WINDSOR | Construction - News and Development [Archive] - Page 6

upinottawa

Feb 28, 2007, 1:45 PM

Send DCX jobs here

Gord Henderson, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, February 27, 2007

It takes astonishing gall to give your embattled employer the one-finger salute while it contemplates borrowing money for a major capital investment that could safeguard your job for years to come.

We don't need your stinking jobs. So no deals. That's essentially what a majority of DaimlerChrysler workers at the Brampton assembly plant told their union and the company when they rejected minor contract concessions needed to secure a $700-million investment in their plant and here in Windsor.

This Friday will mark the 20th anniversary of Chrysler's acquisition of American Motors Corporation (AMC), which brought the Brampton workforce into the Pentastar family. But it's doubtful that warbling "Happy Birthday" and blowing out candles will be high on the agenda at a plant that might just have kissed its future goodbye.

"The company is absolutely pissed with us right now and I don't blame them," Ardis Snow, Local 1285 plant chairman, told The Star's Chris Vander Doelen. "The wheels are off this train. It's derailed."

It boggles the mind that workers making $34-an-hour would indulge in brinkmanship with the Chrysler Group, a company that has lost buckets of money and could soon be auctioned off at a fire sale to be conducted by its corporate masters in Stuttgart, Germany.

It says plenty about the red-hot economy in the Brampton area, the fastest growing part of the greater Toronto region, that workers are prepared to roll the dice on their jobs in refusing to surrender some free money, 40 minutes pay per day for time not worked, and about 40 janitorial jobs.

If this were Windsor, where jobs outside the Big Three are scarce and low-paying, and where economic survival could require moving to Alberta, any sane individual would think long and hard before rejecting concessions sought by a company on the brink of being disowned and kicked out the door by a wealthy but disenchanted parent.

BLINDING GROWTH

Maybe it's different in Brampton. Maybe the blinding growth, soaring real estate values and myriad help wanted signs have convinced Brampton's DaimlerChrysler workers that they can tell their employer to get stuffed because life will go on pretty much as usual after a plant closing.

I remember Brampton when it was an attractive town of 20,000 surrounded by postcard-pretty horse farms with white picket fences and Canada's finest agricultural land. Now it's an ugly but prosperous asphalt hell zone, with a population that almost doubled from 1986 to 2001 and is set to soar from the current 440,000 to 650,000 by 2030. It begs a couple of questions: If DaimlerChrysler were to leave Brampton, poster child for urban sprawl, would anybody notice? And for how long?

Perhaps Brampton has outgrown car assembly. Perhaps it's time for DaimlerChrysler and the senior governments to reconsider pouring the better part of a billion dollars into the Brampton facility.

Don't laugh, but it could make more sense to sell the company's valuable Brampton site -- which would trigger a bidding war and a huge company windfall -- and relocate to a corner of the province where the cost of living is relatively low, housing and labour are abundant and the company already owns land and has its headquarters.

In other words, bring car assembly home and make Windsor once again the heart and soul of Chrysler production in Canada. A ridiculous pipedream? That's what some critics would call it. They claim no car maker in their right mind would locate a new plant here, given Windsor's track record of union militancy.

That might be true. But Chrysler isn't Toyota. It knows the CAW intimately and has a long history of working with the union.

No high-ranking union official could say this, since they must maintain the facade of solidarity. But if Brampton workers don't want those jobs, and it's now apparent many are prepared to try another line of work, then the least Windsor could do is roll out the welcome mat.

It would be a blessing in disguise for Brampton, which is struggling with malignant growth, massive traffic problems and inadequate infrastructure, and a miracle for Windsor with its dearth of activity and brutal jobless rate. Brampton workers who follow their assembly jobs to Windsor, as some surely would, would make fat profits by selling their homes and condos and buying dirt-cheap border real estate.

Sure. It's a wild-eyed fantasy. Product of a feverish mind. But if it works for nearly everyone involved, what's not to like?

ghenderson@thestar.canwest.com

© The Windsor Star 2007

arnold

Feb 28, 2007, 8:34 PM

I remember Brampton when it was an attractive town of 20,000 surrounded by postcard-pretty horse farms with white picket fences and Canada's finest agricultural land. Now it's an ugly but prosperous asphalt hell zone, with a population that almost doubled from 1986 to 2001 and is set to soar from the current 440,000 to 650,000 by 2030. It begs a couple of questions: If DaimlerChrysler were to leave Brampton, poster child for urban sprawl, would anybody notice? And for how long?

hmmm... seems as though people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Blitz

Mar 1, 2007, 4:18 AM

upinottawa

Mar 1, 2007, 2:16 PM

Brampton is actually in a totally different league from London and Kitchener as well. This, of course, is not to say that Windsor, London or Kitchener does not have sprawl.

With respect to the Brampton Chrysler employees -- talking about biting the hand that feeds them. If this deal was offered today in Windsor, I think the workers would be excited to accept it.

I agree with Gord. Bring the jobs home to Windsor.

That being said, if anyone out there is from Windsor-Essex and in high school, don't put all your eggs in the auto industry basket!

arnold

Mar 2, 2007, 1:56 AM

Arnold....you can't be comparing Windsor to Brampton??? You can't even compare Windsor to London or Kitchener in terms of hideous sprawl. They're all in completely different leagues than us (for now, anyway).

well, my argument would be that windsor is following the same guide book that made brampton the sprawling mess that it is today.
i'd be willing to bet that if windsor was approaching a half million population, then it would look a lot more like brampton than you would hope. just with a big river running through it...

arnold

Mar 3, 2007, 9:23 AM

here are two more windsor pictures that i found burried in my other files. these are from early january and taken from the roof of cobo.

just a couple of ordinary skyline shots, although i have to say that i was really suprised at the size of that new condo on riverside drive... its going to have a dramatic effect on that part of town.

http://img1.putfile.com/thumb/3/6104233780.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4896189)
http://img1.putfile.com/thumb/3/6104233823.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4896190)

ldoto

Mar 3, 2007, 4:32 PM

UPDATE!

All I know is Farhi said that he had big plans for this site do to the historic library. In my opinion one day we will see a Grand tower!:banana:

btw.
I was on Farhi's website and I found this pretty interesting. It is a Video about the land and the properties that he owns. It also talked about his heart and dedication to the city of London, Windsor. It was shown on Canada Now CBC News.

http://www.fhc.ca/default2.asp

fastcarsfreedom

Mar 3, 2007, 5:36 PM

arnold--the 2nd Casino hotel tower will make a big difference in that skyline view from Cobo.

westerntragedy

Mar 3, 2007, 10:17 PM

arnold--the 2nd Casino hotel tower will make a big difference in that skyline view from Cobo.
yeah as it hides behind that brown apartment building :haha:

well, that's not really true, it will be a lot taller; but the apartment building sure does ruin at least a few other photo angles (I especially like how the official renderings omit the building mostly, leaving just an outline)

arnold

Mar 5, 2007, 7:42 PM

i don't mind the fact that part of the casino will be hidden. the layering will make it less monolithic looking in my opinion.

fastcars- i totally agree. the added height of the casino will really go a long way to balance the downtown skyline. i think that it will be quite a nice addition.

fastcarsfreedom

Mar 7, 2007, 1:43 PM

Not sure if anyone noticed--but the first I-beam connecting the expansion property to the existing Casino was installed yesterday--it's at a diagonal spanning McDougall Street north of Chatham. If there is any doubt that McDougall will be closing permanently, there is a support column for this beam smack dab in the center of the "street".

FALLSVIEW

Mar 7, 2007, 2:23 PM

Somebody really needs to break out the camera a little more often, I would love to see a visual of this expansion a little more.

As far as the auto industry goes, almost 85% of the people I know are directly associated with the industry in one way or another...or should I say in one factory or another, and it is up and down all the time. Mostly down! Overtime has pretty much diminished throughout the entire subsidiary factories including my Sister's, who is having a hard time now making ends meet. With that said Windsor still has a stronger economy than most other Ontario locations, and with the new expansion of the Casino it should be able to ride the proverbial tourist wave for a few more years to come.

westerntragedy

Mar 10, 2007, 5:47 AM

You want some freeeeeeeeeeaaakin' skybridge pictures?? I got your skybridge pictures right here! :D

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j255/westerntragedy/wv070310a.jpg
I took some photos from this same vantage point not a week and a half ago and they hadn't started the skybridge yet, but wow, they move fast..

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j255/westerntragedy/wv070310b.jpg
The skybridge girders are attached to the addition....

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j255/westerntragedy/wv070310c.jpg
..but not yet to the existing Casino. It looks like the skybridge will connect to the existing Casino's first floor gaming level and traffic flow off the bridge will be directed down stairs or an escalator.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j255/westerntragedy/wv070310d.jpg
The Hotel portion is really progressing, almost Portofino style with a floor a week. Was such a nice day today, cujo8400 from this forum and I took a walk around the entire addition site. Seemed to be the middle of a shift change or something, there wasn't a single worker on-site.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j255/westerntragedy/wv070310e.jpg
Insulation (padding?) and white siding is going up on the side which faces the river.

FALLSVIEW

Mar 10, 2007, 1:24 PM

Sweet! Thank's for the freakin pictures Western they look freakin awesome!

fastcarsfreedom

Mar 10, 2007, 5:14 PM

westerntragedy - the skybridge will be full-width, overtop of McDougall all the way down the block to Pitt. There will then be a corridor along the side of the second floor of the exisiting building which will open onto the second floor of the exisiting casino--right at the "round" section at Riverside and McDougall. In addition to this, there will be a set of escalators going down to the first floor, near where the exisiting Chatham/McDougall entranceway is.

cujo8400

Mar 10, 2007, 8:24 PM

It definitely was a beautiful day for pictures Western. I think we need to hit up the 22nd floor again and take some shots from the top down. It would be pretty cool to see what the hotel looks like now as it rises from the ground.

arnold

Mar 13, 2007, 3:39 PM

hey, did anyone here catch the "colbert report" last night (march 12)?

during his rather famous "the word" segment, which was on the development of third world nations and the US's declining competiveness, he was saying something about 'the worst place on earth', and lo and behold... poor old 'windsor, ontario' popped up in the dialogue box on the right hand side of the screen.

that's a pretty high profile dig... even if it is all tongue-in-cheek.

but it made me wonder how a mid-sized canadian city like windsor would even come to the attention of the producers and writers of a show like that. and if this really is how people see the town.

looks like the PR people at windsor tourism are really going to have to step up their efforts...

softee

Mar 14, 2007, 5:27 AM

^ They must have some Canadian writers on staff.

CharlesMunroe

Mar 14, 2007, 2:28 PM

I think Samantha Bee is from Toronto but he's been taking cracks at OHL cities all season. I saw him making jokes about London and Kitchener earlier this winter.

Btw, March 20 is "Stephen Colbert Day" in Oshawa complete with Don Cherry hosting a "Grin N Bear It" festival. :koko:

Blitz

Mar 14, 2007, 9:46 PM

Census results are in and Windsor grew by 7,000 people over the past 5 years. Population is 216,000. If Windsor is so bad like Colbert claims, it wouldn't be growing. People are so ignorant.

Janbe

Mar 26, 2007, 12:59 AM

Hi everyone. How is the new Windsor Sports and Entertainment Centre coming along? Has work started? Thanks.

yupislyr

Mar 26, 2007, 1:44 PM

I haven't been by there at all lately but AM800 just posted this update on their website:

EXCAVATION WORK BEGINS 2007-03-26 06:56:08

Work begins today on Windsor's new east-end arena complex. The first few weeks will involve mainly excavation work. Completion is slated for the fall of 2008

upinottawa

Mar 26, 2007, 1:50 PM

Our 2008 skyline
Eight storeys down, 19 to go for $400-million casino expansion

Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star
Published: Sunday, March 25, 2007

They’re changing Windsor’s skyline one floor at a time.

Now that a few “milestone” jobs are done in the Casino Windsor expansion, including the frame of a sprawling entertainment complex, workers are adding a floor a week to the hotel tower that will become Windsor’s tallest building.

Each floor is about 1,300 square metres, almost the size of an NBA basketball court. They’re eight storeys up with 19 to go.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, put one of those down in concrete every week,” said project director Doug Singbush of Eastern Construction, the company hired to expand Casino Windsor. “Floor and walls, floor and walls.

That’s the cycle to the top. It is an intense pace. Everything goes in a cycle and you can’t miss any phase of the cycle.”

The $400-million casino expansion project began in 2005 with excavation for three levels of underground parking, and construction of exterior walls and supports for the high-rise hotel.

The completion date is still set for early 2008. Despite rumours to the contrary, Ontario Lottery and Gaming spokeswoman Teresa Roncon said the project is on schedule and on budget.

“Nothing has changed,” she said.

That means there will still be a new 400-room hotel tower, 5,000-seat entertainment centre, 100,000 square feet of convention space, new restaurants and retail space and a six-bay bus loading area with waiting lounges.

There will also be a 30,000-square- foot sky bridge linking the expansion to the existing casino, with hotel registration and a 120-seat restaurant.
That existing casino is also undergoing renovation. A two-level entrance space in the rotunda area has replaced the Atrium waterfall and includes a welcoming bar below and entertainment lounge above.

The project will generate 7,000 construction jobs, with about 400 workers on site every day, and 400 new jobs in the facility when it’s complete.

About 42 per cent of the project’s $400-million budget has been spent, with $105 million so far going to local vendors, according to a fact sheet released by the casino. The City of Windsor has received $815,000 in permit fees.

As of Friday, Singbush said workers had poured 32,000 cubic metres of concrete. By the time they’re finished, they will have erected 4,500 metric tonnes of steel.

With all that work, the casino won’t have any more slot machines than it did before. The gaming areas were renovated and reorganized, Roncon said, but not expanded.

She said the casino is still targeting gamblers, but wants them to be impressed by more than slot machines and poker tables.

“It’s about the entire experience,” said Roncon.

The casino has already given the public a taste of what the experience will include, along with news it will be renamed Caesars Windsor when the “Las Vegas-style” complex is fully opened.

In December, it unveiled the 9,454-square-foot two-level rotunda topped by a six-storey dome. It has marble columns, balconies with archways, winged statues holding trumpets and gold wreaths. It also includes a night club with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river.

Work has also started on some less glamorous projects, such as the new Energy Centre. Part of University Street is closed for cranes to lift steel onto the site.

The Energy Centre, to be contained in the existing parking garage, will provide thermal energy for the expansion. The centre will also have electrical generation capacity to provide green energy, 30 per cent of which will be fed back into the electrical grid, according to the fact sheet.

OLG and the City of Windsor have also commissioned a traffic study focusing on flow around the casino, tunnel and downtown areas. An environmental assessment is also underway to permanently close the part of McDougall Street that bisects casino property. Roncon said results are expected in a few weeks.

In the meantime, she said the steel superstructure forming the six-storey Podium, which will house the theatre, ballrooms and convention space, is complete.

Singbush said the siding — metal liner and white panels — was going up Friday. Major work on the guts of the Podium, including the electrical and duct systems, was well underway, he said.

So was work on the span linking the old and new facilities.
“These are big milestones,” said Singbush. “This is a critical finishing phase for us.”

Roncon said another big milestone will come around the beginning of August, when they set the top of the hotel tower in place with massive cranes.
“That’s always one of the big photo ops,” she said.

At 104 metres tall, about the height of three basketball courts stood on end, the hotel tower will be Windsor’s highest building.

The only thing that might slow work down, said Singbush, is the wind. The far-reaching cranes have high-tech instruments that automatically shut the machines down when they sense wind.

“Weather is a problem,” he said.

They make up for it by labouring all hours of the day. Work on that tower usually starts at 5 a.m. and doesn’t stop until late into the night.

“Long days of split shifts allow us to jam everybody on the floor and still get it done,” said Singbush.

twilhelm@thestar.canwest.com
or 519-255-5777 ext. 642

upinottawa

Mar 27, 2007, 3:14 PM

Positive news for the city....

500 jobs coming to core
Sutherland Global to open second business services centre at 500 Ouellette Ave.

Dave Hall, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2007

A U.S.-based information technology company with business service centres across North America, including one on College Avenue, is expected to open a second Windsor location on Ouellette Avenue within 30 days.

Ashok Jain, chief operating officer of Sutherland Global Services, said the new centre would be located at 500 Ouellette Ave. and handle customer-service calls for four Fortune 100 companies, including three in the technology sector and one in telecommunications.

Citing client confidentiality, Jain declined to name the companies but said "all are among the leaders in their particular field."

Sutherland has never formally identified its current Windsor client but it's known to be computer giant Hewlett-Packard.

It's expected that as many as 500 employees would be hired within the next two to three months, occupying three floors of the building. A skeleton staff is on site preparing the floors for full occupancy.

BEEN OVERWHELMED

Jain said Sutherland has been "overwhelmed not only by the response from our current customer to the quality of the original processing centre but also by the quality of Windsor's skilled workforce.

"We have found that there's a great number of skilled programmers and technology workers in the Windsor area, many of whom worked in the auto industry, and we have been overwhelmed by their level of expertise," said Jain.

Jain said that Sutherland's centres provide a variety of business services, tailored by geography to the skill levels of the local workforce.

A French-language service is expected to be added at the downtown Windsor site within a few months.

The new business processing centre, rumours of which were first reported in The Star six weeks ago, will eventually bring Sutherland's Windsor workforce to more than 1,500 employees.

The building housing the centre is now owned by Toronto-based Fercan Developments Inc., which recently acquired an adjacent parking garage on Wyandotte Street East for $3.65 million.

Combined with St. Clair College's Cleary campus, it's expected to boost downtown foot traffic and have a significant impact in the city core.

The company announced plans to hire 1,000 employees for a Hewlett Packard customer-service centre on College Avenue in early November and expects to have all in place within 60 to 90 days.

UP TO $15 AN HOUR

Drawing employees from such sources as Ontario Works and the Unemployed Help Centre as well as Windsor's technology workforce, Sutherland is paying between $9 and $11 for technical support positions and between $12 and $15 for other positions.

In addition to Windsor, the company also operates 20 business centres, including two in Sault Ste. Marie and another in Vernon, B.C.

Its clients include such Fortune 500 giants as Xerox and Amazon.com.

© The Windsor Star 2007

arnold

Mar 27, 2007, 6:54 PM

500 ouellette?... which building is that again?

definatly some great news for the core.

upinottawa

Mar 27, 2007, 7:03 PM

Isn't 500 Ouellette the nice one...? I believe it backs on to the Tunnel Complex.

Happy Habib

Mar 27, 2007, 7:34 PM

10 double duplexes planned for former Grace site
Dave Hall, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Demolition of the former Grace Hospital and construction of 10 double-duplexes on a portion of the site could both start as early as mid-summer, said representatives of the contracting company planning the project which may eventually include 30,000 square feet of commercial space.

Lou Vozza, owner of L.V. Concorde Contracting, said his company’s crews are in the building carrying out an asbestos abatement program and once that’s complete, “we’ll be applying for a demolition permit and hope to start bringing it down by June.”

Construction of the commercial component could start by next year, said Vozza who added that he’s already had interest from potential tenants but declined to name them.

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Font: ****On the residential portion of the project, Concorde’s Doug Hemstreet said the proposal will go before the city’s committee of adjustment next month and then must go through the site plan control process.
“If all goes well, we could start construction by summer and finish by next spring,” said Hemstreet.

The residential units will be constructed on the former hospital’s parking lot.

Coun. Ron Jones, who represents Ward 2 in which the proposed development lies, said “we’ve been talking about attracting more people into the core but this plan appears somewhat different than earlier plans I was made aware of and I’m anxious to see them.”

Jones also said the addition of a No Frills grocery store at Crawford and Wyandotte Street West and a new Tim Hortons planned for the neighbourhood means “traffic will be an issue I’m sure.

“But you can’t have increased residential and commercial development without traffic,” said Jones.

Plans filed with the City of Windsor, which still need committee of adjustment approval, call for building five double-duplexes on the existing parking lot facing Crawford Avenue and another five facing Oak Avenue.

Each rental unit would be about 900 square feet and no prices have been determined.

Vozza was unable to put a value on the development but said it would be in the “tens of millions by the time it’s complete.

“It’s taken a long time to put something together but it’s been a matter of waiting for the pieces to fall into place,” said Vozza.

Hemstreet said the developers hope to allay concerns about building residential properties on the site by “creating a landscaped buffer zone to separate one part of the property from the other.”

Jones said “I’m confident the neighbours will have an opinion on this project and we will have to be really vigilant to ensure it’s what will best suit the neighbourhood.”

The plans for commercial development spanning the block between Oak and Crawford along University include one 20,180-square foot space, another with 2,370 square feet and five smaller spaces each encompassing 1,500 square feet.

Vozza and business partner Tom Kaschalk bought the former hospital site for $800,000 in 2004 from the Salvation Army’s national headquarters.
In 2006, the pair listed it for sale for $2.5 million but later took it off the market.

dhall@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777, ext. 408

arnold

Mar 28, 2007, 12:48 AM

The plans for commercial development spanning the block between Oak and Crawford along University include one 20,180-square foot space, another with 2,370 square feet and five smaller spaces each encompassing 1,500 square feet.

... so, a strip mall. i'm not a big fan of those, but i guess that part of the city really needs something to fill the void.

lots of development news for the city lately. that's pretty good news.

Blitz

Mar 28, 2007, 1:56 AM

Hopefully those duplexes don't look too suburban. But frankly, any type of development in that part of town would be welcome right about now.

Yeah, the 500 Ouellette building is the "nice" one.

arnold

Mar 28, 2007, 7:07 PM

Hopefully those duplexes don't look too suburban. But frankly, any type of development in that part of town would be welcome right about now.

yeikes... that sounds like detroit talk!

and when you say that 500 ouellette ave is the 'nice' one, do you mean the all stucco beast with the bookstore on the ground floor?

either way, 500 people spilling out into the street looking for lunch everyday will definatley have an impact on the downtown scene, which is good, because it looks like it could use some perking up. when i was in town a few months back, i had a hell of a time finding a good place to sit down and grab some lunch. most places were either closed or kind of shady looking... i settled for chinoso's (sp?) which was packed with buisness types.

Blitz

Mar 28, 2007, 7:29 PM

Yeah, 500 is the stuccoized one - which I know you hate - but it beats the hell out of many other buildings downtown.

Sounds like Project Ice Track is pretty much dead --- take that Tecumseh!

upinottawa

Mar 28, 2007, 8:17 PM

The IceTrack article from today's Star. For the record, I have nothing against Tecumseh's plan to build a decent arena. However, I do have a problem with the Mayor's plan to lure the slots and raceway (and the tax revenue it provided the City of Windsor) away from the central city in order to fund the building of a fancy new arena.

That being said, the AHL franchise did not appear to be well thought out (especially since the plan was to rely on substantial numbers of American hockey fans to attend the games).

Arena deal faces critical deadline
Gary Rennie, Windsor Star

Published: Wednesday, March 28, 2007

TECUMSEH - With a major deadline looming Saturday, the $55-million Project Ice Track deal with Tecumseh could collapse.

After a three-hour closed meeting Tuesday, Mayor Gary McNamara emerged to say the deadline hadn't been extended, but talks with the Ice Track owners were continuing.

"That's all I'm going to say at this juncture," McNamara said.

Project Ice Track is supposed to buy 135 acres of land now owned by the town on Manning Road, north of Highway 401, for about $2 million.

The money would go to a group of previous owners to settle their outstanding appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board over the price paid by the town when it expropriated about 300 acres of farmland and a large woodlot from them in 2002.

Ed Chauvin, one of the owners, said the town is still talking to Project Ice Track.

A short delay in finalizing the deal isn't a big concern to Chauvin.

But if there's going to be a significant delay, Chauvin said his group will consider going back to the OMB and settling the issue of what the land is worth.

If the board agrees with Chauvin's group, the town could be forced to pay the $2 million.

Mayors in neighbouring Lakeshore and Essex, who have been asked to participate in the project, are also wondering what's going on.

Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain, whose town got a pitch in mid-December about the project, said not much has been said since.

The town, which is interested in buying some ice time, was promised a firm timetable for the project would be unveiled early in 2007.

Bain said he had a casual conversation recently with McNamara about the project but not much had changed.

Essex Mayor Ron McDermott said he hasn't heard anything from the project's owners or Tecumseh in over a month.

His town could be making decisions of its own during the next few weeks about building a new arena to replace Essex Memorial Arena. Buying some ice time in the Ice Track project was an option council wanted to explore, McDermott said.

Official plan changes and zoning amendments are needed for the Tecumseh lands as well as extension of sanitary sewage services and water.

Tecumseh was to borrow $15 million to contribute to the $55-million project, plus pay the estimated $5 million cost of providing water and sewer services.

The town will recoup its costs from its share of slots revenue, expected to be about $2.4 million annually, plus development charges and municipal taxes.

As originally announced, Ice Track was to include a replacement track and grandstand for Windsor Raceway, a 6,500-seat spectator arena, one or two community arenas, a Wayne Gretzky restaurant and museum, a hotel and possibly other commercial developments.

The original goal was to have the arena open in 2008, but efforts to lock in an anchor tenant, such as an AHL franchise, have so far failed.

Chris Kruba, lawyer for the Ice Track Project, couldn't be reached Tuesday.

grennie@thestar.canwest.com

© The Windsor Star 2007

yupislyr

Mar 28, 2007, 8:29 PM

am800 is now saying Ice Track is a done deal.

DEAL DONE SAYS ICE TRACK 2007-03-28 16:21:08

Project Ice Track says the deal is done for property it requires to build the arena raceway project along Manning Road north of the 401. The developer of the $55-million complex says it has purchased the 140 acres it requires from a numbered Ontario company. Spokesperson Chris Kruba says the deal closes at the end of next month and it avoids the Town of Tecumseh's expropriation of that property. The town responded that its agreement with Ice Track remains in place and conditions must be met before the transaction proceeds. The town says it will not comment further until April 1.

Who knows with these guys. Always differing stories.

upinottawa

Mar 29, 2007, 9:24 PM

Someone should tell John Tory that if he promises to move 1000 provincial jobs to Windsor he will win at least one seat in the Windsor area this October.

Jobs would boost city

Gord Henderson, Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007

During a recent media scrum at the Caboto Club, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed the idea of transferring provincial jobs from booming Toronto to depressed areas like Windsor as an outdated non-starter.

What he meant, of course, is that he doesn't need the grief of dealing with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and its pampered Toronto members who would recoil in collective horror at the prospect of being exiled to the back of the moon, i.e. Windsor, a place more remote, primitive and deprived of the essentials of modern life -- like a decent latte -- (at least in their big city jaundiced eyes) than even Scarborough.

We've been through this before. In the late 1980s, the David Peterson Liberal government announced a decentralization plan that involved shifting 5,100 jobs out of Toronto to troubled regions, including a transfer of the Ministry of Labour and 425 jobs to a proposed $45-million headquarters in downtown Windsor.

It was viewed as a lifesaver for Windsor's struggling core and when the NDP regime of Bob Rae unexpectedly seized power in 1990, it renewed the pledge to bring those well-paid white-collar jobs here.

But the provincial workers were having none of it. They sulked. They bitched. They howled. They railed. They whined. They whinged. They stamped their professionally manicured feet. The government, facing mass hysteria within its workforce, bent over backward to persuade its employees that moving to Windsor wouldn't be the end of the world.

It brought them down here, put them up in our best hotels, plied them with food and drink, ferried them around to upscale neighbourhoods like Southwood Lakes and introduced them to Windsor's most charming movers and shakers. None of it worked. You can't see far with your nose in the air and these folks saw nothing on their red-carpet "familiarization" tours that could make them consider parting with their beloved T.O.

In the spring of 1993, the NDP government, hugely unpopular with labour over its Rae Days and other cost-cutting policies, threw in the towel. Anxious to buy peace at any price with Toronto-dominated public sector unions, it cancelled the decentralization program, to the huge relief of its crybaby workforce, and jettisoned plans for the Windsor ministry headquarters that had already been tendered.

Fourteen years later, Tory Leader John Tory has revived the decentralization concept with his proposal to move some government operations out of high-cost downtown Toronto to struggling northern and rural regions.

As Tory explained in a speech to the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce: "If we made it possible for just one per cent of the government office space in Toronto to be relocated to Thunder Bay, it would mean 500 jobs for the north."

No question about it. The north needs all the help it can get to avoid becoming a ghost region. But that holds true as well for Windsor.

Coun. Ron Jones seized on the decentralization theme last week in an interview with The Star's Grace Macaluso. He wants the city to push the province, through our cabinet ministers, for a fair share of civil service jobs and will raise the issue at council Monday.

"We are in a desperate situation here in Windsor. We are in crisis. And that's even more reason why the provincial government should be looking at this," Jones told me Wednesday. "Stand up for us. And see this for the opportunity it is." That's his advice for Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello. He said the two ministers "have the influence and the ability" to deliver provincial jobs for Windsor.

Speaking of opportunities, local developer Lou Mikhail, who, with his brother Joe, was instrumental in luring Global Sutherland Inc. to Windsor, said a trong business case could be made for moving government jobs here.

Instead of spending $50 a square foot on downtown Toronto office space, Mikhail said, the province could lease all the space it needs here for $8 a square foot. And there's plenty available. He estimates the real downtown office vacancy rate is a staggering 50 per cent.

For government employees, if they could get past the nonsense they've read about Windsor, it would mean a real estate windfall, a relatively low cost of living and a five-minute commute instead of two hours of misery.

And if they still won't transfer? Too darn bad. Have fun job hunting. "If you don't want to come, people in Windsor will be lined up around the block to take your position," said Mikhail.

Indeed they would.

ghenderson@thestar.canwest.com

© The Windsor Star 2007

Blitz

Mar 29, 2007, 11:34 PM

Yeah, we all know it'll never happen though. Having Essex-Kent-Lambton break away to form our own province is another (unlikely) idea, though I wouldn't mind if it happened.

arnold

Mar 30, 2007, 12:15 AM

holy crap... do i ever hate gord henderson's way-over-the-top writing style! i mean, i can't believe that he gets paid good money for this hyperbole-ific junk! what a waste of column space...

but the idea of relocating some government jobs to the outlying regions is one that i believe deserves some study. it sure would help-out some of the more battered parts of the province... and isn't that a part of what the government is there to do?

westerntragedy

Mar 30, 2007, 4:02 AM

y2k_pony

Mar 31, 2007, 10:15 AM

you can now see the casino expansion tower from E.C row. that building is going up really quick. I counted 10 floors today.

upinottawa

Apr 2, 2007, 9:31 PM

Windsor Airport to get $2M in funding

The Windsor Star
Published: Monday, April 02, 2007

Windsor Airport will receive almost $2 million to help cover the cost of major capital improvements, Essex MP Jeff Watson announced Monday.

“Today’s announcement is another important step in ensuring the safety of our airports and the economic health of their surrounding communities,” said Watson. “This is tangible proof the Canada’s new government is prepared to invest in the safety and economic success of Ontario’s air freight and passenger services.”

The money will cover 75 per cent of the total estimated cost of $2,569,340 for the rehabilitation of taxiways F and G and replacement of the airfield lighting control panel.

The funding under the Airports Capital Assistance Project is part of more than $8 million doled out by the federal government Monday to fund eight new projects at municipal airports across Ontario.

upinottawa

Apr 2, 2007, 9:32 PM

interesting....

Epicure saved
Bridge, DRTP join forces to save popular food festival

Anne Jarvis, Windsor Star
Published: Monday, April 02, 2007

Festival Epicure has been resurrected after the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit River Tunnel Partnership announced today an unlikely partnership to sponsor the event.

Bridge president Dan Stamper and DRTP chief executive officer Mike Hurst presented a $35,000 cheque to festival executive producer Ken Brandes at the site of the event at the riverfront festival plaza.

“This is a godsend,” Brandes said after receiving the money.

Brandes said he is also negotiating with a third corporate sponsor from Windsor, but the festival will go ahead regardless, he said.

The festival, which will be July 6-8, showcases about two dozen local restaurants, wineries and a brewery and attracts about 30,000 people.

Brandes had announced March 23 that the event was cancelled because the main sponsor, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, had backed out.

The bridge and DRTP, rivals in the bid to build a third border crossing, are a strange duo, admitted Hurst, who initiated the partnership.

But he said, “It’s about stepping up to the plate, doing what needs to be done.”
The bridge and the DRTP will each contribute half the money.

y2k_pony

Apr 2, 2007, 10:53 PM

great news for the airport. It needs alot more than 2 million to upgrade the taxi ways but atleast this is a start.

Im glad that the epicure is back. I have always enjoyed going down there to listen to the great music and try some of the local dishes.

upinottawa

Apr 3, 2007, 1:36 PM

Another Windsor-Detroit sporting venture (i.e. Windsor piggybacks on another Detroit event). It is great to see that the profits (hopefully there will be profits) will benefit Belle Isle.

City to join Prix party
Detroit race promotional events to be held in Windsor

Craig Pearson, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Detroit will host Grand Prix car racing again and, for the first time, Windsor will help.

"It will be the first international event for motor racing here, tying in Detroit and Windsor as we've done recently with other big sporting events," Roger Penske, chairman of the Downtown Detroit Partnership which is promoting the Labour Day weekend race, said Monday. "You're seeing more and more of that because people today commute between the two markets."

The Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix will offer a first of another kind: an IndyCar and a LeMans race the same weekend in the same city. The LeMans series runs on the Saturday and the IndyCar series runs on the Sunday.

Net profits will benefit Belle Isle.

The details aren't worked out, but Penske hopes to hold promotional events in Windsor leading up to the race, as well as attract some Canadian corporate sponsorship.

"We want to bring some show cars and other things to Canada and try to have some events for people in the Windsor area," Penske said. "We're trying to promote tourism and interest and I think there are a lot of people in Canada, in Montreal and Toronto, who would come to Windsor, and then come over for the race on the weekend."

Mayor Eddie Francis said that after the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix was announced, bringing the race back for the first time since 2001, he called Penske to discuss a cross-border component. Francis worked with Penske last year when the former race car driver served as chairman of the Detroit Super Bowl XL, also billed as an international event, as was Wrestlemania 23 at Ford Field on Sunday.

"So I picked up the phone and called him and said 'I'd love to build on the success of Super Bowl and make this an international event,'" Francis said. "And he loved the idea."

Francis said Windsor benefits from event partnerships with Detroit by a boost to the local economy and through increased profile.

Though Francis doesn't yet know the Windsor elements, he likes the idea of celebrity appearances and Via Rail packages that bring fans from other parts of Canada to Windsor, as happened with WrestleMania 23.

"This will be huge," Francis said of the Grand Prix partnership. "We're trying to create an international flavour to these world-class events in a way that showcases the region. A city our size would never be able to put on events like this without partnering with Detroit."

DETROIT RACE CITY

The Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix returns to the Motor City. Free Prix Day, Aug. 31; American LeMans race, Sept. 1; IndyCar race, Sept. 2. Tickets range from US$15 to $100. For more information, visit detroitgp.com.

© The Windsor Star 2007

yupislyr

Apr 4, 2007, 4:35 AM

Oh, and now am800 says Project Ice Track really appears to be on the ropes, like it originally looked to be last week...

PROJECT ICE TRACK DERAILED 2007-04-03 21:39:39

Project Ice Track is off the tracks. The Town of Tecumseh has announced that an agreement with the Ice Track Corporation expired March 31st without a number of conditions being met. which includes the purchase of land at Highway 401 and Manning Road. Mayor Gary McNamara says without certain lands, the agreement can't go through.

Oh, and now am800 says Project Ice Track really appears to be on the ropes, like it originally looked to be last week...

PROJECT ICE TRACK DERAILED 2007-04-03 21:39:39

Project Ice Track is off the tracks. The Town of Tecumseh has announced that an agreement with the Ice Track Corporation expired March 31st without a number of conditions being met. which includes the purchase of land at Highway 401 and Manning Road. Mayor Gary McNamara says without certain lands, the agreement can't go through.

Although the Windsor Star says that the Ice Tracks folks are trying to make a new agreement with an extended deadline.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=f60d4423-b3c8-4fee-80f0-c828b6efac62&k=2201

So far, it looks like Windsor made the right choice. At the very least it looks like the city will handily win the race to get a new arena up.

westerntragedy

Apr 4, 2007, 1:59 PM

^ Update to that article this morning. It's funny that they list a whole host of other reasons why the project isn't going ahead, but in reality, isn't it because they have no prospects for regularly scheduled spectator hockey? Even if they do eventually reach a deal, what would they host there? Public skating? :haha:

I think it's fortunate that the whole Ice Track fiasco occurred anyhow; it got Windsor to finally come to a conclusion about the GWRASC arena. Is this possibly the kind of advancement competition we'll see between the DRIC and the Ambassador Bridge Company? The Bridge is still pushing their second span.. so will that put pressure on the DRIC to pound out a resolution before the Bridge Company gets their approvals to twin its span? I wonder....

Tecumseh puts Ice Track on ice
Project's private owners failed to meet conditions by deadline, mayor says
Gary Rennie, Windsor Star
Published: Wednesday, April 04, 2007

TECUMSEH - The $55-million Project Ice Track isn't going ahead in Tecumseh without a new agreement satisfactory to the town, Mayor Gary McNamara announced at a news conference Tuesday.

Ice Track Corporation was informed earlier Tuesday of the town's decision, McNamara said.

Ice Track's failure to acquire land owned by Coxon Towing adjacent to municipal property fundamentally changed the way the development was intended to proceed, the mayor said.

At the same time, the project showed no signs of getting traffic and other studies done to support rezonings of the lands needed, McNamara said.

McNamara said the town would soon be faced with some expensive decisions on how to get water and sewage services to the site.

Project Ice Track lawyer Chris Kruba disputed the town's contention that conditions to acquire property and get it rezoned hadn't been met.

He insisted efforts would continue to bring Windsor Raceway and a spectator hockey arena to municipal lands near Highway 401 and Manning Road.

NOT A CONDITION

Purchase of the Coxon lands wasn't a condition of the agreement, although the idea hasn't been dropped, Kruba told reporters outside council chambers.

He hadn't been invited to the meeting, but came with a news release of his own.

A new proposal was made Tuesday to extend the closing date with the town to deal with some of the outstanding issues, Kruba said. "We're completely committed to the project," he said.

McNamara said the town's last meeting with Ice Track proponents was March 8, but issues jeopardizing the agreement had been festering before that.

The town was troubled by the lack of a "site-holder agreement" between Ice Track and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission (OLG) which would be necessary to operate slots in Tecumseh, McNamara said.

"No slots, no Ice Track project," said McNamara.

© The Windsor Star 2007

upinottawa

Apr 4, 2007, 2:53 PM

So does Windsor Raceway still want to move to Tecumseh? Maybe LaSalle can make a move to obtain the track. I think there is a lot of open land near Harrow....

If Windsor Raceway does stay put, what a poor public relations move on behalf of the track. But, I guess the City of Windsor now knows the track is serious about finding a better deal.

upinottawa

Apr 11, 2007, 1:11 PM

Hospice Village first in Canada

Craig Pearson, Windsor Star
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bev Weidman looks at the homey residential facility soon to open in Canada's first Hospice Village and thinks back to 2005 when her daughter died of lung cancer.

"It was a privilege to be at our daughter's bedside when she passed," Weidman said Tuesday as she toured a $1.3-million, eight-bed facility set to open at the east-end Hospice of Windsor and Essex County site.

"Not everybody has the option of being at home. But when you're at a place like this, with all the creature comforts, it makes the transition much easier and more peaceful."

Weidman was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly before her daughter, Joy Suhan, died. Yet Weidman said a higher power helped her -- after surgery, her cancer is in remission -- so that she could assist her daughter n her time of need.

So Weidman applauds the creation of the new facility, which is actually three modern single-storey homes connected to form a welcoming 24-hour palliative-care environment.

"It's beyond what we had hoped for," Hospice executive director Carol Derbyshire said.

"It's beautiful, it's bright, it's airy, it's cheerful. When we get all of our staff in here, this will be a wonderful home for people to come to."

Ontario Minister of Health and Long-term Care George Smitherman will preside over the grand opening Monday, along with Windsor-St. Clair MPP Dwight Duncan and other officials.

Though the finishing touches are yet to come -- the place still looks like a construction site from the outside -- the first resident moves in April 30. Two more patients a week will follow until the eight beds are filled.

The idea is to create a mini-village where doctors, nurses, specialists and families help comfort patients.

The new homes complement the 20,000-square-foot Hospice headquarters, as well as a newly built house to help patients manage pain, and a soon-to-come children's house to provide a play space for youngsters visiting ailing family members.

Some 900 patients use Hospice services, which has 44 staff members and what Derbyshire calls "an army of volunteers."

Hospice, which can upgrade the new facility to 10 beds, includes special touches in the residential rooms that seem more akin to luxury homes: wood floors and trim, accessible bathrooms, granite accents, mini-fridges, desks and Internet connections, gas fireplaces and individual patios to the gardens.

"The home environment is what we wanted for cancer patients," said Teresa Sylvestri, who along with Anita Imperioli donated money to the project on behalf of In Honour of the Ones We Love, which helps cancer patients. "If you can't take care of someone at home for any reason, you can come here and know you're well taken care of by nurses, doctors and family members in a beautiful home environment."

© The Windsor Star 2007

upinottawa

Apr 13, 2007, 1:32 PM

Very interesting development reported in today's Windsor Star:

City wants control of tunnel
$75M deal will give Windsor all revenue; thwart Ambassador Bridge owner's efforts

Dave Battagello, Windsor Star
Published: Friday, April 13, 2007

Fearing that billionaire Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun was poised to gain a stranglehold on Windsor's two border crossings, the City of Windsor has entered into a US$75-million agreement with Detroit to take full control of the Windsor-Detroit tunnel.

"That connection for 75 years has been vital to our residents, our region, tourism and our security," said Mayor Eddie Francis. "All of that was threatened by a proposal to turn it over to a private enterprise that would have destroyed that vital link."

Moroun over a year ago made a US$20-million offer to Detroit for control of the U.S. side of the tunnel for 100 years, but that deal was killed by Detroit city councillors following objections from Windsor and the Canadian government.

The agreement between the two cities will give control of the U.S. side of the tunnel, which is owned by Detroit, to Windsor for 75 years. The city owns the Canadian side.

The deal would give Windsor all of the tunnel revenue.

"If someone acquired the other half they could fill it up with cement and our investment would be lost," Francis said. "It's in the best interests of our citizens to protect this asset and ensure control of the tunnel remains in the hands of the public."

Windsor lawyer Cliff Sutts, who led the negotiations with Detroit, emphasized the deal will not be completed until he is fully assured local taxpayers will not be hurt.

"We will be extraordinarily cautious so costs of the acquisition will be self-supporting of the project itself," he said. "That there will be no need to go to the well of the city to support this transaction."

Several months of negotiations remain to finalize the deal, he said.

Sutts agreed the driving force behind the deal has been "to keep this out of the hands of Matty Moroun and the Ambassador Bridge."

The lawyer said a plan unveiled by the bridge last year to relocate the tunnel customs plaza to a new 200-lane superplaza in Detroit was "not in anybody's best interest."

Sutts anticipates Moroun -- or potentially other private investment companies -- will attempt to derail the deal before it is completed.

"They are going to give it their best try," he said. "I'm optimistic they are going to fail. Mr. Moroun already has his hands full trying to twin his bridge. But he doesn't give up. We will have to wait and see."

It was too early to assess whether the bridge company will interfere with the agreement, said president Dan Stamper.

"I'm not saying we will or we won't," he said. "We don't have enough information to determine that. I do know the City of Windsor interfered in our discussions (on the tunnel with Detroit) and we didn't appreciate it."

The agreement between the two cities is proof Windsor has become its biggest competitor in the battle over border crossing revenues, Stamper said. The bridge generates about US$60 million in annual revenues.

"We will compete with the City of Windsor or anybody else," Stamper said. "We don't like how we have been treated by the city. They continue to put up roadblocks over and over in what we are trying to do. That needs to stop."

Both cities before their agreement pursued third-party evaluations of the tunnel's assessed value -- which factored in the recent decline in traffic revenues and its potential life span. Some sources indicated Thursday high-profile global investment firm Goldman Sachs was among those involved.

"The ($75-million) is justifiable based on those assessments," Francis said. "This is a deal we are not going to get into if it means it's going to cost Windsor taxpayers money."

Revenues have declined in recent years at the tunnel, but Francis maintained: "it's a significant business and does have a healthy bottom line."

Matt Allen, press secretary for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said the tunnel agreement will play a major role in getting Detroit out of its deep hole of debt.

Detroit was finally able to balance its budget for this year, but is haunted by a US$155.6-million deficit from recent years, Allen said.

The city will pay US$67 million from its revenues against that deficit this year. Kilpatrick said in his budget speech Thursday that Detroit will get US$58 million up front from the tunnel deal.

"This would take a huge hit out of the deficit, maybe make it go away," Allen said.

"We don't want to be in the tunnel business. We get the money now and your city gets control. It's great for Windsor and great for us."

Much of the $75 million is expected to be paid up front by Windsor -- but what the final sum will be and where it comes from is subject to a huge array of negotiations.

The city has requested financial support from Transport Canada for the deal -- given how the federal government also expressed strong fears about Moroun's potential border crossing monopoly in Windsor.

"We have invited federal and provincial governments to participate and hope they will see the benefit of preserving the tunnel as a public asset and give us the legal and financial assistance we require," Francis said.

Transport Canada is awaiting a formal proposal from the city on any funding support, said Mark Butler, spokesman for the federal ministry.

"Certainly there may be an opportunity for the government of Canada to be involved in the actual transaction," he said.

The federal government recently budgeted $400 million for the border in Windsor and funds also still remain from the joint federal-provincial $300-million border infrastructure commitment to the city.

© The Windsor Star 2007

upinottawa

Apr 13, 2007, 5:46 PM

The province of Ontario has also kicked in $4 million for the development of the new Windsor arena complex.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=233642b8-e62e-47de-893f-9835e3d2df21&k=51845

y2k_pony

Apr 13, 2007, 8:19 PM

They just added a new camera view of the Casino expansion. Check it out.http://www.casinowindsor.com/Corporate/LiveCam.asp

Blitz

Apr 14, 2007, 5:04 PM

Downtown boosters

Developers buy CIBC building, hope to erect another tower

By Dave Hall
The Windsor Star
April 13, 2007

Expressing confidence in the revitalization of downtown, a local developer said he hopes to not only fill four vacant floors in newly acquired 100 Ouellette Avenue, a landmark 14-floor office tower overlooking the Detroit River, but to also build a new office tower on an adjacent parking lot.

Lou Mikhail, co-owner with brother Joe of Mikhail Holdings Ltd., said his company plans to “aggressively pursue new tenants for 100 Ouellette and we’re also in discussions with potential tenants for a new office tower on the riverfront.”

The new tower would be built on a parking lot between Papa Cheney’s Whisky Well and the Travelodge Hotel on Riverside Drive East, said Mikhail.

He acknowledged the development would depend upon reaching agreement with future tenants.
“We’re talking to prospective tenants now, but whether it happens in three or four months, a year or never is hard to say,” said Mikhail.

The Mikhails declined to disclose the purchase price for the building, which houses the CIBC Bank along with more than a dozen tenants. It was listed 18 months ago by Standard life Assurance Company, the previous owners, for $7.2 million.

“Let’s just say we’re happy with the price,” said Mikhail. “It’s a premier landmark tower on the best corner in the city with the best view and if anybody wants to be downtown, this is the building to be in.”

But Joe Mikhail said when 100 Ouellette first went on the market amid growing vacancy rates, it was a disturbing trend.

“It’s extremely difficult to attract tenants,” Mikhail said at the time. “The numbers are staggeringly high for office space vacancies throughout all the buildings.”

At the time, the Windsor-Essex County Development Commission was reporting a 30 per cent vacancy rate for office space in the city.

Since then, said brother Lou, “things have begun to happen downtown with the addition of St. Clair College, a major expansion project at Casino Windsor, a proposed urban village and the acquisition of property west of ours by a London developer with a strong track record.”

Mikhail was referring to Shmuel Farhi, who recently acquired property adjacent to the Art Gallery.

Mikhail said “we’re more confident and enthusiastic now about what is happening downtown.
“We believe we can market our new property locally and reduce its current 30 per cent vacancy rate,” said Mikhail. “We’re in discussions now with tenants who could fill three of those vacant floors.”

Based on 2005 occupancy rates, the building’s prospectus said it was generating almost $900,000 in annual lease payments from various tenants.

According to Mikhail, vacant space in the building is being offered for $10 per square foot.

Other Mikhail holdings locally include the National Bank building at University and Ouellette, 2970 College Ave., which houses Sutherland Global’s business process outsourcing centre, a $35-million redevelopment of White Woods Mall in Amherstburg, Harbourview Condominiums in Leamington and Tecumseh Commercial Centre.

y2k_pony

Apr 16, 2007, 6:13 PM

I would be very suprised to see them build and office tower on that parking lot. The tunnel goes right underneath it. I think due to the weight of the building they wouldnt allow it to be built.

upinottawa

Apr 16, 2007, 8:07 PM

^ What was located there before the spot became a parking lot?

Border City Boy

Apr 17, 2007, 6:19 PM

Ottawa, before the parking lot there was a Department Store on the site. Mid Rise, probably 3-5 stories tall, built in the 1890's long before the tunnel was built. The Department Store C.H. Smith was bought by Marks and Spencer's in the early 1970's and closed and moved to the mall where it subsequently went the way of all local and regional department stores.

The complex of buildings, on Riverside, Ouellette and Pitt St. were demolished in the late 70's.

arnold

Apr 17, 2007, 8:14 PM

i hate to say it, but that parcel of land doesn't need an office building. if they're determined to build, there are a multitude of prime sites in the downtown core that could be used. i understand the appeal of river views, but it would further the 'wall' that divides the core from the river. i say, leave a couple of sight-lines open down there and have the city heap tax incentives on the other less-prestigious downtown parking lots...

oh, and awesome news about the tunnel. i'd love to see the city really stick it to Moroun and his crew since they would, no doubt, stick it to the city without a second thought!

fastcarsfreedom

Apr 17, 2007, 11:59 PM

Smith's of Windsor actually opened the second location at Devonshire prior to the M&S takeover--when M&S bought in, they closed downtown and converted the Devonshire store to Marks & Spencer. If you look at the northeast corner of the mall from EC Row, the Smith's anchor is still clearly visible as a seperate two-story "box" between Sears and The Bay. It has housed Marks & Spencer (which downsized the story in the late 80s), then the temporary AGW. It is now shared by GoodLife and Sport Chek--the shape and exterior design of the building is still mostly unaltered.

Border City Boy

Apr 18, 2007, 1:26 PM

Thanks for the clairfication Fast Cars. That was before I moved to Windsor. I do remeber the M&S being open when I moved here though...

Blitz

Apr 19, 2007, 5:34 PM

City picked as No. 1 for investment

Financial magazine’s selection gives us good ‘bragging rights’

By Dave Battagello
The Windsor Star
Apr. 18, 2007

Windsor has been named the best small city in North America for investment by a publication of England’s prestigious Financial Times.

fDi magazine (Foreign Direct Investment) selected the city among dozens of other nominees across the U.S. and Canada — including London, Halifax, Gatineau, Barrie, Chatham, Waterloo and Sudbury.

Windsor’s selection will appear in the trade magazine’s April 23 edition.

“You can definitely say it’s a feather in Windsor’s cap. We didn’t just pull this out of a hat,” the magazine’s research editor Charles Piggott said by telephone from London, England.

The city’s development commission is already poised to prominently feature the recognition in its efforts to win investment, said CEO Matthew Fischer.

“This is bragging rights. It’s a great tool. I will use it until it wears out,” he said.

“This is a very prestigious paper. That’s why I’m excited about it.”

Produced by the Financial Times group, fDi is published bi-monthly with a circulation of nearly 15,000. It is geared toward helping corporate executives make decisions that promote globalization.

The magazine frequently highlights rankings of municipalities or regions in various categories, such as cities of the future. The North America competition was overseen by Piggott and involved a large panel of consultants evaluating each city in a wide variety of categories, he said.

Windsor scored consistently high within the competition’s 65 categories — among the top five in categories including economic potential, development and investment promotion, human resources, being business friendly and quality of life. “The numbers look good for Windsor,” Piggott said. The city’s strong development program to win large-scale projects was viewed as a huge plus. The city’s high unemployment rate — over 10 per cent in March — was also viewed as a positive.

“In terms of investment, it can be viewed as a good thing,” Piggott said.

The categories featured by the magazine’s competition are very much in line with exactly what large-company investors look for in their strategic decision-making, he said.

Despite the city’s high unemployment and recent economic woes — largely linked to the manufacturing sector — the fundamental reasons to invest in Windsor haven’t changed, Fischer said.

He listed our proximity to the U.S. border, being surrounded by waterways, having a Highway 401 link and high availability of a skilled workforce as being among key business attractions.

“Our great assets haven’t gone away despite our current economic trouble,” he said.

Receiving recognition from “a prominent third-party evaluation” should go a long way in winning much-needed corporate investment, said Mayor Eddie Francis.

“It shows Windsor has what it takes to succeed,” he said.

Blitz

Apr 19, 2007, 5:40 PM

A U.K. lifeline

By Gord Henderson
The Windsor Star
Apr. 19, 2007

Windsor needed this No. 1 ranking. We needed it the way someone who’s drowning at sea in a howling storm needs a rescue chopper to appear out of nowhere and start lowering a rope ladder.

You don’t demand to see the pilot’s licence and you don’t ask whether the winch has been inspected recently. You just hang on for dear life and marvel, through tears of joy, that help arrived in your darkest hour.

The news from a prestigious British business magazine that Windsor is the top-ranked small-city location for investment in North America couldn’t have come at a better time. Month after month we’ve been battered with grim layoff and plant closing announcements. The wave of bad news has created unprecedented levels of fear and worry that Windsor might have no future and has had people whispering the F (for Flint) word.

Just last week Canadian Press conducted a drive-by assassination, painting a dismal picture of our struggling downtown in response to news that the city for the second consecutive year “has the dubious distinction of having the slowest economic growth rate of any Canadian census metropolitan area.”

Meanwhile, a local radio station has been reminding us daily that the German masters of our biggest employer, DaimlerChrysler, are conducting a fire sale to unload their unloved Chrysler assets and there could be dismal consequences for Windsor.

Little wonder the eyes of Mayor Eddie Francis were as big and sparkly as freshly washed dinner plates Monday night when he broke the news that The Financial Times’ fDi magazine, a bible for bigleague investors, has singled Windsor out as a dream location to do business.

It was a hope lifeline, given the latest layoff announcements from Ford and GM and the sad spectacle of the machinery and other assets of defunct Windsor tool and mould shops going on the auction block.

Our immediate future is daunting. There’ll be no end of tears shed when the Ford casting plant and Essex engine plant close this year.

But these British business gurus are telling the corporate world Windsor holds enticing advantages, especially in economic potential, development and business promotion, human resources, quality of life and a business-friendly atmosphere.

We could quibble with some of those conclusions, especially the last one. But that would amount to examining the rescue ladder dangling overhead for potential flaws, wouldn’t it? Far better to snatch the good news and run with it.

“What a stroke of good luck. I think we should just be tickled pink. They’re handing a golden opportunity, a billion dollars worth of free advertising, to us on a platter and we should market the hell out of it,” said Alfie Morgan, retired University of Windsor business professor.

Morgan said Windsor should move quickly to take out full-page newspaper ads in major industrial and financial centres across the continent and beyond. “Executives are reading this. But news is perishable. We have to milk this for every ounce we can have, before it gets cold. Make the calls today if possible.”

Windsor hasn’t fulfilled its potential over the years, he conceded, and is now going through a difficult time. “But we will get through this. We need to shake it off and get up and move in a new direction.” He believes Windsor, with its strategic location, can move beyond assembly and reposition itself as a logistics centre, creating as many as 30,000 jobs in trucking, warehousing and related services. Diverse manufacturing would inevitably follow, he argues. “We have the fundamentals, the skeleton, and you can build on that.”

Elfio Toldo, a retired provincial industry ministry representative, said Windsor will “go through some tough times for a few years” because it’s so hard to compete with low-wage economies, but he agrees it has great potential and sees hope in a CAW that’s showing signs of evolving and becoming flexible.

Quality of life is a huge factor when corporations choose investment locations, said Toldo, and that only underlines the importance of getting a firstrate tunnelled route to a new border crossing.

He thinks, and I couldn’t agree more, that Windsor must do more to make itself physically attractive to potential investors. Clean up the damn litter that makes arteries like South Cameron look like linear landfills. Attack graffiti. Bury ugly power lines. Plant more trees.

It’s wonderful that business gurus in the U.K. think the world of Windsor. But we need to do more to be worthy of that high praise.

upinottawa

Apr 19, 2007, 6:15 PM

I don't know what to make of the above.

I always hear and read things about Windsor-Essex's economy being so automotive driven (I would not disagree) and how a lot of people from the area assume that there will be high-paying, unionize, manufacturing jobs available.

However, for myself and my peers the above was not the case. Of my high school friends (many of whom, including myself, have at least one parent that works for the Big 3 or a related company) only one went and worked for Chrysler (in manufacturing). Most of us figured that the jobs that our parents had would not be available when we entered the job market. For example, my dad works at the GM transmission plant. After 1993, I never thought that GM would hire again in Windsor.

Thankfully, the decent wages that our parents earned allowed most of my friends to attend university or college (not to say that many of our parents working for the big 3 did not have post-secondary educations) and take jobs outside the automotive sector. I suspect that my experience cannot be the absolute exception. I suspect that there are many Windsorites and former-Windsorites in my age group (25 to 29) who are well educated and/or skilled.

Is the above reflected when we speak of the doom and gloom of the recent automotive-driven downturn? Or am I out to lunch on this one?

Blitz

Apr 19, 2007, 10:09 PM

I agree

upinottawa

Apr 23, 2007, 8:29 PM

Interesting development on the conference hosting front. Certainly Windsor will not be near the draw of London, Paris, etc. That being said, it is great to see Windsor land a large international conference:

City to host major peace conference
Landing Rotary event 'wonderful coup,' mayor says

Roberta Pennington, Windsor Star
Published: Monday, April 23, 2007

Windsor beat out international hot spots such as Paris, London and Washington, D.C., to serve as the host city for the first Rotary World Peace Summit.

Rotary International's 1.2 million members in more than 200 countries will be encouraged to visit Windsor April 25 to 27, 2008, for the event, which is meant to foster world peace and increase awareness of Rotary's role in promoting that objective.

The announcement was made Sunday by Rotary District 6400 governor-elect Jennifer Jones at the National Volunteer City Celebration held at the Caboto Club.

Jones, a Windsor resident, said this city's diversity, proximity to the border and designation as an International Peace City helped convince top Rotary International brass to choose Windsor.

"It could've been anywhere in the world," Jones said of the summit. "It could've been in Rome, it could've been in Paris and Washington but, because of the cultural diversity and the geographical composition of this area, Windsor was in fact not only ideal, it was perfect."

Besides attracting Rotarians to the area, the conference will draw an internationally renowned musical act to perform in a community "peace concert," Jones said.

"Many different events will be open to the public and we will be encouraging groups to get together for celebrations at Charles Clark Square," Jones said. "We're looking at including thousands of children, we're looking at flag ceremonies as a parade, all sorts of things."

Notable speakers recognized worldwide will lead workshops, make presentations and keynote addresses based on the theme of The Absence of Want, she said.

Jones said Rotary is still negotiating which local venues to contract for the event. She said it was also too early to estimate how many Rotarians might attend the conference.

Mayor Eddie Francis said landing the conference was a "wonderful coup.

"This is an event of the magnitude and the scale that a city of our size doesn't often get to host," Francis said.

Gordon Orr, managing director of the local convention and visitors bureau, said the summit could bring millions of dollars into the area.

"It will bring a lot of people from great distances to the city of Windsor to stay in our hotels, to eat in our restaurants, to use our transportation," Orr said.

The event also translates into priceless exposure for the city, Francis added.

"Part of this conference that you will not be able to put a value on is the fact that 1.2 million people are now going to discover Windsor, 1.2 million people are going to hear about Windsor, and of those 1.2 million, many of them will come visit this region," Francis said. "This is just another step in terms of promoting this region and putting this region on the map."

Jones said more announcements would be made in the coming months as speakers and performers are confirmed.

rpennington@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5529

© The Windsor Star 2007

westerntragedy

Apr 23, 2007, 9:58 PM

Sadly, the University's Grad House was demolished over the weekend. More here (http://community.livejournal.com/windsor_visuals/39930.html) (and in the Star today).

arnold

Apr 24, 2007, 12:44 AM

i was under the impression that the medical school had been started a while back. what went into the hole that they made on california street a few years ago?

westerntragedy

Apr 24, 2007, 3:28 PM

^ That hole you saw was for the Toldo Health Education Center, which houses 7 lecture halls and the nursing department offices. The medical center is supposed to be an 'addition' to the Toldo building, with lab space and medical center type rooms (operating rooms?).

upinottawa

Apr 24, 2007, 6:17 PM

Too bad about the Grad House. :(

As for the medical centre, Windsor really should have received a full-scale medical school. Essentially Windsor is getting 1/5 of a medical school controlled by UWO. Really, that is unacceptable considering that Kingston has a full-fledged medical program and that Kitchener-Waterloo will have Optometry, Pharmacy, and a satellite medical school.

If only Windsor had representation in the provincial cabinet, then maybe these inequities would end….

upinottawa

Apr 26, 2007, 1:21 PM

I don't really know what the following means....

Core site tempts U of W
Urban village delayed as city considers school's plans

Roberta Pennington and Dave Hall, Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007

The University of Windsor is in talks with the City of Windsor for what could be "a significant project" on the lands adjacent to the Art Gallery of Windsor.

Plans for a downtown urban village have been delayed as the city considers the school's plans for future development.

"Right now we're just exploring all kinds of options," said U of W president Ross Paul. "And how that will end up, I don't know. We have lots of needs and we're spending lots of time trying to raise money both privately and from government and that will be a big factor in what we do."

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/99b0ca95-a96b-4c16-b6a4-

Mayor Eddie Francis announced plans for "a significant project" Wednesday after speaking to the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association's annual general meeting.

Francis declined to divulge details, but at least two sources have told The Star the project involves an education institution.

"It could even be the university, I'm not sure; I know it's an education institution," said Ward 2 Coun. Caroline Postma. "It could go one of two ways: The post-secondary institution could look at it and say, 'You know what, it really doesn't fit in with our future plans....' Or, they could come up with some really great housing-slash commercial design that is truly an urban village."

Francis said the project could encompass most or all of the 50 acres of the urban village site.

The university has broken ground for a new $20-million medical school and has plans to build a $120-million engineering building.

The development would be aimed at increasing pedestrian traffic and adding commercial and retail development to the area, Francis said.

"The potential development is not developer-driven so much as it's idea-driven based on what we believe needs to happen on those lands and we believe it will generate significant interest," Francis said.

As a result, plans to issue a request for proposals for an urban village have been delayed.

Postma said the decision to postpone issuing RFPs for the urban village in favour of considering the education alternative was agreed to by council because "there's no other projects" that have been proposed for the area.

"No one's really come forward with any ideas yet," said Postma, whose ward covers the property in question. "There really hasn't been much interest from anyone else at this point."

Coun. Percy Hatfield would neither confirm nor deny the involvement of one of the local post-secondary schools.

"What I can say is that the mayor told us a little while ago that there's an opportunity for an exciting new proposal that would accomplish everything we'd like to see accomplished on the urban village property and it would have a residential component to it and, you know, everybody would really stimulate the downtown."

Another city insider, who asked not to be named, said the development did not involve building more hospitality or retail space.

"We've been asked not to say anything," the official said. "If it's off the record, it's something to do with education. That's all I can tell you. You know St. Clair College is already down there at the Cleary, right? "

St. Clair College president John Strasser said the college is not involved in any downtown development scheme.

NO PLANS

"We have no plans to build anything other than to move into the St. Clair Centre, as we like to call it," Strasser said. He noted, however, that local developers have approached the school to pitch the idea of converting existing buildings in the downtown area into lofts.

Speaking after the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association's annual general meeting, Francis said the project is something the city needs to consider before issuing a request for proposals for an urban village.

"We need an opportunity to address that entire development before we move forward with anything else," said Francis. "An urban village would potentially be done a piece at a time and this has the potential to speed up that process and it would be unwise if we didn't consider it."

Francis declined to say whether any developers have shown interest in the project.

London developer Shmuel Farhi recently acquired a piece of property next to the art gallery and fronting on Riverside Drive as part of a land swap which allowed the city to acquire property where the new arena is being built on the city's far east side.

While acknowledging that Farhi is "looking to add to his investment downtown," Francis declined to say whether he was involved in the project being considered by the city.

Farhi said he would "look very seriously" at at any development that would help revitalize Windsor's downtown but declined to say if he has any involvement in the project eyed for the urban village site.

The site, which is bounded by the new transit terminal to the east, University Avenue to the south, Caron Avenue to the west and Pitt Street to the north, was the subject of a community improvement plan more than three years ago.

© The Windsor Star 2007

arnold

Apr 26, 2007, 11:56 PM

and so the 'western super anchor' saga continues...

Blitz

Apr 27, 2007, 2:31 AM

In the second half of 2006, fDI magazine invited key cities across North America to answer more than 60 questions in seven broad categories. A total of 108 cities were considered by fDi’s panel of judges, which scored each city. Cities were categorized by size so that cities across North American could compete against each other on a level basis. London was ranked as a Small City with a population between 100,000 and 500,000.

Top ten small cities of the future

1 Windsor Ontario Canada
2 Huntsville Alabama United States
3 Albany New York United States
4 London Ontario Canada
5 Waterloo Ontario Canada
6 Colima Colima Mexico
7 Bloomington-Normal Illinois United States
8 Mobile Alabama United States
9 Chatham-Kent Ontario Canada
10 Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada

Small cities - best economic potential

1 Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada
2 Mobile Alabama United States
3 Halifax Nova Scotia Canada
4 Windsor Ontario Canada
5= Durango Durango Mexico
5= London Ontario Canada

Small cities - best development and investment promotion

1 Huntsville Alabama United States
2 Windsor Ontario Canada
3 Durango Durango Mexico
4 Sherbrooke Quebec Canada
5= St. Johns New Foundland and Labrador Canada
5= Waterloo Ontario Canada

Small cities - best human resources

1 Albany New York United States
2 Waterloo Ontario Canada
3 Greenville South Carolina United States
4 Plano Texas United States
5 Windsor Ontario Canada

Small cities - best infrastructure

1 Halifax Nova Scotia Canada
2 Gatineau Quebec Canada
3 Huntsville Alabama United States
4 Waterloo Ontario Canada
5= Matamoros Tamaulipas Mexico
5= Windsor Ontario Canada

Small cities - most business friendly

1 Mobile Alabama United States
2 Windsor Ontario Canada
3 Greenville South Carolina United States
4 Anchorage Alaska United States
5 Moncton New Brunswick Canada

Small cities - most cost effective

1 Colima Colima Mexico
2 Chatham-Kent Ontario Canada
3 London Ontario Canada
4 Barrie Ontario Canada
5 Amarillo Texas United States

Small cities - quality of life

1 Albany New York United States
2 Waterloo Ontario Canada
3 Huntsville Alabama United States
4 Windsor Ontario Canada
5 Lafayette Louisiana United States

upinottawa

Apr 30, 2007, 1:30 PM

Generous gift
Sale of late industrialist's Florida home nets Windsor $2.75M, benefits riverfront

Chris Vander Doelen, Windsor Star
Published: Monday, April 30, 2007

An industrialist’s gift of his multimillion-dollar Palm Beach winter home to the people of Windsor will help pay for the new Peace Beacon on the waterfront, city council will be told tonight.

It wasn’t a large home, by Florida standards, that the late Clifford Hatch Sr. left to the Greater Windsor Community Foundation. The bungalow was appraised at US$459,000 before it was sold after Hatch’s death last September at the age of 91.

But the land the Hatch home sat on in an exclusive, gated community was worth millions — and the people of Windsor are to start benefitting from his last bequest tonight to the tune of $2.75 million.

Foundation officials say the donation of the Hatch winter home is the largest single one-time private gift made to the people of Windsor in the city’s history.

The Peace Beacon, which is in Dieppe Gardens, is a limestone and stainless steel tower being built atop the new riverfront cafe and information centre. It will feature a rooftop patio, a licensed sit-down restaurant facing the river and public washrooms.

A cheque of $250,000 — part of the proceeds from the sale — will be presented to city council tonight, a donation from Hatch through the foundation he helped found 24 years ago. “It’s a wonderful gift from a remarkable individual,” said Paul Cassano, chairman of the foundation’s board. “I can’t tell you how much I thought of that guy. He was an angel.”

The foundation, a provincially incorporated community trust similar to those which exist in most North American cities for the benefit of their residents, is now the 14th largest such fund in Canada with managed assets of more than $14 million.

Windsor is the 20th largest city in Canada and thus its foundation is doing better on a per capita basis than other funds despite not having started fundraising until very recently.

Hatch founded the trust in 1983 to act as an umbrella group for local trust funds. He was aided by the late mayor Bert Weeks, retailer Gerald Freed and others.

Henry Clifford Hatch retired as CEO of Windsor’s Hiram Walker distilleries in 1980, after joining his father’s company in 1937. After a lifetime spent here, he moved back to his native Toronto in 1994 to be closer to his four children, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandkids. Joan Hatch died in 2004.

One of Hatch’s passions was Windsor’s waterfront. Even after he moved back to Toronto, he devoted a great deal of time and effort into thinking of ways to improve its esthetics. His plan was to boost the city’s economy by improving its looks, reasoning that a better ambience would increase tourism.

Many of his friends credit the behind-the-scenes support of the Hatches with helping push through the final stages of land acquisition which led to the all-public waterfront that graces Windsor’s face from east-to-west.

At council tonight, the city will receive another cheque for the public waterfront from the Windsor Foundation, $554,080 for the completion of the Bert Weeks Memorial Gardens project.

Along with the $982,177 the foundation has already contributed to the John and Clifford Hatch Wildflower Garden, the trust’s contributions to the riverfront now total more than $1.7 million.

Hatch was shocked at how the value of his low-key winter home skyrocketed in recent years, said his friend of many decades, Gerald Freed. It wasn’t beachfront property, although it backed onto a golf course.

“It was really quite a modest home by Florida standards,” said Freed, the Windsor clothing retailer, who also winters near the Lost Tree Village community where the Hatches spent the cold months.

“It was a bungalow, perhaps 2,500 square feet. It was only two bedrooms,” said Freed, who visited his friend’s home many times. “But he picked the right spot — there was a tremendous run-up in prices and it appreciated.”

Thanks to the bubble in U.S. home prices, now the other form of appreciation can take place in Hatch’s former home town.

cvanderdoelen@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777, ext. 645.

upinottawa

May 2, 2007, 3:25 PM

It's do or die for city
Think technology and globally, says business writer

Dalson Chen, Windsor Star
Published: Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Windsor must adapt to a swiftly changing world economy to succeed as a city, says business journalist Diane Francis.

"You've either got to do what you need to do to stay in the game, or you're out of the game," said the Financial Post columnist and editor-at-large of the National Post at the Caboto Club on Tuesday night.

"Everyone in the world is in the same boat as Windsor. You can't take anything for granted. That's not to say it's a terrifying world. But it is to say it's a fluid

Francis was visiting Windsor at the request of City Hall to dole out her brand of tough-minded business thinking in a speaking engagement titled Looking Forward: Windsor's Future in a Changing World.

The event -- which drew a capacity crowd of about 300 -- also featured urban strategist and former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray, who spoke on the value of linking arts, culture and the economy.

Mayor Eddie Francis said the two speakers were arranged to offer their different perspectives as part of the city's efforts to seek input on Windsor's Official Plan.

Earlier this year, the city arranged public sessions where citizens were asked for their ideas on the future of Windsor. "We've heard the voices from within," the mayor said. "Now we're trying to find out how outside people see us."

Diane Francis said she considers Windsor a city with great business potential, and pointed out a natural location advantage.

But she recommended going to Ottawa and "banging some heads" about our border difficulties. "You know what? You've got to figure out how to get that fixed. I don't know how. But you've got to figure it out."

Outlining a "Darwinian" economy where massive global consolidators are eating smaller companies, she identified globalization and technology as the two "megatrends" that must be embraced by all who hope to survive.

"People that don't believe in globalization have to realize that globalization started when we left the jungles of Africa," Francis said.

Asked if she feels the perception of Windsor as a union city places it at a competitive disadvantage in the world market, Francis said many companies think it means high labour costs. "That is an issue, but it's not a deal-breaker."

"I have a lot of sympathy for unions. I'm not anti-union," Francis said.

DON'T DIG IN

But she added that "grand rhetoric and digging in your heels as a union leader or a member of the union rank and file is not ideal. And it can be very damaging."

Murray took a dynamic approach to his speech, leaving the podium to walk the stage with a microphone, quoting playwright Oscar Wilde, and cracking frequent jokes.

"Thank God for Italians, eh?" said Murray in reference to Erie Street, which he considers a "gorgeous" example of a true neighbourhood.

"We've robbed our neighbourhoods. We've made our places boring, plastic and generic," Murray said to applause from the audience.

Attendees also cheered Murray's assertion that Windsor's creative capacity is what will save the city. "Don't look to Ottawa or Queen's Park to solve your problems. Don't look for a new auto pact or a new Honda plant," he said.

According to Murray, wealth is created in the intersection of creativity, land use and economic development. He provided examples from his own experiences as mayor where investment in arts and culture generated revenue while enhancing the city.

The event drew a mixed crowd of Windsorites from both the business and arts community.

John Parent, a 37-year-old public relations consultant whose resume includes working for Mike Harris, said he was impressed by Diane Francis.

"She's right on the ball," he said.

"Windsor does not need to have a 10 per cent unemployment rate," Parent continued. "We are literally, right now, sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves."

© The Windsor Star 2007

Michi

May 24, 2007, 1:28 AM

Umm, the hotel tower is looking pretty nice from this side of the border. :)

y2k_pony

May 25, 2007, 12:46 AM

Umm, the hotel tower is looking pretty nice from this side of the border. :)

I agree, that thing is getting huge! Got any pics of it from your side of the border? Im going to snap a few this weekend of our side.

Blitz

May 25, 2007, 1:10 AM

Yes, can someone provide a photo update?

cujo8400

May 25, 2007, 4:02 AM

Hey guys. I have a couple batches of photos of the new Casino complex. Hope you enjoy.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00082resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00083resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00084resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00086resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00087resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00088resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00089resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00090resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00091resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00093resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00094resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00095resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00203resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00206resize.jpg

Shots of the new Skybridge being built

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00204resize.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00205resize.jpg

The new complex from the 22nd floor of the existing hotel.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/cujo8400/DSC00207resize.jpg

Sorry there were so many pictures guys. I hope this gives you an idea of how things are coming along Blitz. I agree with you that it looks like it is going to look out of place. Westerntragedy and I like to think of it as monolithic...lol

Blitz

May 25, 2007, 3:02 PM

Thanks for the photos

arnold

May 25, 2007, 7:09 PM

great pics.

and monolithic is right... that thing is going to totally over-power the surrounding area. and the nearly total lack of windows (or other features) on the base is going to make it a challenge to mask all of that bulk facing the street. i hope that they've hired a cladding master to do it up right...

still, the core area is looking pretty good in those shots and i'm sure that the boost in attendance will help the downtown out a lot. i'm looking forward to this project nearing completion.

upinottawa

May 25, 2007, 7:22 PM

The part of the expansion that I am most excited about is the new conference space. Assuming some sort of concerted effort to improve retail options (and a decrease in kiddie bars) downtown, Windsor could be a decent small-city conference draw.

y2k_pony

May 25, 2007, 9:17 PM

great pics, Saves me from having to take some now! Hard to believe that tower is not even halfway to the top yet! I'm looking forward to the arena going in there. Hopefully we can get some good boxing matches and compete with vegas. The confrence center will also help a great deal with getting more people into the city. :tup:

cujo8400

May 25, 2007, 9:21 PM

I was just looking through the pictures again and I noticed something. If you look at the 2nd picture down in my previous post (the base from Charles Clark Square) it appears as if there will be very few windows. But, if you look at the 6th picture down (same part of building only the opposite side) you can see the same sort of wall as in the other picture but they have also been installing the Casino's trademark blue glass. Maybe part of that bare looking wall is just a temporary part of the structure while they install the glass and stuff behind it. I'm not sure, it's just an idea. It just appears from that 6th photo that the glass continues running behind that white wall.

arnold

May 26, 2007, 6:50 AM

^
i'm not really familiar with the street names any more, but it looks like the south facing side (in the 2nd pic) will only have windows running along the escalators. while the north facing side ooks to have much more glazing. probably in a effort to open views up to the river. i'm really hoping that the west facing side (that faces downtown) is something special.

Blitz

May 26, 2007, 3:18 PM

I was in the casino last month when they just finished renovating the second floor. They have new large windows on that floor overlooking the river.

fastcarsfreedom

May 26, 2007, 4:58 PM

Visit again Blitz, those second floor windows are neatly hidden by heavy gold drapes that look like they came from the old Odeon Theater. In fact, the windows you mention weren't new at all--but had been hidden behind murals when that area was the Klondike-themed Nickel Mine. Prior to that, for the first year or two the permanent casino was open--that circular space was a sports bar--the windows were open then and the view was fantastic. Alas, it is no more.

fastcarsfreedom

May 26, 2007, 5:00 PM

I wanted to mention also, though the podium of the new building is very monolithic and mostly windowless--if you look at the renderings of the completed building--large swaths of the blank walls will be used for massive advertising banners--presumably announcing events, concerts, etc. I agree though, when all the white siding is on that place--it's going to look like a huge bakery box.

y2k_pony

May 30, 2007, 5:06 PM

Interesting article about the ventilation building for the Windsor tunnel.

Tunnel building reno finishes under budget
Jessey Bird, Windsor Star
Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The two-year upgrade and restoration of the University Avenue tunnel ventilation building wrapped up about $2 million under its $20-million budget, city officials announced Tuesday.

Many people have the perception that the city of Windsor is always over-budget, said Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac.

"This is a great achievement."

The tunnel ventilation building and its Detroit counterpart have been exchanging air in the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel every 90 seconds without interruption since the 1930 opening. This air exchange is necessary to keep the air clean and breathable.

The ventilation system "basically sucks out the air in the tunnel and puts in the new air," said Greg St. Louis, project administrator for the city.

The ventilation buildings on each side of the river are capable of pumping 1.5 million cubic feet of air through the tunnel each minute.

But while the system never failed to operate, it was clear that the building was in an advanced state of deterioration, said officials.

"Its like your car," said St. Louis. "If it keeps breaking down, there will be a point in time when you need to get a new one."

St. Louis said that he is happy with the upgrade.

"Before it looked like you were going back in time to a Frankenstein movie," said St. Louis. "We had all these big arm switches, lights, dials and gadgets.

"Now, it is like going into a brand new state of the art facility," he said.

But another important goal of the engineering overhaul was to maintain the building's heritage status.

It is "one of the great engineering wonders of its time," said heritage planner Nancy Morand.

It is an eight-storey structural steel, brick-clad building with Indiana limestone trim. Built in 1929 and 1930, along with 24 other tunnel-related buildings, it is the only one that has not been replaced.

About 15 per cent of the project cost was allocated to maintaining the building's heritage value, Morand said.

THE PROJECT

- Replaced the 12 aging fans, which pump air in and exhaust air out of the tunnel

- Installed a computer system to control the amount of air exchanged -- previously this was controlled manually.

- Replaced the lead/acid batteries, which filled an entire room, with nickel cadmium batteries which take up a mere 12 square feet of space. If there is a power failure, these batteries will automatically kick in to keep the operation running.

- Installed "bird control measures," or spikes, because bird droppings corroded the old fans and discoloured the limestone

- Replaced the roof, installed new lighting, and painted the floors, walls and ceilings

- Removed asbestos from the insulation as well as lead-based paint.

This is the only pic I could find of it..

http://www.dwtunnel.com/img/history3.jpg