Windsor Ontario News / Homes & Real Estate

Another woodlot-style LaSalle development

Amico Properties Inc. is developing another higher end wooded residential community in LaSalle, matching others in the area including the company’s previously developed Bridgeway – Brooklyn subdivision.

Already Phase 1 of Forest Trail Estates is sold out with lots being serviced and homes to be completed in the summer, president Domenic Amicone said.

The houses price in the $375-600,000 range and feature a woodlot setting.

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Living in the D but also in the V

We've all heard of the D, as in Detroit.

But this is called Living in the V.

Or living in the "Villages" located along the river on Detroit’s east side.

Few Canadians probably know these intact, older and graceful residential areas exist, only a few miles east of the tunnel exit near Belle Isle.

The Villages comprise East Village, West Village, Indian Village, Island View and English Village.

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More than $5B of home renos "cash deals"

Surprise, surprise - the underground economy in the home renovation industry is huge.

A study by the Atlas Group found that 37 percent of all home repairs, or about $5.2 billion, is done through “cash deals.”

The provincial realtors association (their campaign logo left) is raising the issue during the current election campaign.

It says there are 195,000 people employed in the legitimate renovations sector who are “particularly vulnerable” to black market repairs.

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Oh yeah, we love our lawn ornaments

You see them everywhere.

Geese, gnomes, Santa Clauses, lighthouses – some with actual revolving lights!

They’re lawn ornaments, been around for decades, and homeowners love them.

But what used to be popular for one generation isn’t for another.

What’s the appeal of ornaments?

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More homeowners opting for the artificial

More homeowners are opting for synthetic lawns.

One of the firms serving Windsor Essex County is Burlington-based Southwest Greens Ontario.

Company co-owner Heather Loch says synthetic lawns “give people an alternative.”

She says they’re great for people who have lawns that are difficult for growing new turf, or for people fed up with weeding and grass cutting.

Loch says there are even environmental arguments for using synthetic turf.

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Trillium Crt creates new LaSalle subdivision

Roadwork is well underway in LaSalle to make way for the new Trillium Court, a public housing project being moved less than a kilometre from its current site to make way for the Windsor-Essex Parkway.

Excavators have been on the scene over the past month, working even weekends, to construct new roads off Sandwich West Pkwy. and Heritage Dr.

The development will result in a completely new LaSalle subdivision with “new public streets,” according to the Ministry of Transportation, which is overseeing Parkway construction along with related projects like Trillium Court.

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Climate change affecting insurance rates

Global warming or climate change is now being cited for increases in insurance rates.

Unifund Assurance Co., affiliated with Johnson Inc. insurance, is telling homeowners that “climate changes have had significant impact” resulting in increasing water damage claims.

Unifund says that “weather events that, at one time, might occur once every 20 years are now happening on an annual basis.”

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Retirement home temporarily houses flooded-out Banwell Gardens guests

Seasons’ Amherstburg retirement home is temporarily housing 43 Banwell Gardens residents displaced after the Tecumseh nursing home was flooded in February.

The residents were originally relocated to the new Village of Aspen Lake retirement home in Windsor, owned by Schlegel Seniors Villages.

But, said Seasons Retirement Communities’ COO Mike Lavallée, they had been housed in a special care unit for Alzheimer’s patients and those with behavioral problems.

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Upscale "downtown" town homes? Not here

If you’ve driven in Detroit along Woodward Ave. north of Comerica Park, or in downtown Dearborn or Royal Oak (picture left), you’ve probably seen a type of housing that is non-existent in Windsor and Essex County.

It’s the upscale two story town house.

Windsor, Essex or Amherstburg might have town houses of a sort, if you mean the modern type houses attached to one another found, say, in public housing projects or in mid to lower end residential communities.

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Like Mark Twain, rumours about Windsor Crossing's future greatly exaggerated

Rumours of Windsor Crossing’s demise – or even of a move to a new location – are greatly exaggerated.

The LaSalle outlet mall near where the new DRIC border route is being built in all likelihood will remain in its current location, according to general manager Colleen Gosnell.

“With all the rumours going around and everything a lot of people just think that were closing,” she said.

“And it’s really a shame because we’re not closing and there is no intention that we’re closing.”

The crucial issue is how the just over decade-old mall, with some 40 stores, will be impacted by the new border highway.

Already outlets like Applebee’s and Nike have closed their doors.

But, said Gosnell, these outlets are along the mall’s eastern flank – immediately adjacent to the border route.

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