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  #661  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2014, 12:27 PM
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When I noticed new posts in the Economy thread, I was curious to see what new plants had announced shut-downs or lay-offs. Happy to have some good news- thanks for it!
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  #662  
Old Posted Aug 22, 2014, 7:20 AM
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These are great news stories and it looks like London, after years of economic stagnation, has finally turned the corner. The greater population is consistently growing at about 4,000 a year and that is faster than many of it's contemporaries such as Vic, Kel, Wind, Nia, St.John, Hal, and Ham. Contrary to popular belief London is also growing only a shade slower than Kitchener.

London has a well educated workforce and a well diversified economy and this is reflected in it's strong housing market, especially in the Core. Why the city decided to axe the Fanshawe deal is anybody's guess.
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  #663  
Old Posted Aug 22, 2014, 1:50 PM
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Fanshawe having a presence downtown is great, but I don't think taxpayers should be on the hook for more than they already are. I spent years (90s-00s) in the Concordia ghetto outside namesake university in Montreal. With 35,000 students (etc.), you'd think the area would have been booming. The sad truth is that it was not. Let's face it, students are often quite restricted on income, and may only have a buck or two for lunch/coffee an the odd beer. I want a downtown that is more than just a huge number of Fanshawe students. Also, consider their facilities out on Oxfart: will these be partially emptied? Is it another famous London example of Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

I've never known a college/uni administration to say "no" to construction monies. They are addicted to it. E.g., every stinking year, Western road is revamped for no good reason. Now it is 2 million to move the entrance to Springett Lot. What a waste of money.
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  #664  
Old Posted Aug 25, 2014, 6:24 PM
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Contrary to popular belief London is also growing only a shade slower than Kitchener.
I generally agree with the sentiments in your post, but this is one popular belief that is actually borne out. According to StatsCan, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo grew 1.1% from 2012 to 2013 and 3.5% from 2010 to 2013. For London, it was 0.8% and 2.6%. That’s a bit more than a shade slower.
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  #665  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2014, 4:52 AM
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Maybe more than a shade but all the comments on these threads make it sound like London is dying and Kitchener is growing by leaps and bounds and neither is even remotely close to the truth.

I understand what you are saying about Fanshawe but a comparison to Montreal is disingenuous. Montreal already has a massive student population downtown and a very populas and vibrant downtown. London is well on the rebound and is light years from where it was 20 years ago but a major post-secondary would do it a world of good.

If London were to put up the monery, which I think they should have, what they should have done is demand something from Fanshawe in exchange. Either in the way of building student housing downtown or Fanshawe having to pony up some of it's money to fund LTC late-night service from downtown to Fanshawe as London city should be demanding of Western.

If Fanshawe and Western both tacked on just a $2 fee onto each course with 60,000 fulltime students that would result in well over $1 million a year for LTC late-night service on a few select major routes.
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  #666  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2014, 12:10 PM
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Maybe more than a shade but all the comments on these threads make it sound like London is dying and Kitchener is growing by leaps and bounds and neither is even remotely close to the truth.

I understand what you are saying about Fanshawe but a comparison to Montreal is disingenuous. Montreal already has a massive student population downtown and a very populas and vibrant downtown. London is well on the rebound and is light years from where it was 20 years ago but a major post-secondary would do it a world of good.

If London were to put up the monery, which I think they should have, what they should have done is demand something from Fanshawe in exchange. Either in the way of building student housing downtown or Fanshawe having to pony up some of it's money to fund LTC late-night service from downtown to Fanshawe as London city should be demanding of Western.

If Fanshawe and Western both tacked on just a $2 fee onto each course with 60,000 fulltime students that would result in well over $1 million a year for LTC late-night service on a few select major routes.
Waterloo Region has performed a lot better than London in the last decade, fifteen years. That is not necessarily to suggest that this will continue.

I would not characterize London's downtown as having too many students around; I would still describe it as a 9 to 5 downtown which lacks amenities that keep people after work, and make them consider living there. The municipal government should have put up the money, I think: students are likely to choose to live near their schools, and support the amenities the downtown needs (not just bars...also groceries and other retail).

In Hamilton, McMaster Student Union recently voted to increase the price the students pay for their bus pass (which works a lot like it does with the LTC) to expand late-night service on certain bus lines that tend to serve student populations. I think that the transit service kicked in some of the funding, as appropriate. But that would be a good model to follow, I think: put it to students to vote on increasing their fees in exchange for later service on a few lines.
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  #667  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2014, 12:05 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ssiguy View Post
Maybe more than a shade but all the comments on these threads make it sound like London is dying and Kitchener is growing by leaps and bounds and neither is even remotely close to the truth.

I understand what you are saying about Fanshawe but a comparison to Montreal is disingenuous. Montreal already has a massive student population downtown and a very populas and vibrant downtown. London is well on the rebound and is light years from where it was 20 years ago but a major post-secondary would do it a world of good.

If London were to put up the monery, which I think they should have, what they should have done is demand something from Fanshawe in exchange. Either in the way of building student housing downtown or Fanshawe having to pony up some of it's money to fund LTC late-night service from downtown to Fanshawe as London city should be demanding of Western.

If Fanshawe and Western both tacked on just a $2 fee onto each course with 60,000 fulltime students that would result in well over $1 million a year for LTC late-night service on a few select major routes.
I'm very much in favour of the City helping out Fanshawe, but I do agree with asking Fanshawe for something in return. Fanshawe should pay for some of the proposed BRT.
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  #668  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2014, 12:29 AM
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Sobeys, LCBO to sprout in corn field

For many years a corn field has incongruously been growing at the corner of one of London’s busiest intersections.

But the northeast corner of Oxford St. W. and Wonderland Rd. will soon sprout a large new commercial development, anchored by a Sobeys supermarket and an LCBO outlet.

The 10,000 sq. m. project is being developed by the ESAM Group. Founded by Sam Katz and Ewald Bierbaum, the company is best known for the Cherryhill residential-commercial complex farther east on Oxford St. W.

ESAM has been negotiating with the city’s planning department for over a year. Eric Conway of the planning department said issues such as stormwater and parking have been largely settled but there are still negotiations about how the buildings will be situated at the corner of the busy intersection.

“We are very far along in the negotiations...They would like to get servicing this fall and full permits in the spring,” Conway said.

The Sobeys supermarket will anchor the property on the east side with two retail plazas, each with four to five businesses, fronting on Oxford St. W. to the south and Farrah Rd. on the north.

On the west side, a larger office-restaurant retail complex will be built on the corner of Wonderland Road and Oxford St. W.

The site is zoned for commercial development but has been used for agricultural purposes as a default. Conway said.

The Sobeys store will be the second in London, with the other located on Adelaide St. N.

In recent years the Sobeys chain has focused on converting its Price Chopper outlets to the FreshCo brand.

Conway said there is an unrelated development on an adjacent site with Costco applying to install a gas bar to complement its retail store.

He expects that ESAM will begin installing services on the site this fall.

“I know they would like to be out there servicing tomorrow, but I think this fall would be quite reasonable,” Conway said.

--- --- ---

ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT

Location: northeast corner of Oxford St. and Wonderland Rd.

Project: Sobeys grocery store, LCBO, retail space

Builder: ESAM
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  #669  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2014, 3:40 AM
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I always wondered why that piece of land was never developed. Basically there is nothing between Westown Plaza Mall and Wonderland and I could never understand why.
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  #670  
Old Posted Sep 1, 2014, 1:54 AM
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I always wondered why that piece of land was never developed. Basically there is nothing between Westown Plaza Mall and Wonderland and I could never understand why.
The section between Cherryhill Village and Fleetway 40 is very low, and thus difficult and expensive to service (in terms of sewers). It will be a long time before economics make servicing that location worthwhile.

The lot at the corner of Wonderland and Oxford is just something they have been sitting on 'till the price/development was right. Seeing that Esam is winding down, I would guess that this is not what they would have have originally wanted, but are now taking what they would have got offered 5 or 10 years ago (i.e. another big box development) for the sake of expediency. In the end, a mediocre use of a prime location.
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  #671  
Old Posted Sep 1, 2014, 1:34 PM
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I'm glad to see that area getting a full-service grocery store again. It was always a mystery to me why Price Chopper was closed and never converted to FreshCo, particularly with the large number of Western students and other people living nearby. Perhaps it was more of a vote against London Mall.
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  #672  
Old Posted Sep 2, 2014, 12:03 AM
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Probably because the London Mall is anything but Fresh.
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  #673  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 1:55 AM
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Fanshawe gets its cash, Matt Brown gets the credit

Wooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The biggest winner in Tuesday night’s stunning decision by city council to help fund Fanshawe College’s plan to turn an empty department store into downtown classrooms may not be the core boosters who pushed hard for the project.

It may be the tepid-until-now mayoral campaign of Matt Brown, whose last-minute compromise solved a political puzzle and derailed the opposition led by his chief rival, Joe Swan.

In a surprising move, Coun. Denise Brown — who in July helped kill the plan to give Fanshawe $10 million to buy the vacant Kingsmill’s building — supported a revised plan for $9 million, her swing vote turning an expected 8-7 rejection into an 8-7 approval.

“Without them, I maybe would not have been able to support it,” Denise Brown said of her namesake’s amendments. “So that meant a lot, yes.”

Matt Brown, 40, is pitched in a mayoral battle against two other presumed front-runners, Swan and ex-politician Roger Caranci, but it had been Swan who stole the headlines recently as he sought to block, as he did in July, the Fanshawe request.

It would have been no surprise had the 8-7 bloc held up, despite near-unprecedented public pressure to OK the deal that will turn Fanshawe’s downtown campus to 2,000 students, from the 1,000 originally proposed.

But Brown swayed Brown, and the deal is approved.

“This is a win for our community,” Matt Brown said. “Leadership is about collaboration. Leadership is about working together to get things done.”

Though Swan tried to credit his efforts with forcing his rival to find some savings — “I think Coun. (Matt) Brown smelled the coffee” — it’s hard to interpret this as anything but a problem for the 58-year-old veteran. He’d been running campaign ads built on his opposition to helping Fanshawe get Kingsmill’s, a push that ultimately failed.

That’s not to say Swan can’t bounce back — it’s way too early to call the mayoral race — but one lesser-known candidate who watched Tuesday’s vote saw a clear defeat for Swan.

“Big-time (win) for Mr. Brown,” said Paul Cheng. “It’s a win for Mr. Brown.”

Caranci, too, had urged council to approve this project.

But that looked unlikely when, on July 29, council fell one vote shy of giving the school an additional $10 million to help bankroll its Kingsmill’s dream, which would have turned the downtown campus, now with 400 students, into 2,000.

The London Downtown Business Association then chipped in $1 million, which side-stepped an insurmountable political hurdle to get the request back to council — this time seeking $9 million from city coffers.

Tuesday, Matt Brown proposed two other amendments to ease the price tag and the political pressure:

B The city would rescind its offer to forego the $75-per-student fee it gets from Fanshawe, meaning the 1,000 students going into Kingsmill’s would produce $750,000 over the next decade.

B If the project, slated for $66.2 million, comes in under budget, city hall would get those savings, up to $9 million.

When those were incorporated into the plan, it passed 8-7. Those opposed were Bud Polhill, Bill Armstrong, Swan, Stephen Orser, Dale Henderson, Paul Van Meerbergen and Sandy White.

In 2010, city council agreed to a deal in which they’d give Fanshawe $20 million to help it buy two downtown buildings and turn them into classrooms for 1,000 students.

Fanshawe’s plans for Kingsmill’s were much more ambitious — bringing the total, two-building headcount to 2,000 — but were only possible if it got an additional $9 million from city hall, which has now been approved.
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  #674  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 2:08 AM
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This really is great news for the Core.

Students, love em or hate em, always bring life to an era especially after dark. Students also spend quite a bit of their budget on entertainments and cheap dining out and cafes both of which will help the core after business hours.

Students like to live near schools and that may mean more people moving downtown and a better chance of finally getting a downtown grocery store. Students also tend to like more individual shops than the big retailers and especially Walmart and this fits in well with the Core's emphasis on stressing it's uniqueness and individuality.

These are also jobs coming downtown meaning lunch hour shoppers/dinners and some employees will end up moving downtown. This is a big deal as well because college jobs are always well paid. These are not low wage jobs coming to the Core but very well paid ones.

I'm very glad this went thru and I think this will have as big an impact on the Core as the Bush Centre has.
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  #675  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 2:15 AM
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Sanity prevails. Finally. Congrats to the progressive thinkers who finally broke this logjam of illogic.

For those politicians who were against this: I've never in my professional career seen such a group of self-serving/incompetent/small minded/backwards-thinking "municipal leaders" (excluding perhaps the Fords).

This was a deal that most mid-sized cities could only dream of, and those fools tried to shove the silver platter it was being served up on back into the face of those offering up.

Words cannot describe my disdain for those who tried to kill this project.
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  #676  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 3:35 AM
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Very good news for the core.

And to anyone who thinks Matt Brown is too young to be Mayor: Tom Gosnell was only 34 when he was elected Mayor of London. If I still lived in London I'd consider voting for him.
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  #677  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 3:41 AM
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come back, vote for him, go away
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  #678  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 12:45 PM
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Originally Posted by manny_santos View Post
Very good news for the core.

And to anyone who thinks Matt Brown is too young to be Mayor: Tom Gosnell was only 34 when he was elected Mayor of London. If I still lived in London I'd consider voting for him.
That's right, age doesn't matter if you have the right candidate. Eddie Francis was only 29 when he became mayor, and many consider him to be one of the best mayors Windsor has ever had. He was also instrumental in bringing both St. Clair College and the University of Windsor to the core to build their respective DT campuses!
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  #679  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 12:53 PM
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No doubt, Matt Brown's campaign has wind in its sails. I already decided I would vote for him when he announced. I know him somewhat (his son is the same age as my son, and they were friends for a few years when they attended the same school). He has integrity (something AMdeC-B and Fraudtana lacked) and he is probably going to favor policies directed towards families and younger folk...which is what London sorely needs.

I read somewhere that from a recent graduating class, not a single one of IVEY's MBA graduates ended up staying in London.
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  #680  
Old Posted Sep 3, 2014, 12:56 PM
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I am happy to see that the proposal was not only resurrected but approved. This is a rare moment where council has done something good, although on the second try.
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