Sinking the Titanic
Proprietary concerns kept Welland proposal confidential in 2016
Welland may have gotten far more than it bargained for when the city issued a request for waterfront development ideas two years ago.
A few city councillors enthusiastically embraced a plan to build a nearly full-scale replica of the Titanic in Welland’s recreational canal; however, the project proposed by developer David van Velzen from DV3 Imagineering was ultimately shelved — never to be brought forward for consideration in a public forum.
Because it remains an in-camera item for the city, councillors provided few details on the $70million tourist attraction that would have employed about 250 people, prposed in early 2016 in response to a request for expressions of interest from developers.
“There were several barriers for us here, some of them are in-camera which I cannot disclose,” said Welland Mayor Frank Campion.
Campion said environmental concerns associated with building the Titanic replica was one sticking point for the city — although the project’s designer, Lex Parker, said that issue would have been addressed by adding underwater skirting around the project site during its construction.
But the massive size of the proposed structure was another concern for the city.
In addition to taking up a large portion of the waterway and possibly interfering with passive recreational uses such as kayaking, Campion said “it’s just sort of out of place, I think, from a visual perspective.”
“I think it’s a fantastic idea and a really cool concept, but I and a lot of us felt it really just did not fit in that particular location. It would just be too overpowering,” he said. “It would have had a huge dramatic impact on the downtown — some positive, and some maybe not so positive … I think we’re not ready for that magnitude.”
Campion said proprietary concerns expressed by the developers prevented city hall from making the projects public.
“We really couldn’t bring the entire thing into the open so people could see and comment on it, because it was very proprietary at the time. We could only provide a very vague description of what it was all about,” he said.
Despite the loss of investment and impact the attraction could have had on Welland, Campion said it would be more suited to Niagara Falls, where van Velzen now plans to build it.
“Perhaps that’s the best place for it,” Campion said.
“I think it’s a great idea, and I wish them all well. We just couldn’t make it work for us here. It didn’t fit in.”
Ward 6 Coun. Bonnie Fokkens agreed.
“It was a little scary, maybe,” she said. “Personally, I think if it was a slightly smaller scale it might have been viable. It was definitely interesting ... I think we were looking for more options other than just one, and that’s all we got.”
But Ward 3 Coun. John Mastroianni said the benefits of having supported a development of that scope would have outweighed the negatives.
“It was good for the city. We keep knocking our heads against the wall to try to find some way to revive the downtown, so if someone comes to the city with a good idea for downtown I’m in favour of it,” Mastroianni said.
While he said there are very few downtown residents who would have been negatively impacted by the project, he said the development would have been enthusiastically welcomed by downtown business owners because of the thousands of tourists it could have potentially brought to the area, filling restaurants and shops with customers.
Other councillors, he said, “have to get over it that there’s not going to be an Atlas Steels or GM hiring 2,000 people in Welland again, that’s just not going to happen.”
A smaller version of the Titanic project is moving forward in Niagara Falls, and Ward 2 Coun. David McLeod said it might be better suited to the tourismdriven city.
“I’m just happy it’s in the Niagara Region.”
Meanwhile, Campion said the city hasn’t given up on developing its waterfront.
“We haven’t abandoned the abandoned canal,” Campion said. “That’s still an ongoing project.”
He hopes to apply lessons learned from the first request for expressions of interest to develop plans with a more specific focus.
“We’re taking a much more focused approach to canal development.”