Northern Ontario developments!

[TbayON]

I am assuming those will be single family dwellings on Leith? Just out of curiosity, where did the design come from? They are certainly pretty original for Thunder Bay. Very few houses here with flat roof construction. I saw it a lot more in Winnipeg when I spent a summer there a couple years back. There is nothing wrong with a flat roof so much as it is done right.

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Here are a couple shots of the new Fort Garry building going up on Walsh St. near the airport. I took them probably a week ago or so and forgot to post them. In the first picture, you can see the old building next to it and how much larger the new one is. I'm not sure when the completion date is scheduled for, but it must be pretty soon by the looks of the place on the exterior.

[vid]

Originally Posted by ccnews

flat roofs

but otherwise, should be ok for a single or couple
not sure about a family

You don't need 2,000sqft to raise a kid. The smaller footprint means more back yard to play in.

[ADLS]

The Leith St. Houses are single family 1200 sq. ft each. The flat roof is actually slightly sloped. The slope is hidden by a parapet.

On another note, I was scrolling through the mls listings. All of the condos at the Thunder Bay country club are no longer listed on mls. Hard to believe they're all sold too. Has anyone heard anything? How's progress been there lately?

[vid]

They resumed construction not too long ago. Judging by their poorly designed website, it looks like they're trying to market the project directly.

http://www.theclubresidence.com/contactus.html

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by vid

They resumed construction not too long ago. Judging by their poorly designed website, it looks like they're trying to market the project directly.

I don't know that they ever stopped completely. I was there in late fall/early winter and there was a very small crew working there on the foundation. When I say small, I mean small, I think I counted 3 guys. Anyways, on a building of that size, 3 guys can work for months and get pretty much nothing done. I will try to find out more info though. I know one of the financial backers of the project backed out this past fall, which took some reorganizing of the project but it sounded like it was going to continue business as usual. Half of the units were already sold before the project even broke ground and prior to any real formal announcement about the project. I think the TBCC was directly marketing to a lot of its membership for quite some time.

[vid]

There was a work stoppage for a while because of the guy that died in an accident shortly after construction started.

[TbayON]

Yes there was but it was fairly short in duration. It certainly did not go into late fall or winter.

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TBNews is reporting that the DFC residence is for sure going on college property. When the project was first publicly announced, the college and DFC said they were working towards having the building at the college. No costs or construction timelines were discussed though. Here is an article about it that includes a crappy site rendering:
http://www.confederationc.on.ca/node/10563


Here is the rendering for the new Health Services Building on Oliver Rd. at the TBRHSC (image from Northern Ontario Medical Journal).



And the article:
http://www.nomj.ca/2013/03/25/public...es-centre.html

Quick points:
-75 000 sq. ft.
-private-public parternship with Tom Jones (same arrangement as the other pro building at the hospital), necessity for private involvement to have the project go forward since dealing with the Ministry of Health would have probably put an end to the project
-5 or 6 stories and occupancy in spring 2014, not sure why there is still uncertainty
-basement will house the cyclotron and radio-pharmacy
-currently the hole is being dug for the building

[Chadillaccc]

Wow that's great! Sorry for my ignorance but what area of town will that be in/near? Hopefully one of the downtowns! Yay for height density!


Also, that DFC render on the link you posted looks like it's on a waterfront. Is that the lake?

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Wow that's great! Sorry for my ignorance but what area of town will that be in/near? Hopefully one of the downtowns! Yay for height density!


Also, that DFC render on the link you posted looks like it's on a waterfront. Is that the lake?

Unfortunately, the Health Services Centre will not be downtown, but it is being placed in a location where higher density developments (by T-Bay standards) seem to be occurring and in an area where tremendous future growth potential exists for the city. The map below shows the location of the Health Services Centre and the DFC Residence for you. The DFC Residence will be built at Confederation College, and an estimated cost of $15 million was released today. It is not near the lake, and this may sound awful, but it is for the better. Several students attending DFC from up north have drown in area water bodies while attending classes away from home, which is a good part of the reason this project is being undertaken.



News article regarding the DFC Residence:
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/271022/Location-found

[ADLS]

The DFC render looks pretty neat and should be a fine addition to the area.

Has anyone heard anything about the Compass Square project? It's supposed to be located by the conservatory on Dease St - 7 stories and pretty interesting architecture, at least according to the renderings. They've been marketing for some time.

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by ADLS

On another note, I was scrolling through the mls listings. All of the condos at the Thunder Bay country club are no longer listed on mls. Hard to believe they're all sold too. Has anyone heard anything? How's progress been there lately?

I checked into this and I guess its still full steam ahead on the condos. I suspect once the frost begins to lift out of the ground, there will be some more action on the site. Compared to previous years, this spring's thaw has been a little slow, which tends to delay construction activity.

I did not realize it, but the developers on this project wanted to use a wood frame for the condos. Unfortunately, Ontario is still working through the process of allowing wood framing in buildings to 6 stories in height. B.C. has already taken this step. The current building code only allows wood frames in buildings up to 3 stories (i.e. the new TBDSSAB building). If The Club Condos were constructed with wood, it would have been one of the larger wood frame buildings in Canada and North America from what I understand.

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Haven't heard much about Compass Square other than some marketing for the units started up a few months back. The project was shelved a year or two ago because of a lack of demand. It is being sold as a life-lease development, which is new to Thunder Bay and which many people may not understand as a result. That could potentially be part of the issue here. I also don't think their marketing campaign is very strong.

[Dakota]

Hello there !! Im a new user to this site , and enjoy reading some of the posts on here .
I give a strong shout out to VID , and TbayOn for your knowledge of what is going on around here in Thunder Bay , keep up the great work !!
Ive only lived here for a few years , relocating from Southern Ontario and would like to way in on some of your posts and give my take .
Thanks

[vid]

Where in Southern Ontario are you from? I have a coworker from Barrie.

[Dakota]

I lived mostly in the Durham Region area ( Ajax /Pickering / Whitby / Oshawa area )
Ive spent lots of time in Barrie , great city i could see myself living there .

[TbayON]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Hello there !! Im a new user to this site , and enjoy reading some of the posts on here .
I give a strong shout out to VID , and TbayOn for your knowledge of what is going on around here in Thunder Bay , keep up the great work !!
Ive only lived here for a few years , relocating from Southern Ontario and would like to way in on some of your posts and give my take .
Thanks

I have only lived in Thunder Bay, other than a 4 month stint in both Winnipeg 2 summers ago and another 4 month stint in Dryden last summer. You can probably bring some different perspectives on things having lived in another area of Canada before coming to Thunder Bay that I could not.

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The old abandoned house at the corner of Donald and Vickers has burnt. I believe either it, or the one next to it, was for sale for some time now. Both were in bad condition judging by the outside. Hopefully this will help make room for the couple of lots to be re-developed into something a little more suitable for that location (small appt building or a small commercial development). Jonmar has done a decent job fixing up the old 3 storey brick office building across the street, which has improved that corner.

[vid]

The one beside it was a daycare for a short time, and has been on the market for about a year, I think. It's in much better condition than the one that burned.

[TbayON]

The city bylaw dept. is frustrated with all those ugly portable billboards around town:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunde...rack-down.html
Sounds like they are going to be taking some action finally! I hope they get rid of every last one of them. Pretty well every commercial strip in this city is littered with those things and it looks awful. I understand businesses need to advertise their product, but find another way to do it.

Some blasting is going to be taking place at the new health services centre on Oliver. Quite a few blast mats and a couple drill rigs have been brought on site.

All the piles have been driven for the new Holiday Inn, and work has stopped on the site. I believe the building is out for tender right now. I suspect construction will begin shortly. A small restaurant is also included in the development, but will be developed in the future.

[Chadillaccc]

Wow on that news link, it says 80% of the temp signs around the city are placed there illegally! Looks like most will be removed! Yay for less ugliness! However, it only costs $20 bucks to get a permit for one... so they could easily just get a permit and re-erect them Boooo!

[TbayON]

I am sure the city won't want to foot the majority of the cost for policing the signs very long, so I wouldn't be surprised if the fees rise in the near future. I don't think most people locally realize these signs require a permit. The city only started requiring permits a few years back. At least if they are permitted though, the signs will go up in reasonable locations. Currently, they block sight-lines when entering and exiting parking lots, driveways and for that fact, even cause distraction at intersections. They are also hastily held down with a couple cinder blocks, which tend to do nothing when high winds hit the signs. One would presumably have to adhere to guidelines when posting one of these under a permit, which would hopefully help with these issues. As for them being ugly, no permit can help that.

[Dwils01]

Nothing major but the Sault is getting a Dollar Tree in the Cambrian Mall. Everything their is $1.25 or less. Should be better than Dollarama.
The one in Sault Michigan has a huge selection of stuff for only a $1. Can get stuff there that's a dollar cheaper than at Dollarama.