Old vs.New Downtown

A new war is about to start in Windsor. It represents a battle between the old and the new. It will be brutal with no holds barred. The stakes will be huge not only from the financial position of the combatants but for the future of this City.

The fight will start over a call centre but it will escalate very, very quickly. The war will be fought over where Windsor’s future downtown will be. Will it be our existing Downtown or will it be moved to the new downtown, right next to the new East End Arena:

• “London-based developer Shmuel Farhi will demolish the former Lear Corporation plant on Lauzon Road this fall, clearing the way for a massive development that could top $100 million and include a hotel, restaurants, retail outlets, apartment towers and senior-citizen residences…
  
  I can see eventually 60 acres being developed ... the equivalent of an entire downtown,"

Our Mayor who in my opinion is no fan of the existing downtown signalled the start of the war recently in a Gord Henderson column.

• “Mayor Eddie Francis said it's "bittersweet news" that the plant is being demolished. "My first priority would be to have a plant open and people working." But it's better, he agreed, to have redevelopment in the Lauzon/Tecumseh area than a padlocked plant. "You want activity. You want action," said Francis. "The entire Lauzon Road corridor is going to come to life again. This just adds to and complements the activity at the WFCU Centre. Shrewd investors are already picking up properties."

How can Eddie be a fan when he allowed the Downtown to move eastward towards the Casino? How can he be when he effectively killed off the Urban Village by never issuing a Request for Proposal for the area and using the Engineering Complex to stall off revitalization of that area. Yes, how can he be when he broke his election campaign promise about a downtown arena and moved it out to the East End, all at taxpayer expense.

Remember what we read about events at the East And arena:

• “As for economic spin-offs from the new WFCU Centre, Lescanec said anything which creates activity is beneficial. "Any time you can get 4,000 or 5,000 people to come down to an event, that has to help."

Can you imagine what would have taken place on New Years Eve if Jay Leno was at the Casino and there was also another big act booked at our downtown arena… 10,000 plus big spenders in our downtown!

Oh I have not forgotten about the canal vision. It is nothing more than a stall as far as I’m concerned notwithstanding what Mr. Cooke’s Report may say. It will stall all development in the downtown as if it was an Interim Control Bylaw but without the fuss of actually passing one. Think I am wrong… where is the RFP for the urban village after the Engineering Complex downtown was killed.

Why do I say the war will start over a call centre. It will be the “shot heard round the City,” just like the one that started World War I.

I am sure that you recall this recent story:

• “Developer hoping to build new call centre
  Rogers, unnamed firm could bring 2,500 jobs
  
  A proposed call and client service centre operated by telecommunications giant Rogers Communication and another unnamed company would bring up to 2,500 jobs to downtown Windsor, a local developer says.
  
  Joe Mikhail of Mikhail Holdings said Windsor is in competition with London for the project, which would involve construction of a 200,000 square foot building at an undisclosed location in the downtown.”

Competition with London? Do you remember this one back in 2006:

• “With the swap of 40 acres to the city, Farhi will be left with about 70 acres to develop.
  
  He is also working on attracting a call centre to the 90,000 square feet of office space he owns in the Lear plant.
  
  Farhi said he foresees the Lear plant moving to an industrial area in a few years, which would pave the way for him and other landowners in the area to create a commercial and recreational hub surrounding the new arena. "This place, the way I see it, it is going to be transformed into a new development."

If in fact Mr. Farhi is interested, then he would be a formidable competitor because he is located in both London and Windsor so he can offer sites in both places. Moreover, thanks to the Star, now he knows that Rogers wants to set up a call centre somewhere.

It seems very clear that the initial combatants will be Messrs Farhi and Mikhail. Here is what Mr. Mikhail is talking about from a Henderson column back in June, 2005. The only big difference is that the arena went to the east rather than to the Raceway property:

• “Windsor developer Joe Mikhail thinks the city must have rocks in its head to be contemplating an arena project at Windsor Raceway that will, in his view, amount to a lavish gift to neighbouring LaSalle.
  
  Mikhail, a partner with his brother, Lou, in Mikhail Holdings, a firm that owns properties in Toronto, across Southwestern Ontario and in downtown Windsor, warns that the city is making a huge planning mistake, one that will pound another nail in downtown's coffin, in supporting a far-west-end site for a new Spitfires home.
  
  He admits, straight up, that his firm has a vested interest in downtown, having spent more than $2 million to acquire a number of core properties at bargain basement prices, including the former National Bank building at Ouellette and University that now boasts a Starbucks outlet and oodles of vacant space.
  
  He also senses he's wasting his breath since the fix is in to make the city a financial partner in the raceway project. "It's a done deal. They (council) smelled the easy way out. They looked at the numbers and saw little risk. The deal is done and now it's a selling game."
  
  A key part of that sales pitch, in his opinion, is all the hoopla about building an "urban village" on the downtown site that was acquired for an arena. He suspects that project is both unsustainable and unlikely to have the dramatic impact its boosters are predicting. "I doubt very much this will ever get off the ground. It doesn't make sense from a dollar perspective. You'll never get the tenant base."
  
  He said there are already thousands of people living downtown in highrise condos and yet the area has almost zero retail. "Spreading them out at ground level in townhouses. What's that going to do?"
  
  Downtown's fate was sealed 15 years ago, in Mikhail's view, when the council of the day agreed to sell land in its industrial parks for office developments at below market rates. A parade of law firms, accounting companies and other white-collar operations fled downtown for new quarters near the E.C. Row that had, in effect, been paid for by city taxpayers. "They drained the downtown and then they wonder why there's nobody downtown," he scoffed."That was the kiss of death back then."
  
  Now, said Mikhail, the city is repeating that disastrous error by offering taxpayer dollars (at least $15 million) to move an arena, long promised to a dying downtown, to the city limits.
  
  It's throwing in the towel for downtown. It will be a 100 per cent subsidy for LaSalle. It's just ludicrous to suggest that taking an arena to LaSalle is a good fit." He said smart folks will be acquiring nearby properties. "LaSalle will look more attractive to anybody in the development business."

I believe that opposition to redevelopment of the East End site will be extremely difficult considering that Mr. Farhi already has a rezoning there that will permit offices in the existing building. So what if the building is torn down, the principle of having offices there is the same.

Would a call centre be important for Mr. Farhi. Of course. It could be the start of his redevelopment at the site.

• "Jim Williams, president of Remax Capital, said the site is a great piece of property, ideal for redevelopment, but he doesn't see it happening until the Windsor economy starts creating jobs and generating demand.
  
  "He's certainly not talking short-term because there's no demand, and it will not develop without demand," said Williams. Shmuel Farhi is a smart man. He's not going to do it unless the economics work."

Moreover, if I am correct about an Ontario Government Department perhaps coming to Windsor, which the Province wants to locate beside the new jail, that would be a nice coup as well for the site, especially considering that the Mayor is so opposed to where the Province wants to go.

Of course, who has been the big booster for civil servants being moved here:

• "The Mikhail brothers, who have a vested interest in this as office landlords, think the city should lean on its cabinet ministers to move a ministry or government department to Windsor to help the city withstand the shock waves as it tries to reinvent itself.
  
  Mikhail said the transfer of government jobs to Sudbury when the rock-bashing industries were in rapid decline played a key role in that city's turnaround. "One thing the politicians can do is relocate government jobs to distressed areas. That's something totally within their power." Mikhail said if the labour ministry and its 400 jobs had been moved here in the early 1990s, as promised, it would have made a difference.
  
  He believes the province could save significant money by moving workers to low-cost Windsor. For starters, he said, it would free up immensely valuable Toronto real estate and ease the burden on that city's clogged transit system."

Oh the battle has just begun. There will be many casualties before this war is over.