The city of Windsor buys vacant west end school in the hopes it will become housing

The City of Windsor's recent purchase of a vacant school property in the west end isn't just about encouraging housing development — it's about preventing urban blight.

That's according to Coun. Fabio Costante, in whose ward the school is located.

"These are key parcels of property," Costante told CBC Windsor. "This was an effort for us... to control this parcel and to ensure that it goes toward a public good."

The city acquired the former St. Michael's Adult Catholic High School at 477 Detroit St. for a price of around $1.5 million. The purchase from the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board was finalized this past fall.

Costante said council gave direction on the purchase in mid-2024. According to Costante, part of the reasoning was to prevent a private investor from buying the property and then letting it deteriorate with no definite future.

"That's not to say that every investor is going to do this, obviously. There's a lot of good investors that are doing a lot of good things in our community," Costante said.

"But if history tells us anything — we've seen quite a few of these schools and public institutions not go to good uses. This was an opportunity for us to get ahead of that."

Costante pointed to other former school properties in his ward that are currently privately owned, and have been sitting unused for years.

His list includes the former J.L. Forster Secondary School (3244 Edison St.), which stopped operating as a school in 2014; the former J.E. Benson Public Elementary School (1556 Wyandotte St. West), which was also shuttered in 2014; and the former Sacred Heart Elementary School (385 Cameron Ave.), which became Al-Mahdi private school — but has been fenced off since 2011.

"Oftentimes, you'll see windows get shattered, you'll see folks stealing copper out of the interior, or stealing goods that are inside," Costante said.

"And some of these buildings are really beautiful. Benson grade school on Wyandotte is a gorgeous school — and it's sitting vacant on a major road connected to transit... It creates a bit of blight in the neighbourhood, and opportunities for petty crime and things of that nature."

Costante said the city's next steps for the former St. Michael's school will be to put it up for Expressions of Interest (EOI), with the stipulation that the successful applicant must be committed to residential development.

He expects that, sometime this year, the property will join other municipally owned sites that are open for EOI under the Housing Solutions Made For Windsor plan that was announced in March 2024.

"Housing is the top issue in our region," Costante said. "Capital dollars for housing is a big priority... And as this goes through the EOI process, the hope is that (the applicant) would mitigate entirely the cost of purchasing the property."

The building at 477 Detroit St. dates back to 1957, when it was established as St. Francis Catholic Elementary School.

After serving its area for generations, the 28,000-square-foot school was closed by the board in 2010 as part of cost-cutting measures, and due to declining enrolment.

The board then re-branded the school as St. Michael's and opened it for adult education purposes.

In 2023, citing the need for more space, the board moved St. Michael's to the former Catholic Central High School on Tecumseh Road East.

The property at 477 Detroit St. has been unused since then.

"When this property was circulated for sale, provincial legislation at that time required school boards to offer assets to preferred entities... which includes local municipalities. This must occur before publicly listing them for sale" said WECDSB spokesperson Stephen Fields in a statement to CBC Windsor.

Fields added that school boards are required to obtain "fair market value" when they sell such assets.

Anneke Smit, director of the University of Windsor's Centre for Cities, said she's in favour of the municipality taking real steps to increase housing — as well as making changes to zoning to support those steps.

"We live in a city of single-family dwellings, still, primarily. And that has been the biggest push, when it comes to growth, until very recently. So anything that is building at a denser level is a good thing," Smit said.

When school properties are active, they are "part of the character of the neighbourhood," Smit said. When they're left vacant, it means "there's less life on the street... a big block like that is now sitting without any activity. It has an impact in the neighbourhood."

But Smit also expressed compassion for long-time residents of neighbourhoods around such properties, who must deal with a school that has become a vacant eyesore — or the prospect of higher-density housing development.

"These are tough challenges, and it's true that neighbourhoods are changing," Smit said. "A simple answer is that it has to happen, and it has to happen everywhere. We need more housing for everyone."

"But these are tough changes to get used to. Education has to be a part of it — making sure that when these projects happen, the consultation is done in a meaningful way."