The City of Windsor has a well-earned reputation of denying and delaying Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
Biz X magazine has experienced breakthroughs recently, however, perhaps because the Privacy Commissioner’s Office in Toronto has consistently ruled in favour of appeals emanating from this magazine. There was no need for an appeal of the latest request, as the city promptly coughed up the purchase price of the former Wickes Bumper Plant, 9082 Tecumseh Road East.
It was $600,000 for the 11 acre brownfield, a figure the new owners, the U-Haul Company, refused to reveal when the transaction was consummated last fall. The city, under its incentive program to encourage developers to invest in abandoned factory sites, gave U-Haul a $25,000 brownfield development grant and agreed to forgo 10 years of value added tax increases, estimated to be worth $1.7 million, in exchange for $5.8 million in clean-up costs the company will incur.
We asked our industrial property realty expert, who wishes to remain anonymous, to judge the deal. He said 11 acres of industrial property in the region would generally be valued at $70,000 to $100,000 per acre. At $100,000 that would translate into $1.1 million, almost twice the U-Haul price.
But given the clean-up costs, as well as the benefits to the city of unloading a decades-old blight, our expert commented that “the city did well.” The city charged its usual $5 FOI application fee, and $8.30 in fees to process the request for a manual search and photocopying the records. The city’s FOI Manager said the purchase price could have been tracked down at the provincial registry office, where the information would cost more.
The hospitality business in Windsor is as volatile as usual with even chain restaurants such as Kelsey’s at Walker Road and Provincial, and Pizza Hut, 3140 Dougall Avenue, biting the dust recently. Salute Espresso Bar in Walkerville, El Patron Taqeatery and Milk Coffee Bar downtown are other casualties. As quickly as one establishment closes another seems to open. Milk, for instance, has been sold and is due to re-open in March and Kelsey’s will soon be Chuck’s Roadhouse Bar and Grill.
Over in Walkerville, the underground space occupied by Salute, on Argyle Street next to Walkerville Brewery, has been taken over by vegetarian eatery Carrots N’ Dates. In an interesting switcheroo, the neighbouring space vacated by Carrots N’ Dates, at 2090 Wyandotte Street East, Unit B, is now occupied by a new wave style lounge called simply F&B, standing for Food and Beverage.
Heard on the Street continues HERE
