Building to meet demand
Construction season will see new apartments spring up in Grand Falls-Windsor
The Town of Grand Falls-Windsor says the former Grand Falls Academy Elementary School was a safety hazard and an eyesore when it took ownership, and it was time for it to go.
The town was the successful bidder in a tax sale on Nov. 4, 2010, and took over the school property with the full intention of demolishing the property and remediating the site.
In the summer of 2012, an environmental cleanup, mostly inside the building, took place.
After extra work was stumbled upon, and reports had to be done on suspect material, a stop-work order was issued. The project was stalled further when the contractor who was taking down the building had to work on another site.
The contractor began to tear down the building on Jan. 7, 2012.
In an April 2012 interview, Grand Falls-Windsor Mayor Al Hawkins said it was too early to predict the future of the property, but the idea of a large residential development was being kicked around. Now, that idea is becoming a reality. Last fall, Joe Zhouri was the lowest bidder out of three developers bidding on the property as the site of an apartment building.
“He was going to put one big building there,” said Bruce Moores, chair of the town’s public works and planning committee.
“He changed his mind — he is putting three, four-unit apartments there. Two apartments downstairs, and two upstairs.”
The change Zhouri was suggested was discussed by the public works and planning committee, and approved under one condition.
“All we’re asking is that he meet with Mary (Wong, the town planner),” Moores said, since the town wants the buildings to be esthetically pleasing.
Wong has since spoken to Zhouri about design possibilities.
“We would like to see some really fancy stuff going on there,” Moores said. “They are going to make it fancy and good-looking.”
This is Phase 1 of the project, Moores said, which they are hoping to expand on.
“We’re still trying to acquire land ( from Nova Central School District) and some Crown land there, and we are going to make a whole subdivision cul-de-sac right in there,” he said.
“There is going to be another one or two phases to the project once we get some land established.”
Occupancy rates in Grand Falls-Windsor show the demand is there for apartment buildings, Moores said.
Zhouri’s intent, he said, is to have seniors and younger people in the apartments, as it is not far from the College of the North Atlantic campus.
“The site is completely remediated,” Moores said. “Joe is ready to go, as a matter of fact, he’s going to start as soon as weather allows. He wants this started in early spring.”
••• (Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in The Advertiser on March 11, 2013.)
“We would like to see some really fancy stuff going on there. They are going to make it fancy and good-looking.” Bruce Moores, chairman of the public works and planning committee, Grand Falls-Windsor