Wish list for downtown Windsor

Windsor doesn't have quite the same pedigree of investors, but injections of cash like those by Rob Myers and a planned new boutique hotel are renewing optimism about a turnaround in the city core

“Every time one of these investments happens, the risk profile comes down,” said Downtown BIA Chair Chris MacLeod, who pointed out that Brian Schwab and his group took a big chance when the redevelopment of the old Fish Market began in 2017.

Others have since followed suit.

“The BK Cornerstone people are here and they've done the hive building. They're taking on another block so I think that's how maybe development works. It's a little like monopoly only with real money,” he said.

Downtown City Coun. Renaldo Agostino also feels the core next needs a retail anchor.

“I look at what Detroit did with the Nike store. You know what I mean, they brought in the Nike store all of a sudden you saw Gucci and all these other stores start opening up,” said Agostino, who is hungry for more downtown restaurants. “We've had a lot of great restaurants open in the last two years. We could use five more.”

It seems like an odd wish with the recent announcement that Fourteen Restaurant and Sky Lounge and The Manchester are set to close, but Agostino said there are ongoing talks about The Manchester and a restaurant operator is interested in moving to the top floor at the CIBC building.

Agostino cautions though, none of the above works without urban density.

“People have gotten CIP’s or working on CIP’s whether it's 880, whether it's the Security Building, whether it's the Canada Building. We [have to] get these buildings open. We [have to] get people living downtown,” he said.

MacLeod would like to see a time limit in place for investors to build and a penalty imposed if the agreement expires, “We really need to encourage developers to move forward and build these residential projects because that is the cure to a lot of what ails our downtown.”