Slow progress on Sudbury condo projects, but developers still upbeat

"Is it still happening?" is a question that Greg Oldenburg has gotten used to answering.

The developer trying to turn the old Northern Breweries building on Lorne Street into the Brewer Lofts announced his ambitious plans three years ago, but little has changed to the outside of the aging industrial structure.

"I can understand people's viewpoint from the outside saying 'Why is it taking so long?'" says Oldenburg, who grew up in Sudbury, but now lives in Toronto.

"But if I showed you all the drawings and all the paperwork and other sorts of things you have to bring forward to get things like this approved, it's quite daunting."

Inside, Oldenburg has built a model suite to show prospective buyers what they'd be getting.

He says he has sold 12 of the 50 units, which start at $185,000, to everyone from local businesspeople to a clergyman, but needs to sell about 20 more before construction can begin.

Oldenburg believes there are people in Sudbury who want to live in a condo, but says they are looking for something unique that they can personalize to their own tastes.

"They're not really interested in the condo market, because enough compelling product isn't in the marketplace," he says.

The other big and unique condominium project is also in a major landmark building, where not a lot appears to be happening on the outside.

The old Sudbury General Hospital, also known as St. Joseph's hospital, closed in 2010. For the past five years, Panoramic Properties has been working to convert it into 210 luxury condos.

Here's what it looked like on the inside last year:

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But architect Michael Allen says they've hit snag after snag since then.

He says interior work at the old hospital was put off this winter when hydro couldn't be connected to keep workers warm, but adds that about $1 million in other infrastructure was invested in the building.

Allen says a contractor was supposed to start work in April on the concrete for a new wing and a parking garage, but has too much work in the red hot housing market in Toronto to come north.

He says with the short building season in Sudbury, if arrangements can't be made soon, construction could be delayed a full year until spring 2018.

"There have been delays, there have been frustrations, disappointments, but that is part of the process when you're doing developments of this magnitude," says Allen.

There are several big condo projects on the books in Sudbury, but few have actually been built. 

J. Corsi Developments did build the 31-unit Copper Park Villa in the south end a few years ago.

Project manager Paul Corsi says they've attracted young professionals and some downsizing seniors, but says about half of the tenants want to rent instead of buying a condo for $350,000 and up.

"I think it's still too new. There's a lot of options in Sudbury. It's not really mainstream yet," says Corsi.

Corsi's company also has approval for a 60-unit tower on Long Lake Road, but he says that project is shelved until Sudbury sees the kind of growth that drives the condo business in other cities.

"We don't grow here. We seem to maintain the same population, nothing that will spark large developments and big projects," he says.