‘This is what urban living is all about’: The Hive on Pelissier Street first of many housing developments coming in downtown Windsor

After years of construction, ‘The Hive’ on Pelissier Street in downtown Windsor is officially opening, making it the first new residential project to rise downtown in nearly a half-century.

“It’s pretty amazing to be a part of it too, hopefully we’re trailblazing a path that’s going to have others jump on board,” said Brent Klundert, the vice president of BK Cornerstone, one of the partners who built the condo, touting 24 luxury units and three ground-floor commercial spaces at 531 Pelissier St.

“A really nice amenity space and of course, this second-floor patio that kind of overlooks the Pelissier Street and Maiden Lane area,” said Klundert, whose team took advantage of the city’s community improvement plan (CIP) tax incentives to help bring the project over the finish line.

About half of the units are still available, according to Klundert.

The project was so successful, BK Cornerstone is announcing the next project, a 68-unit condo at the corner of Pelissier and Wyandotte streets at the former Music Cafe.

“Downtown is going to have a resurgence and it’s going to be pretty cool to be a part of it,” he said.

“We’ve been saying it all along: Downtown needed people, people, people,” Ward 3 city councillor Rino Bortolin said. “And to get those people, you need to have somewhere to live.”

Bortolin said The Hive and other proposed residential projects are exciting for the core, because they will spur more business opportunities and support existing enterprises, including the downtown Farmer’s Market, which happens every Saturday at the doorstop of the condo.

“What you have is you’re building in hundreds and into the thousands of new people new customers that are here every day who need services from breakfast to dinner and everything in between,” Bortolin said. “This is actually what urban living and living downtown is all about.”

And it’s just a few of many other projects in the pipeline, including at the former YMCA building on Pelissier St. and 13 more a few doors down at a former bar.

Rhys Trenhaile and his team of investors will be adding hundreds of units at the Canada Building and the Former Knights of Columbus Building, but are still waiting on final approvals and permits from the city.

“Windsorites have to keep the faith there are all of these projects in the downtown core in the pipeline. But it takes years, and it really shouldn’t take years,” he said.

Trenhaile says red tape created by overbearing provincial regulation gets filtered down to the municipality, where bureaucrats “dot every I and cross every t,” which he says is stifling development.

Until the process is smoothed out, he says the hundreds of proposed new units will take longer than hoped and the housing crisis and downtown Windsor’s resurgence will only be delayed.

“It’s taking more time than it should,” Trenhaile said, hoping the province tackles the problem in short order.

“Once you get through all that, builders can build, renovators can renovate and you can start solving this housing crisis.”