Coco Group’s big box project to begin within months
Citizens environment group will continue efforts to block new mall
After eights years of legal battles, design and construction could start within months on a new big box centre next door to Ojibway park lands, a spokesman for the Coco Group said Tuesday.
“The exact timing is to be determined,” said Anthony Rossi, director of government relations for Coco Group. “We just got the decision yesterday, we are reviewing it now and then will bring our proposal forward.”
The big box project at the corner of Matchette Road and Sprucewood Avenue has been delayed since 2007 following city council’s approval. The citizens group Save Ojibway fought to legally stop the proposed 450,000-square-foot shopping centre over the potential environmental impact to nearby protected lands.
But an Ontario Municipal Board ruling released Monday dismissed the group’s appeal giving the Coco Group the right to proceed after site-plan approval from the city.
Early plans for the big box centre call for three or four major anchor tenants inside a commercial plaza that would include several smaller retail outlets.
An announcement on potential tenants of the shopping plaza remains contingent on further negotiations, Rossi said.
“You will know as soon as we are ready to release that information,” he said. “It will be a big box development.”
The shopping centre will be located across the street from the protected Ojibway Prairie Nature Reserve and Tallgrass Prairie. It will be next door to the Ojibway Nature Centre.
Save Ojibway wanted the vacant lands owned by Coco preserved and attached to the already protected lands, which include several species at risk.
Despite losing the OMB challenge, the group’s leader, Nancy Pancheshan, said efforts to stop the project will continue.
She said the next step is to pressure political leaders and government ministries to ensure the Ojibway lands remain protected.
“The developer and city might have called this a victory, but the reality is all of Windsor is losing,” Pancheshan said. “There are over 4,000 plant and species — 18 that are endangered that are still threatened.”
City council, Ontario’s Natural Resources Ministry and the Essex Region Conservation Authority can each do a lot more to help protect “this significant natural area,” she said.
“I don’t think anybody in the community wants to see Ojibway impacted by this,” Pancheshan said. “I feel incredibly saddened (by the ruling) for Ojibway and the species that call it home.”
But Coco will ensure the big box centre complies with the species at risk permit granted a year ago by Ontario’s Natural Resources Ministry, Rossi said.
“That’s as stringent as you will find,” he said. “The test is not only to preserve the species at risk, but enhance their environment.”
The Coco Group will hand over 10 acres to the city so it can be restored to its natural state as a buffer for the Ojibway Park, Rossi said.
Some local critics have said the big box project isn’t needed because of the high volume of vacant commercial space in Windsor.
“That was all addressed in our planning stages,” Rossi said. “Windsor is a growing and great community. We do a lot of work in Windsor and we are very confident in the products we are providing.”
The Coco Group owns the Ambassador Golf Course across the street from the planned shopping centre and Ambassador Estates, a major townhouse development on the property next to the golf course.
MPP Percy Hatfield (NDP— Windsor-Tecumseh) said he was unsure if anything could stop the project following the OMB ruling.
“The only thing I could see is if city council said it would buy the property from Coco,” he said. “Maybe there could be a land swap or sale and then take it from there.
“I think people are starting to open their eyes when it comes to the environment. Imagine what we could have there. If you include Ojibway Shores, you could have park land connected all the way to the river. But there is no 11th-hour (plan) to stop this unless the Coco Group decided not to proceed.”