Windsor Ontario News / Buildings, Homes & Real Estate

Hydrants glow in the day and in the night

Motorists driving along local roads may have noticed something new in recent weeks – circular blue reflectors around the side arms of fire hydrants. LaSalle’s Front Road is a good place to see them. Fire chief Dave Sutton says the rings “have recently become available” and are a “cost-effective alternate to painting required colours on the hydrant.” The rings “are highly visible in daytime & night time conditions which also assists in locating hydrants quickly in emergencies.” Sutton said the local public works department, which manages the water system, “has begun installing the discs on a phased in approach over several years.” – 16/8/17

Developer scouting heritage building

Fresh from buying and in the process of restoring the more than 100-year-old Walker Power Building along Riverside Dr. E., engineer Piero Aleo (pictured inside that structure) says he’s “interested” in a similar redevelopment of the Lufkin Rule building on Caron Ave. “I have been speaking to Chris Holt about the building. We are interested to look at it,” Aleo said. “The location is less than ideal and that’s what concerns me.” The city wants to demolish the 1904 building. That’s been put on hold for six months while the city tries to sell the abandoned structure, about which it has structural safety concerns. The city took ownership of the once private building, which housed various businesses, in 2012. Councillor Chris Holt said it was ironic the city has let the building rot in place. It’s on the city’s heritage register. - 11/5/17

Rent controls would kill budding new apt market - economist

High profile Canadian bank analyst Benjamin Tal (left) says the worst thing the province could do to kill a budding apartment construction industry is bring back rent controls, which don’t exist for new buildings. Tal, CIBC’s deputy chief economist, was reacting to a call to reintroduce the controls because of a more than 10 per cent average rent increase in Toronto last year due to the shift in apartment construction because of the city’s overheated housing market. Some 5000 new apartment units are about to hit the market with 28,000 proposed. Tal said some developers are already cancelling projects. “Even the very mention of rental control as an option is having a chilling effect on developers,” the Financial Post quoted Tal as saying. “From recent discussions with developers we know that it’s already impacting decisions.” – 7/4/17

New Ouellette health centre has wow factor

A new medical landmark is taking shape on Ouellette Avenue but the doctors involved in the clinical practice aren’t interested in talking about it. Requests by WON.com to obtain comment from physicians at the Smile and Body clinic were turned down. According to the clinic’s website there are four physicians practicing as aesthetics doctors including Chris Blue and Herman Kupeyan. The clinic provides dentistry and implant dentistry, facelifts, acne scar-removal and neck lifts. If aesthetics is the name of the game the doctors surely will have a spectacular new building that symbolizes it, full of different levels and lots of glass. The office at 1083 Ouellette (aka Ouellette Health Centre) at the corner of Pine St. has been temporarily moved while the centre, originally a large older house, gets the makeover, enveloped by the new construction. Keystone General Contractors of Windsor, whose portfolio includes Lighting Boutique on Walker and Leopards Lounge on Wyandotte St., got the commission. – 21/2/17

Old - not heritage - garage, coming down

An old garage that makes up part of a piece of land for a new Sandwich Towne library will be torn down. But other older buildings on the site, including a horse stable, will remain in place when the new John Muir Public Library starts construction, likely this spring. The three door garage has no significant value, according to a city report. “It is a minor property feature, less than half the size of the adjacent stable,” it says. “This garage structure has a hodgepodge of concrete block ... and in some areas severely deteriorated.” Once demolished the area will be landscaped. The new library will incorporate “adaptive reuse” of the fire hall, fronting on Mill Street, as well as the stable located between the hall and garage. City project manager Joe Dattilo said “designated substances” like asbestos and lead will have to be removed. The city is receiving proposals for prequalification from contractors. Tenders will go out this spring. The new building will link the fire hall and stable, separated by about 30 ft. Parking will be located where a gravel lot now exists. John Muir was a former local principal and tireless advocate for a Sandwich library. He died in July. Up to now the library has shared space with General Brock Public School. – 5/1/17

COMMENT - A'burg's motel woes over?

With the news that Amherstburg town council has voted to purchase Duffy’s Tavern and accompanying Motor Inn (Re/Max price $2,500,888, council bought for $1.675-million) this raises an intriguing question about the town’s quickly diminishing tourist accommodation market. Since the municipality doesn’t plan to run the motel but tear it down that will throw perhaps a couple of dozen motel rooms off the market. That in turn leaves only one motel, the recently refurbished Blue Haven at the town’s south end. Amherstburg wants to become a sports destination market, especially with its newish double pad Libro sportsplex. But it has been hard pressed to attract a major hotel. Now, with Duffy’s closing, will this finally trigger an investor to come forward and offer such accommodation? – 14/9/16

Canada joins world with emergency sign change

The old red and white EXIT signs in public buildings are becoming a thing of the past. The government of Canada has adopted a new standard depicting a green “running man” pictogram. This signage has long been used in many other countries around the world but is finally being adopted in Canada, after new regulations overseen by the National Research Council took effect in 2010. Spokeswoman Gabrielle Giasson says they’re now part of provincial building codes. Newly constructed buildings in Windsor-Essex are sporting the signs, as are even older buildings that have had signage upgrades. “One of the concerns addressed by replacing the plain legible letters of the word EXIT was related to the globalization and the need for recognition of diversity and potential language barriers,” Giasson said. ” There was also an inconsistency of application of standard for exit signs in buildings, which led to multiple variations of EXIT signs that could have led to potential confusion for building occupants.” The fact Canada has more people speaking different languages also sparked the change. “People can recognize this coming from different counties,” said the NRC’s fire safety team coordinator Philip Rizcallah. – 10/8/16

More agents jumping into local market

No surprise but the hot real estate market had enticed more people to jump in and become realtors. Norm Langlois, president of the Windsor Essex County Association of Realtors, said there are currently 865 relators, compared to 798 “four or five years ago.” Is the red hot (after all these years) market driving the employment numbers? “Of course,” Langlois said. Year to date sales in May were up almost 18 per cent and the average price in May was up 12.75 per cent to $235,011 from $208,441 in May of last year. Langlois said people just want to “get in there and make some money...We’ve got so many people buying and so many houses being sold.” There have also been two new brokerages created this year but both owners were formerly with other firms and “broke away,” Langlois said. Would-be realtors have to pass an exam and obtain a licence from the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO). They also must first article with a firm. – 28/6/16

Modernist pop to Sandwich Towne's business street

Motorists cruising along Sandwich Street in west Windsor might be doing a double take when seeing the first modern – some might say ultra modern – building under construction there in some time, and with a decided wow factor. An office building for accountants and lawyers? A new medical clinic? Condos? Nope. It will be the new home of the latest city boutique brewery, the Sandwich Brewing Co. The former 120-year-old nondescript two storey building, arguably an eyesore, has been gutted and redone inside and out but using some of the original Robinet brick and importing more historic brick from Detroit. Among the other architectural touches there’s handcrafted coated copper façade cladding. “The views from inside and out are going to be spectacular,” the company says in a Twitter post. The brewery is immediately east of the Rock Bottom Bar & Grill. Perhaps the building will be a turning point for other new development along Sandwich Street, or re-use of existing buildings with a modern take. As we've seen in Detroit, often all it takes is one new development to set a trend, for the better. Despite the neighbour’s pride in its history surely no one will miss the building the brewery is replacing. As the Twitter feed says, “Sure to be missed by Sandwich Towne…..not.”– 11/4/16

Up and coming firm rebrands itself

One of the area’s up and coming architecture and engineering firms has rebranded itself. What used to be Crozier Baird is now Baird AE (Architecture and Engineering). The firm has been involved in a number of high profile projects including three in Leamington, where the company started in 1982 but which moved its head office to downtown Windsor three years ago. These include the Central 33 office building, Seacliff Heights condo-style apartments, and the design for a new waterfront amphitheatre. In Windsor it has been involved in the conversion of an Erie Street industrial building into modern offices, and the Windsor Club’s new look. “We’re doing a number of high end residential homes,” president Matt Baird said. “We have a bunch of other projects on the go but they’re a little bit too early to mention.” The name change reflects a greater emphasis on the design side. “The architecture group has been growing and growing,” Baird said. -8/1/16