New Windsor development banking on Bitcoin

With many new professionals expected to migrate to the area, local developer Ray Blanchard is introducing a new apartment complex focused on their needs.

“These are transitional homes for executives that are looking at Windsor to possibly stay long term before they buy their million-dollar homes,” said Blanchard.

The development is called The Bitcoin Building. How does bitcoin fit into a rental complex? There are major tax incentives Blanchette wanted to capitalize on. In order to do so he turned the residential building into an energy efficient venture that provided Lead Certification.

“The reason why we went for it is because it freezes your property taxes for ten years which is a big economic incentive,” said Blanchard, who bought solar panels to make unit electricity dependent.

At first he thought the panels would handle 80 to 90 per cent of energy needs. He now estimates creating up to double the energy leaving him with a surplus he can’t sell back to the grid.

“I have this little commercial space that I kept for my zoning and I thought we’ll why don’t I put some bitcoin mining in there. Those things use up a lot of energy.”

Again, he ran into a surplus of heat building up from the machine which needed to be released somehow.

“This is energy we can reuse,” said Blanchard, who purchased electric hybrid water tanks. “We’re going to put ducts overtop over the bit coin miners feeding the warm air into the hot water tanks which heats the water almost for free.”

The energy will help heat hallways and stairwells. Blanchard is already thinking of ways to reuse heat not needed during the warmer months.

Bitcoin is celebrated throughout the building and Blanchard says tenants will be allowed to pay rent with Bitcoin as well.