Walkerville restauranteur planning to open business downtown  

Vito Maggio, who has always enjoyed Windsor’s downtown, is set to open up shop there in the near future.

“I'm very excited to go downtown and make this happen,” he said.

Maggio is not moving any of his current restaurants away from Walkerville but he is going to fill a vacant building with activity. He bought the old City Grill late last year.

“When that opportunity came up that I could purchase it I was really excited to keep on growing,” he said.

He hasn’t committed to a business model but has a lot of ideas.

Maggio also doesn’t know exactly when he’ll open but he definitely says he is not going to let the property sit and collect dust.

“There's a lot going down. The farmers market is down there. There's a lot of people starting to move downtown,” he explained.

And that, according to the vice chair of the BIA, will be a big part of the turnaround downtown.

“People living down here, it will necessitate the need for those businesses and those vacant properties to open businesses that serve the residents as well as the visitors,” said Pat Papadeas. “All cities are known by the vitality. The downtown is the heart of any city and that's just the truth. Does it deserve special attention? In my opinion of course it does.

There are many residential projects that are completed or currently underway. Others are being planned.

“People sitting on any vacant properties, what are they gonna do when there are folks surrounding and walking so it actually solves part of their problem. It's actually part of economics and part of a business solution,” Papadeas said.

With many encouraging signs on the horizon, including the LG battery plant, there is reason to believe that new spaces like Art Alley, unveiled this week, will help continue the positive momentum being experienced downtown.

“This is not scientific but our sense is that 80 per cent of any issues we have downtown will actually solve themselves by people being down here,” said Papadeas.