City will soon open expression of interest for former Grace Hospital site

If you're a developer interested in building on the former Grace Hospital site, the city wants to hear from you. 

A previously planned "global village" development by Fairmount Properties LLC was the subject of a lawsuit after the city opted not to sell the property. This week, both parties announced the lawsuit was dropped.

Now, the site in downtown Windsor at the corner of University and Crawford is a blank canvas. 

Peter Valente is the president of Valente Development, one company that originally submitted a proposal to develop the property.

That development would have included a health-care complex and urgent care centre, with a pharmacist and a team of doctors on board, seniors' housing and a letter of support for student housing on the site. 

"I thought we submitted a really good project that would have been built by now," Valente said. 

When asked if they'd be interested in developing the site now, Valente says he still feels that would be a good use for the property.

"We're really busy with a lot of projects at this time," he said. "We're going to look at [the expression of interest] when it comes out and if we can make it work we might consider putting a proposal, throwing our hat in the ring."

Two people living in the area had their own ideas for what they'd like to see. 

"Subsidized housing," said Kurt Durance. 

"Maybe stuff for the youth to do, maybe a gaming activity or like something for entertainment," said Mica Harris. 

Matthew Johnson is the city's executive director of economic development. He says an expression of interest will soon go out for the site. From there, the city will review and options will be presented to council for direction. 

But Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says he's not sure that an affordable housing development, as some have suggested, is in the cards. 

"Everyone wants affordable housing … but with the price of real estate, real estate, the price of building materials, the interest rates that are in place today, the labour costs, there is very little that's affordable in the market," Dilkens said, adding that if a developer wanted to go the route of smaller units and more density, the city would support that. 

"This development, as every other development, will be market driven."