Lively Wyandotte Street has plenty of potential
Turkish, Caribbean, Cambodian — an astounding array of restaurants, markets and stores line Wyandotte Town Centre.
There are enough barbershops to keep every man in Windsor smartly clipped.
And it’s bustling, even late at night.
“It’s incredible energy. It’s the most vibrant street in the city,” said Coun. Rino Bortolin, a board member of the Wyandotte Town Centre BIA. “My God, who gets a haircut at 11 o’clock at night?”
Holy Family Chaldean Catholic Church at the corner of Marentette Avenue, a grand 115-yearold building on Windsor’s heritage register, has almost 2,000 families. Its three-day festival in August draws 5,000 people.
Wyandotte is a key thoroughfare linking downtown with Windsor’s hippest neighbourhood, Walkerville. And with its smorgasbord of cultures, it’s the coolest street in the city.
But many facades are worn, and streetscaping is almost non-existent. There’s “a lot of room for improvement,” BIA vice-chairman Larry Horwitz conceded.
City council last year killed the BIA’S ambitious plan for a World Marketplace featuring a canopy of colourful banners, town square, small parks, community gardens, public art and alleys converted to walkways.
Yet Wyandotte Street could be getting another chance.
Two burned-out buildings, one marked by squatters, bloodcaked hypodermic needles and trash, were finally demolished recently. A new four-storey building with 3,000 square feet of commercial space topped by 24 apartments is planned for the site of the former Le Chef restaurant.
It’s believed to be the first new building in the BIA in three decades. And it’s the kind of development Windsor needs — affordable rents that will put more people in the core.
You have to have confidence to be the first to redevelop. And Daniel Habib of Seiko Homes believes his property at 840 Wyandotte St. E. is a sound location, in the heart of the thriving Arab community, across from the busy church and close to downtown.
“There’s potential,” said Habib, who sometimes shops at the nearby Dijla and Alforat Market and eats at Windsor Palace and Al-sabeel restaurants. “It’s alive. No matter what, where there are people, there’s life.”
Then the Windsor Express, the city’s professional basketball team, unveiled its proposal to resurrect The Barn, the iconic and beloved arena that opened in 1925 at the corner of Mcdougall Avenue. Once the home of the team that became the Detroit Red Wings, now vacant but listed on the city’s heritage register, it would become the Windsor Express home court and a venue for everything from concerts to roller derby to pickleball plus restaurants and stores.
“I remember when the arena was open,” said Reny Hido, whose family owns Windsor Palace Restaurant. “We used to get a lot of business at night.”
A proposal by the YMCA to move to the adjacent Water World property has also been shortlisted by city council.
These developments could be catalysts. But it will take a lot more than that.
The city offers incentives to fix up facades on main streets like Wyandotte. Council approved a $22,500 grant for the facade of the 1921 Leatherdale Block at the corner of Moy Avenue this year. Development charges are also a fraction of those in the rest of the city.
But council is waiting for a report on a broader range of incentives like those offered downtown, which have sparked a wave of development.
The street also needs to “get cleaned up — everything,” said Habib. Streetscaping, landscaping, alleys, agreed Hido.
Bortolin compared Wyandotte to Ottawa Street, which has a longtime anchor in Freeds and essential services like banks. Wyandotte has neither.
He believes the answer lies in a long-term plan to build up the lower income neighbourhood around Wyandotte, including east of the casino, which has bedevilled the city for years. If the city can attract a cross section of population, including professionals with money, that’s more money that could be spent on Wyandotte.
The city shouldn’t wait for developers, he said. It should go after the development it wants, like it’s doing with the former Grace Hospital site. The city bought it, issued a request for expressions of interest and will choose a proposal.
“When we don’t get actively engaged, we just hope,” he said.
The city has set aside millions of dollars for “districting,” an exciting plan to highlight Windsor’s unique neighbourhoods.
It’s starting with Walkerville.
But Walkerville is already largely revitalized. With Wyandotte Town Centre primed for change but needing help, the city should consider starting there.
And, said Coun. Chris Holt, who represents most of Wyandotte Town Centre, the BIA needs a voice in its future.
“Nobody knows what is needed more than the people living and working in an area,” he said. “They know the challenges they are dealing with daily, the social and cultural makeup of their community, and how best to build on their successes and minimize/eliminate their weaknesses.”