Surge of building, municipal investments in 2019

Mayor Drew Dilkens has a list of 2019 accomplishments that is seven pages long.

“It is the most robust list that I have been able to refer to in my time as mayor,” he said. “The accomplishments are huge.”

Windsor tied for third in Canada for growth, as the population rose 2.5 per cent in 2019, which drove a spike in residential development that continues to flourish. There is the $35-million 180-unit three-building Eastside Horizons condo project on Banwell Road; the $250-million Farhi project at the former GM Trim Plant site on Lauzon Road, where 101 single-family homes and 432 condo-style units are planned, “the biggest investment for quite some time in the city’s history,” according to the mayor; the $43-million 147 unit apartment building at Wyandotte Street West and Crawford, the biggest residential project in the downtown core in decades; Peter Valente’s $7-million 32-unit luxury apartment building on Ouellette Avenue; and the city’s own $39-million 145-unit affordable housing project on Meadowbrook Lane.

The rate of residential building is basically double the normal rate. By the end of October, the city had issued permits for 638 units worth $152 million, compared to 310 worth $80 million at the same point in 2018.

Non-residential projects included the $11-million conversion of the 108-year-old Walker Power Building into a commercial showpiece at Devonshire Road/riverside Drive; German auto-parts firm Kauth opening its North American headquarters on land near the airport with plans to employ 300; $100 million worth of major renovations to downtown hotels; and a $4.5-million expansion by auto-parts firm TRW Canada on Hawthorne Drive, which will lead to 60 new jobs.

The city, meanwhile, embarked on numerous projects of its own. Windsor Public Library completed the $5.5-million conversion of a former firehall in Sandwich into its new John Muir branch, doubled the size of its Budimir branch in South Windsor and is about to move its central branch into a temporary location in the Paul Martin Building, which the city bought from the federal government for $10. The central branch’s former location has been bought by the Downtown Mission.

Transit Windsor built a $1.6-million terminal in the west end, proposed a massive overhaul of the transit system in its 2019 Transit Master Plan, and partnered with Leamington to run buses between St. Clair College and Leamington with stops in Essex and Kingsville.

In city parks, off-road cycling trails were opened up in Malden Park and Little River Corridor Park; 28 playgrounds were installed at a cost of $7.4 million; council approved a $5-million project to replace the old docks at Lakeview Marina; the first phase of improvements to the riverfront Festival Plaza were started; an agreement was reached with Essex Region Conservation Authority on a $2.5-million plan to mitigate shoreline erosion on Peche Island; and heated and accessible washrooms were built in Jackson Park.

Among the road and sewer projects was the nearly completed $8.9-million pedestrian underpass and signalled intersection on Dougall Avenue at the CN Rail overpass; Phase 2 of the $46-million Cabana Road expansion from Dougall to Howard Avenue; and the next phase in the Riverside Drive Vista project from Lauzon Road to Solidarity Tower.

The city also moved ahead with its Walkerville Districting Plan, holding the first workshop to devise a strategy to make the area a distinctive attraction. At Windsor Police, Pam Mizuno became the first woman chief in the force’s 152-year history, and 24 new officers were sworn in, fulfilling a Dilkens’ election promise, and $450,000 worth of surveillance cameras are being installed downtown.

City council approved $8 million in incentives under its Community Improvement Plans in downtown, Ford City, Sandwich and on potentially contaminated former industrial lands, intended to spur residential ($6 million) and non-residential ($2 million) projects.