like to start as soon as possible,” said Mady, whose father developed the theatre complex 25 years ago. “It’s exciting to be part of the redevelopment of a building my father built more than two decades ago.” Mady’s contract division will handle the $3-million renovation and retain ownership of the theatre building with The Star becoming a tenant.

The Star’s newsroom, advertising department, business office, reader sales department and information technology department will be housed in 25,000 square feet above the current two floors of retail. “It was extremely important to us to make a strong statement about staying downtown and I think this project will do that,” said Marty Beneteau, The Star’s publisher and editor-in-chief. “Along with everything else in the core, this has the potential to be an added catalyst for more growth.”
Beneteau said The Star has been hidden in plain view one block off Ouellette Avenue for many decades, but in relocating to a high-profile intersection “it will be exciting for all of us.

“We have a chance to create glass where there are now solid walls and that will make us more accessible to the general public,” said Beneteau. “There will be a greater opportunity to interact with the public as well as with the hundreds of students who will be moving into the core.”

Adding the university departments to a downtown core which also includes St. Clair College’s Centre for the Arts and its media program, a new aquatic centre, Caesars Windsor and a combined Art Gallery of Windsor and Windsor Public Library has the potential to revitalize the downtown core, said Mayor Eddie Francis. “The kind of traffic this will generate has the potential to sustain retail and residential development,” said Francis, “It’s been close to two years in the making and I’m very excited that the university has given it the green light.”

While admitting that parking could be a challenge with the addition of more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff to the core, Francis said: “I’d rather have a parking dilemma than no activity downtown at all.” The project was made possible when the city donated the armouries to the university and also contributed $10 million toward the development and the province contributed $15 million. Wildeman declined to disclose how much the university will pay for the Star building, saying it would be made public once the deal closes. “There are still some legal issues to clear up and we’re working through them,” said Wildeman. It’s expected that the university will also take over the former bus depot site, but Wildeman said that final details are still to be worked out. “We do see that as an opportunity to add to our capacity downtown,” said Wildeman. He said that architectural drawings for the university’s two new buildings would be released in the coming months.
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  #86  
Old Posted Nov 24, 2011, 10:47 PM
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Yes, these are exciting times we're seeing in Windsor. It,s a distraction to the facts that Windsor's population is still shrinking and our unemployment is still one of the highest in the country.

I'm glad to see downtown changing though, and for the better. The riverfront can be more or less left alone at this point, they've done soo much and it really is great it's about time they brought that focus back into the core to get that going.

Last edited by Symz; Nov 25, 2011 at 1:30 AM.
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  #87  
Old Posted Nov 25, 2011, 1:27 AM
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A satellite campus has really helped Brantford. It used to have the worst downtown in all of Ontario but there's been lots of redevelopment there in the past 5 years. The one in Windsor will be quite a bit smaller but I'm sensing a definite turning point here for Windsor.

Last edited by Blitz; Nov 28, 2011 at 6:27 AM.
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  #88  
Old Posted Nov 27, 2011, 4:13 PM
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lol, Eddie's always wearing that boy scout uniform

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  #89  
Old Posted Nov 27, 2011, 4:22 PM
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lol, Eddie's always wearing that boy scout uniform
Ya, Mike Graston always portrays Eddie Francis that way, it's hilarious.
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  #90  
Old Posted Nov 29, 2011, 6:39 PM
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What's there to talk about in Windsor today!?!

Well, it's very wet outside.
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  #91  
Old Posted Nov 29, 2011, 11:06 PM
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Well, I'm just very curious about what announcements the mayor said he has coming in the next few weeks concerning the downtown. Could they be something new, or are they related to all the announcments already made? I hate waiting dammit!
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  #92  
Old Posted Nov 29, 2011, 11:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by north 42 View Post
Well, I'm just very curious about what announcements the mayor said he has coming in the next few weeks concerning the downtown. Could they be something new, or are they related to all the announcments already made? I hate waiting dammit!
They're waiting for the museum feasibility study. They have that $3million dollars in the Chimzuk fund towards a community musem. I'm betting they're working on putting something together regarding that.

I also sense that Farhi's property will be involved, whether it be a museum or something else.
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  #93  
Old Posted Nov 30, 2011, 4:44 PM
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^^^ Farhi has been very quiet lately, so I hope he has something in the works for his properties. I wonder if he'll develop his properties himself, or sell to the city?
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  #94  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 5:15 PM
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Parking in downtown has become a hot button issue the last month or so with the potential construction of the Aquatic Centre.

http://windsorite.ca/2011/12/demand-...quatic-centre/



Quote:
With the construction of the future home of the Family Aquatic Complex in downtown Windsor, the loss of several hundred parking spaces is being anticipated by the City of Windsor.

The Aquatic Centre will displace both City workers and Windsor Police workers who park daily in lots on or near the site.

As of October 31st, 2012, the City of Windsor will take back ownership of a lot on Caron Street from St. Clair College, and City officials, in a report to Council, indicate that around 250 parkers will need to be accommodated elsewhere in the downtown core.

Officials recommend that a parking lot at the corner of Bruce and Chatham streets be dedicated to “hourly parkers” for the new facility.

The report stresses that several new ventures Downtown, including moves by the Windsor newspaper and the University of Windsor, will “further change the dynamics and demand for parking downtown”.

While demand for parking is expected to be more than the available supply in the area of the Family Aquatic Complex, City Traffic Operations Manager John Wolf — in a report to Council — concludes that “facilitating available parking options for all … at affordable rates, will become increasingly important”.
This is a good side effect to have! Like Eddie Francis said 'I'd rather have a parking problem than a problem with vacant lots in the downtown'.
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  #95  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 5:18 PM
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In light of the recent flooding, and flooding that this region has seen in the past few years, the city of Windsor has changed it's building policies slightly.



Quote:
Effective January 1st, 2012, the City of Windsor’s Building Department will require “backwater valves” — devices designed to stop sewer backups into homes — in all newly constructed single family homes, semi-detached homes and townhouses.

The desire to “reduce the impact of severe rainfall events and lessen the extent of any damage associated with these events” came after a major rainstorm in Windsor/Essex in June 2010. If you remember, that same storm formed a Tornado in the Leamington area and caused millions of dollars worth of damage.

The cost of installation for a Backwater Value is approximately $250. As of January 2012, “an application for a building permit involving a sewer drain where the drain is below the level of the adjoining street anywhere in the City of Windsor shall be required to install a Backwater Value on the building drain”.

For more information, call 311.
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  #96  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 5:20 PM
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Originally Posted by north 42 View Post
^^^ Farhi has been very quiet lately, so I hope he has something in the works for his properties. I wonder if he'll develop his properties himself, or sell to the city?
On that note. I stumbled upon a real estate website local to Windsor that also runs a blog. Here is a recent blog entry from a realtor I found interesting.

Quote:
Deal of the Week and Windsor Ontario Economic News Updates
November 28th, 2011

Dear Clients,

The University of Windsor has committed their final (and largest) group of students to the down town core long term.

This is huge, HUGE news for the downtown core. You now have firm commitments from both the University of Windsor and St. Clair College to shift over 2,200 students at the minimum into the downtown core. Man I can’t explain how huge this is for Windsor’s core. It ties into a master plan which has been carefully crafted by the uber skilled mayor and his ultra-capable city council (when can we EVER say that about municipal government). I’ll try to summarize for the interested clients:

1000+ St. Clair College students with a brand new MediaPlex building for journalism and broadcasting (first of its kind in Canada), and full possession of our old convention centre for hotelier, culinary arts and hospitality programs.
1200+ University of Windsor students predominantly in communications, social work and the arts, filling up four larger buildings in the core.
From the University moving downtown, the Windsor Star newspaper now takes on modern digs in the heart of downtown with an amazing renovation plan.
4 incubation hubs (also known as business accelerators) creating hundreds of new jobs (JUST TO START – the whole idea is these companies grow and move out within 2-3 years).
Incidentally Ontariorci.com member Rhys Trenhaile is one of the co-owners of the film and television accelerator downtown, 47 jobs projected within the first 3 years of operation.
4 new bank buildings in the last 4 years (a wise old investor once told me start buying when banks are building – he was spot on here).
A $400 million casino expansion including a massive concert hall and the 2nd largest convention centre in Ontario (Jay Leno did New Years Eve there last year for example. Yes Torontonians, in Windsor.).
You have gone from a single festival and a single fireworks night in the downtown core to literally multiple festivals each weekend during the warm season, including massive draws such as the International Red Bull Air Racing in recent years.
A $6 million auditorium on the waterfront able to house 15,000 people for a concert (I was there for Benny Bennassi if that means anything to you, 2nd largest DJ in the world spinning tunes, was UNREAL).
A $54 million community centre complete with Olympic sized pool, wave pool and water slides – a real draw not just for Windsor but for South Western Ontarian and American families as well.
The Main Library branch moves into the Art Gallery which urban planning studies the world over have shown this is sheer brilliance in enhancing cultural services to the community.
A massive call centre with 1,000+ jobs moves from two spots in town into the downtown core into the old library building. There was a good chance they were leaving Windsor, and the city government saved the day in spectacular fashion, where they’re now talking about expansion of the centre rather than leaving the city altogether.
This list above – and I’m sure I’m missing some things of significance – is all just in the last 4 years. That’s it. 1400 days.

Up next for the downtown core:

The largest investor south of Toronto has bought up huge swaths of the western side of the downtown core in order to build condo towers. Now that this University news is a done deal, he’ll be building soon I’m certain.
The Mayor is focusing on setting up a real museum as a serious draw. The reality is – and any historian will tell you this – no spot in Ontario has a richer history than Windsor. This isn’t me shaking the pom-poms, it’s a fact. It’s the oldest settlement west of Quebec City, War of 1812, end of the Underground Railroad, PROHIBITION (my favourite – man what an amazing story), the birth of mass production, the birth of the automobile, the birth of Electronic Music, the last of the “Company Towns” (Olde Walkerville), etc. etc. – many cities 10 times our size don’t have our stories to tell.
Who knows. I put this in half jokingly. This city is changing so quickly in a positive, diversified direction that I can only imagine what’s up next. Take no prisoners. Next.
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  #97  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 5:45 PM
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Hehe, funny cartoon from the paper the day after the city found out the aquatic centre bids were a bit too expensive.

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  #98  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 7:34 PM
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Old sign from 1954 given a new life!

http://windsorite.ca/2011/12/yorktow...tion-unveiled/

Quote:
South Windsor’s Yorktown Square, former home of N&D and current home of businesses including Home Hardware, Liquidation World, Brightside Tanning, Deb’s Diner and others has unveiled major restoration work on their heritage-listed sign.

The sign had fallen into disrepair over the years since it was erected in 1954, and underwent a restoration to fix lighting and paint.

Yorktown Square invites the public to celebrate the unveiling of the sign — and illumination — on Saturday night, December 10th, from 5:30pm – 7:30pm.







Here's what it looked like before the restoration
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  #99  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 9:35 PM
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I love how that sign is now on the heritage list so they can never tear it down! So rare to see that these days.

Reading that blog, I agree that this area has some of the best history in the province but we've never had a proper place to display it. A museum near the art gallery would be great. Moving the science centre there would be good too.

Another thing I've noticed is that Eddie seems to always have the full support of city council in all of his wheelings and dealings. Halberstadt can be a bit of a wild card but he always has been, it's part of his schtick I think.
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  #100  
Old Posted Dec 7, 2011, 10:57 PM
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Ya the sign is great. It's too bad the old Eastown N&D sign couldn't be saved somehow.
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