Horwitz hopes for private sale of Pelissier parking lot
The head of a downtown business association says he hopes a private party will soon submit an offer to buy the Pelissier Street parking garage.
Larry Horwitz, chairman of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, on Wednesday said he has spoken with some private investors who are considering purchasing the parking structure and keeping retail space on the ground floor.
If nobody buys the municipally owned garage — which the City of Windsor has not listed for sale — then the eight under-used retail spaces will be converted to parking spaces, following council’s decision in November to turn the main floor into about 40 more spots at a cost of $500,000.
Horwitz suggested that if the city’s plan goes ahead, not only will three tenants be evicted, but that either the Art Alley behind the garage will be hurt by garage traffic or about $4 million in Pelissier streetscaping will be cut up to build new exits and entrances.
“Merchants will be up in arms if they cut up the streetscaping,” said Horwitz.
Nobody at the mayor’s office has heard about any potential offer to buy the Pelissier Street parking garage. Nor is it even clear if it would be for sale, since that’s a political decision council would have to make.
But Mayor Drew Dilkens said Horwitz is wrong about the planned conversion to parking hurting the look of the street. Dilkens said the change will actually enhance the area’s appearance.
“It won’t ruin anything,” Dilkens said. “That’s just Larry’s way to get more attention. The issue has been dealt with. We’re moving forward.”
John Wolf, Windsor’s manager of traffic and parking operations, said the city does not have final drawings for the parking garage transformation. But he said planners know generally speaking what will happen when construction begins, perhaps as early as late summer.
Since the current entrances and exits are connected directly to the second floor with ramps, Wolf said a new entrance will be built on the north end of the garage on Pelissier Street, while a new exit will be built on the south end, also on Pelissier Street.
Though council already made its decision — arguing that the place has long struggled to find retail tenants and that the garage was originally designed only for parking — Horwitz won’t let the issue die. He believes the plan will hurt the downtown. Horwitz has found Windsor Star articles from the 1980s, when some city councillors called the parking garage an “eyesore” and pushed for the addition of retail space when the structure was still privately owned.
He also has old architectural drawings that depict shops on the main floor of the garage, built in 1979 and owned by the city since 2003. He noted that while the higher floors have ceilings of eight or nine feet, the main floor has ceilings of 13 or 14 feet.
“It was designed to be retail,” Horwitz said.