R
rdaner
Guest
I just read that University of Windsor is planning a downtown campus as well. This joins efforts in Brantford, Kitchener, London, Hamilton,Orillia and Cambridge of using university and college expansions to further enhance Ontario's downtowns. I think that this trend is extremely important and will be the most effective revitalization strategy to date.
It looks like the salvation for this city's core is tied to Laurier. Big plans, but ones that are fairly sensitive to an urban setting, are afoot. The small Laurier campus is having a lot of spinoff effects as developers begin to seek out oppurtunities to build student related housing. This is needed for a city downtown that has seen little good news in the last few decades. It underscores the important role that universities can play in economic development.
Hopefully these lessons can be applied to Toronto and the creation of new campuses in the central part of the city.
Laurier unveils plan for $7M building for classrooms, residence
Date Posted: December 10, 2003
Restore the core
Laurier as the "fountain of the downtown"
Date Posted: August 12, 2003
The Expositor (online)
Wednesday, August 6, 2003
Michael-Allan Marion, Expositor Staff
Brantford
Local developer Nick Rizzo likes to call Laurier Brantford "the fountain of the downtown."
Don Radford, the city's deputy commissioner of community development, calls the burgeoning campus "an important partner in our symbiotic relationship" in restoring the core.
Hearty accolades indeed. But you have to go to the office of Dr. Leo Groarke, dean of the campus and lately one of the most sought-after and meeting-ready post-secondary education leaders in Ontario, to fully appreciate what Rizzo and Radford are talking about.
It's 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 1, and a reporter is approaching Groarke's door in the main campus building on George Street to find a meeting has just broken up in his office.
Radford, Betty Anne Jackson of the Grand Valley Educational Society and Doug Baker, dean of Mohawk College's Elgin Street campus depart in various directions.
As Groarke ushers in his next appointment he remarks that the four had been discussing the mechanics of the university's latest initiative -- a Laurier-Mohawk partnership in the creation of a proposed $24-million Centre for Communications, Technology and Design that is supposed to require three properties in the downtown.
This latest project has recently secured city council's approval in principle, and Groarke mentions that all the parties are working on an application to the Ontario government to try to garner some capital funding for the first time in Laurier Brantford's young history.
If the project comes to fruition, Groarke is asked, how many buildings would that bring Laurier Brantford to in the downtown?
The dean pauses a moment, then smiles and says "seven, maybe eight."
The chance encounter and the number of buildings that have been acquired and traded by the city and the university succenctly explain the relationship between the two. It's helped along by energy Groarke displays as he goes about building a brand new campus he never forgets is also a driving engine in the core's restoration being fostered by the city.
That shared vision constitutes the main brickwork in the relationship. The countless meetings with Mayor Chris Friel and city officials are the mortar.
But serendipity is the creator. Groarke reminds the reporter that Laurier's decision to build in the downtown by starting in the old Carnegie library building was a third choice.
Laurier officials were first interested in starting a campus in a greenfield (completely undeveloped) site, a much easier proposition, says Groarke.
When that plan wasn't going anywhere, they turned their attention to the Icomm building, but that was taken over by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for the casino.
But after the city procured the Carnegie building for Laurier, university officials quickly reshaped their thinking around a downtown campus -- just as city council began making its commitment to downtown renewal.
A rapid succession of events and deals helped propel the relationship along:
-The Toronto Dominion Bank donated to Laurier its building at Market and Darling streets no longer needed in the bank's consolidation of a merger with Canada Trust, which had a building on the north side of Darling.
-Laurier leased the building, dubbed "Nith Hall" by university officials, to the city for five years.
-Laurier took over, with the city's help, the new Holstein building on Colborne. Grand River Hall became the first student residence with academic space.
-After an alliance with North Bay's Nipissing University to offer a combined bachelor of arts and bachelor of education program, Nippissing staff will move offices first in Grand River Hall, then maybe later in the Nith.
-In December 2002, Laurier acquired the first Holstein building at George and Dalhousie streets for $2.5 million, with a contribution of $1.25 million from the city, for a second residence. Renovations will be complete in the next two weeks, when the building will be ready for 56 students.
-Laurier has also recently bought the Wyatt Purcell building -- a former law offices building at 105 Darling -- for $350,000. It's vacant, with a new use expected to be announced shortly.
At five buildings and counting, Laurier Brantford is in the downtown to stay.
"The attitude has changed completely," says Groarke. "We want to be a full partner in the downtown. The university has given up any plan of being elsewhere."
In retrospect, he says, it's "intriguing" to consider what has been accomplished from the shift in attitude.
"There are broader lessons one learns from this experiment. When going into an area that has fallen on hard times, there are negatives but one comes to discover there are a lot of positives."
The first positive, Groarke says, is the buildings in close proximity that Laurier gained that would have cost much more to construct from scratch.
The second is the ambience to be acquired in older, solid buildings -- the downtown's enduring legacy from the city's earlier heyday. A campus based on liberal arts should have historical buildings, he contends.
"The ability to have our students carry on discussions of history in such buildings is an important extra among all the things we can provide them."
Groarke says he appreciates the constant message from Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith that Laurier look first at using the downtown's better old buildings that can be adapted suitably for institutional use.
It's a theme Ceschi-Smith frequently advances in Downtown BIA meetings which she and Groarke attend, and in conversations with Groarke and other university officials.
The subject of buildings turns toward the future and the plan for the proposed Laurier-Mohawk centre -- the subject of Groarke's last office appointment.
The proposal's main components are:
-The acquisition of two existing buildings, each capable of accommodating 30,000 square feet. They would house offices and classrooms for Laurier and Mohawk programs, labs, mini-studio, offices and student lounges, at a cost of $6 million each.
-The acquisition of land for a 60,000-square-foot printing and packaging pavilion, costing an estimated $12 million, that would house interactive design, printing and packaging galleries, labs for graphic and packaging technology, and a performance and presentation atrium;
(Due to technology requirements, that building is expected to be entirely new.)
-Contributions in cash or in kind from the city, province, federal government and business.
-The buildings should be located near each other somewhere in the Victoria Park or civic square area.
-All work would be done between 2005 and 2009.
Groarke grins at the obvious question: which two existing buildings do Laurier and Mohawk want?
Since the plan was announced a few weeks ago, divining the locations has become popular sport in conversations about the downtown. Groarke variously smiles or says "Yes, I've heard that one too," as scenarios involving the Forresters building on Market Street and 50 Wellington St. (both city-owned), and the Wyatt-Purcell are recounted.
Finally he leans forward and says: "I can't tell you which rumours are right."
Of course, the building game is a two-way proposition. While Laurier Brantford has acquired space with the city's assistance as facilitator, the young campus is contributing ever more capital investment and economic spinoffs in the area.
Although it's now in the millions of dollars, Groarke considers the capital investment in building renovations secondary to the spinoffs provided by growing student and staff numbers, and business ventures targeting them.
First, by September Laurier will employ close to 40 full-time faculty and staff with an overall payroll of $1.4 million, and 60 part-time contract staff with a cost still to be finalized. That means a total campus payroll of about $2 million.
Add to that the fact that by next month there will be 250 students living in the university's residences, and 50 to 100 more in other accommodation in the downtown. That's a total of up to 350 people who eat, sleep and make most of their purchases in the area.
The total enrolment in September will also jump to 700 full-time students, hopefully spending their money in the downtown.
"Going from 300 to 700 students is going to have a very significant impact," says Groarke.
That can be seen in such major ventures as the $1.15 million investment by G.K. York Management to refurbish the old Commercial Hotel block on Dalhousie for better retail space on the ground floor and apartments targeting students on the second floor; and a $1.2-million construction by Rizzo of a private residence exclusively serving students.
All 30 beds in Rizzo's creation -- to be called "156 Colborne" -- were pre-booked months ago.
The business community also gains from the lack of cafeteria services in the university's residences because the student population is still too small to provide an in-house service cost-effectively.
"As a result, the students are eating a lot of meals and buying groceries in places near them," says Groarke.
Groarke waxes enthusiastic as he considers all the accomplishments to date and what lies ahead in the next five years.
"This is the most important thing I have ever done in my life," he says.
"I've learned growth is very taxing, but it is so energizing too. We're on the verge of fantastic possibilities."
www.brantfordexpositor.ca, Brantford Expositor
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
By Michael-Allan Marion
Brantford
A Laurier Brantford official assured a city council committee Tuesday that the university fully intends to construct a new $7-million building for classroom and residence space, after it tears down the Wyatt Purcell building.
But the committee also heard the university has a number of balls to juggle — including finding funding — before it can afford the new five-storey structure.
Meanwhile, the present building at Darling and George streets is in such poor shape it must come down now, they said.
But it took many questions and much debate before the community development committee finally endorsed a staff recommendation to issue a permit to Laurier to demolish the 130-year-old building.
If it’s approved by council, the building could come down in weeks.
Although concept designs prepared for the new building were arrayed at the front of the room, they were not the main focus of discussion. Councillors were more concerned about tearing down a venerable old building so soon when the university still has a fair distance to go in its plans for a new one.
“If there is a plan to build something now, then let’s tear it down. But if there isn’t, let’s wait,†said Coun. Mike Quattrociocchi, the only one to vote against demolition.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t want to impede Laurier, but I’m concerned about the length of time between tearing down what’s there now and building something new. It could be years. The best laid plans could change. We could be left with a vacant lot.â€
But other committee members eventually sided with the demolition request after listening to remarks from Ron Dupuis, Wilfrid Laurier’s assistant vice-president of physical resources.
Dupuis said the university had planned to redevelop the property earlier, but suffered a setback when its Superbuild application was rejected by the former Ernie Eves government.
The election of a Liberal government in October has added a further delay, since it is preparing a new infrastructure grants program to replace Superbuild.
Laurier was forced to concentrate on finishing the Grand River Hall and Post House residence projects. It will need more classroom and residence space as early as next September, he said, “but timing is an unknown for us. We’re waiting on the new government.â€
Dupuis also told the committee the Wyatt Purcell — erected in the 1870s as a house, used more recently as legal offices and purchased by Laurier about a year ago — has been so water-damaged by a plumbing leak during an exceptionally cold spell last winter that it would cost too much to refurbish for educational use.
Much plaster has fallen and mould has collected.
“Whenever people hear the word mould, there’s a phobia, no matter how well it has been remediated,†said Dupuis.
If a demolition permit isn’t granted, he added, the university would have no choice but to board it up until a more auspicious time when all its plans are ready.
“I don’t want to see another boarded up building in the city of Brantford,†said Mayor Mike Hancock, who is also a member of the Mohawk-Laurier post-secondary committee.
“A vacant lot with grass would be a heck of a lot better than that.â€
Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith, also a member of the Mohawk-Laurier committee, said she had the same concerns as Quattrociocchi, but accepted that the university is the victim of timing problems.
“I have faith that something like this will appear,†she said, gesturing to the drawings of the proposed building. “And I believe it won’t be years from now. From all we’ve seen, the university is here to stay and plans to grow.â€
According to plans, the new building will have one below-ground floor and five above-ground storeys. The basement level and the first two storeys will contain classroom space. The top three storeys will house 60 students.
The university is committed to saving components of the Wyatt Purcell’s front entrance during demolition, and using them in the new building. The final design will also be compatible with the architectural features of the Post House Residence next door.
James Calnan, of the city’s heritage committee, commended Laurier for working with his group on this project and other buildings taken over in the downtown for the new campus.
Later in the hallway, Dupuis insisted Laurier has been working enough all along with city officials and heritage enthusiasts that its building plans should be accepted as bonafide.
“I think we’ve demonstrated our intentions,†he said. “We’re not pulling the wool over anybody’s eyes. Land is scarce in the downtown. As soon as there is a chance, a building will be put there.â€
Dupuis also said it’s important the Ontario government become involved in helping Laurier grow.
“We’ve got a new government. They seem very interested in helping post-secondary education. But they’re just getting their ducks out, let alone getting them in order.â€
Developer plans second student residence
Date Posted: December 10, 2003
www.brantfordexpositor.ca (Brantford Expositor)
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
By Michael-Allan Marion
Brantford
Local developer Nick Rizzo wants to build a second $1.25-million private student residence right beside one he recently built on Colborne Street.
The community development committee endorsed a staff recommendation Tuesday to sell to Rizzo for $121,000 the vacant city-owned property where the Colonial Restaurant once stood, on the north side of Colborne at Market street.
The $121,000 offer is less than the $149,440 the city recently paid George and Tina Bujouves for the property.
Rizzo plans to build a second, seven-unit bedroom apartment building as student housing. The offer is conditional on the project receiving a downtown performance grant from city hall equal to 20 per cent of the project’s total cost — about $250,000.
The new building would go between the first one, 156 Colborne Street (dubbed Rizzo Residence by university students) and the Scotiabank building — the spot where the Colonial Restaurant was destroyed by fire last year.
If built as proposed next summer, the second residence would meld into the first, creating the visual effect of one building.
Committee members generally favoured Rizzo’s overall plan.
“It’s a good project for that site,†said new chairman Greg Martin. “It will tighten up the look of the buildings by closing in a space, and provide a uniform front in that area of Colborne.â€
But Martin wasn’t happy about the purchase price or the fact that Rizzo was the only bidder in a formal request for proposals issued by the city.
The city's purchase of the Colonial site was part of an overall plan to acquire 12 derelict properties on Colborne and Dalhousie streets from various owners for about $1.9 million and demolish them to make way for a proposed civic square. The former Bujouves property has since been declared surplus to the square’s needs.
“It proves the city overpaid for those properties,†said Martin, a frequent critic of the plan to use casino money in the downtown fund to pay private property owners.
“The city should not have bought them in the first place,†he said. He bets any properties the city sells that are not needed for the square will likely not cover the price paid for them or the demolition costs.
The sale price also doesn’t include the still undetermined cost to the city of demolishing the charred building in August.
Another consideration is the condition that the project get a performance grant. The advisory committee overseeing the program has yet to examine Rizzo’s proposal. Also, it has only about $300,000 left in the downtown performance grants account, which originally stood at $750,000.
A staff report says Rizzo’s proposal fits in well with the overall objectives of the downtown renewal process.
“The adjacent development has proven to be highly successful,†the report says. “And it can be expected that this development would also be successful in meeting, through the private sector, some of the housing needs of students in the downtown area.â€
Another project in downtown Brantford
Downtown mall plan draws good response
By Michael-Allan Marion
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 01:00
Local News - Business organizations and Brant Museum officials are warming to city council’s decision to acquire Market Square Mall and have it revamped according to a plan from developer G.K. York Management Inc.
“There is so much momentum in downtown redevelopment and this project is important to it,†said June Grieve, chairwoman of the Downtown BIA.
“I’ve seen the proposal and it fits right in with the downtown plan we’re following.â€
Museum oficials, mall merchants and other downtown business owners expressed enthusisam Tuesday in the wake of council’s hotly debated decision the night before to proceed with its tentative deal to proposal to buy out Ivanhoe Camnbridge’s lease in the mall for $2 million. Council also decided to negotiate with G.K. York to turn the mall over for the same price and have the company spend another $11.3 million in renovations.
The work would include relocating the Museum in the Square satellite operation within the mall, renovating the first floor to accommodate municipal staff from a number of departments in city hall and other downtown buildings, and improving business conditions for mall merchants.
Council chose to negotiate with G.K. York because its proposal was more detailed and comprehensive than those submitted by three other companies.
Calvin Diegel, president of the Brant Historical Society which oversees the Brant Museum, was cautiously optimistic about G.K. York’s proposal to give the mall museum maximum exposure.
The company would move the museum to the western side of the building to take advantage of the Dalhousie and Colborne streets entrances.
“We’re happy they’re considering the museum as part of their development,†said Diegel. “They could have said you have to get out, but they didn’t. That part of it pleases us a great deal.â€
Diegel said the board wants to speak more with the company about its plans.
“It’s the beginning of the process,†he said. “We will have to see how it develops from here.â€
Tim Philp, chairman of Brant FreeNet’s board of directors, who has represented smaller mall merchants on the issue, considered G.K. York’s proposal “a great deal†for tenants and the downtown.
“The major concern I had was that the small merchants would be protected,†he said. “I think this proposal answers it.â€
Philp noted that many tenants — not including Brant FreeNet — do not have leases because Ivanhoe Cambridge wouldn’t offer them.
“G.K. York has committed to signing leases with all current tenants who want them. It has also committed to giving six months notice and helping any who can’t stay relocate to other premises run by the company outside the mall," Philp said.
“This firm has committed to treating merchants fairly.â€
However, Philp added he is aware that fair treatment does not mean the status quo will remain. He noted that Brant FreeNet, for instance, has been asked to move to a new location in the mall to make way for the museum.
“That’s fair as the company makes its changes,†he said, adding that G.K. York officials have already contacted him about arranging a meeting with mall merchants to brief them about future plans and to listen to tenant concerns.
Mayor Mike Hancock said he has been receiving good feedback downtown concerning council’s decision to involve a private partner in the mall’s redevelopment.
“The private sector understands the intangibles that make a difference in business,†he said.
“It takes, for instance, the private sector to recognize the value-added in having a museum as a tenant and using it as a marketing tool for the building.â€
One condition remains on the city’s deal with Ivanhoe Cambridge and G.K. York: the province must amend by the March 19 the old Ontario wntown Revitalization Plan loan agreement from when the mall was built in the 1980s, or the deal could die.
John Gerretsen, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, promised to get cabinet’s approval, but it hasn’t come yet.
“If we don’t have the amendment in time, I’m going down to the ministry and I’ll stay there until I get an answer,†said Hancock.
“I don’t want to lose this on something like that.â€
It looks like the salvation for this city's core is tied to Laurier. Big plans, but ones that are fairly sensitive to an urban setting, are afoot. The small Laurier campus is having a lot of spinoff effects as developers begin to seek out oppurtunities to build student related housing. This is needed for a city downtown that has seen little good news in the last few decades. It underscores the important role that universities can play in economic development.
Hopefully these lessons can be applied to Toronto and the creation of new campuses in the central part of the city.
Laurier unveils plan for $7M building for classrooms, residence
Date Posted: December 10, 2003
Restore the core
Laurier as the "fountain of the downtown"
Date Posted: August 12, 2003
The Expositor (online)
Wednesday, August 6, 2003
Michael-Allan Marion, Expositor Staff
Brantford
Local developer Nick Rizzo likes to call Laurier Brantford "the fountain of the downtown."
Don Radford, the city's deputy commissioner of community development, calls the burgeoning campus "an important partner in our symbiotic relationship" in restoring the core.
Hearty accolades indeed. But you have to go to the office of Dr. Leo Groarke, dean of the campus and lately one of the most sought-after and meeting-ready post-secondary education leaders in Ontario, to fully appreciate what Rizzo and Radford are talking about.
It's 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 1, and a reporter is approaching Groarke's door in the main campus building on George Street to find a meeting has just broken up in his office.
Radford, Betty Anne Jackson of the Grand Valley Educational Society and Doug Baker, dean of Mohawk College's Elgin Street campus depart in various directions.
As Groarke ushers in his next appointment he remarks that the four had been discussing the mechanics of the university's latest initiative -- a Laurier-Mohawk partnership in the creation of a proposed $24-million Centre for Communications, Technology and Design that is supposed to require three properties in the downtown.
This latest project has recently secured city council's approval in principle, and Groarke mentions that all the parties are working on an application to the Ontario government to try to garner some capital funding for the first time in Laurier Brantford's young history.
If the project comes to fruition, Groarke is asked, how many buildings would that bring Laurier Brantford to in the downtown?
The dean pauses a moment, then smiles and says "seven, maybe eight."
The chance encounter and the number of buildings that have been acquired and traded by the city and the university succenctly explain the relationship between the two. It's helped along by energy Groarke displays as he goes about building a brand new campus he never forgets is also a driving engine in the core's restoration being fostered by the city.
That shared vision constitutes the main brickwork in the relationship. The countless meetings with Mayor Chris Friel and city officials are the mortar.
But serendipity is the creator. Groarke reminds the reporter that Laurier's decision to build in the downtown by starting in the old Carnegie library building was a third choice.
Laurier officials were first interested in starting a campus in a greenfield (completely undeveloped) site, a much easier proposition, says Groarke.
When that plan wasn't going anywhere, they turned their attention to the Icomm building, but that was taken over by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for the casino.
But after the city procured the Carnegie building for Laurier, university officials quickly reshaped their thinking around a downtown campus -- just as city council began making its commitment to downtown renewal.
A rapid succession of events and deals helped propel the relationship along:
-The Toronto Dominion Bank donated to Laurier its building at Market and Darling streets no longer needed in the bank's consolidation of a merger with Canada Trust, which had a building on the north side of Darling.
-Laurier leased the building, dubbed "Nith Hall" by university officials, to the city for five years.
-Laurier took over, with the city's help, the new Holstein building on Colborne. Grand River Hall became the first student residence with academic space.
-After an alliance with North Bay's Nipissing University to offer a combined bachelor of arts and bachelor of education program, Nippissing staff will move offices first in Grand River Hall, then maybe later in the Nith.
-In December 2002, Laurier acquired the first Holstein building at George and Dalhousie streets for $2.5 million, with a contribution of $1.25 million from the city, for a second residence. Renovations will be complete in the next two weeks, when the building will be ready for 56 students.
-Laurier has also recently bought the Wyatt Purcell building -- a former law offices building at 105 Darling -- for $350,000. It's vacant, with a new use expected to be announced shortly.
At five buildings and counting, Laurier Brantford is in the downtown to stay.
"The attitude has changed completely," says Groarke. "We want to be a full partner in the downtown. The university has given up any plan of being elsewhere."
In retrospect, he says, it's "intriguing" to consider what has been accomplished from the shift in attitude.
"There are broader lessons one learns from this experiment. When going into an area that has fallen on hard times, there are negatives but one comes to discover there are a lot of positives."
The first positive, Groarke says, is the buildings in close proximity that Laurier gained that would have cost much more to construct from scratch.
The second is the ambience to be acquired in older, solid buildings -- the downtown's enduring legacy from the city's earlier heyday. A campus based on liberal arts should have historical buildings, he contends.
"The ability to have our students carry on discussions of history in such buildings is an important extra among all the things we can provide them."
Groarke says he appreciates the constant message from Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith that Laurier look first at using the downtown's better old buildings that can be adapted suitably for institutional use.
It's a theme Ceschi-Smith frequently advances in Downtown BIA meetings which she and Groarke attend, and in conversations with Groarke and other university officials.
The subject of buildings turns toward the future and the plan for the proposed Laurier-Mohawk centre -- the subject of Groarke's last office appointment.
The proposal's main components are:
-The acquisition of two existing buildings, each capable of accommodating 30,000 square feet. They would house offices and classrooms for Laurier and Mohawk programs, labs, mini-studio, offices and student lounges, at a cost of $6 million each.
-The acquisition of land for a 60,000-square-foot printing and packaging pavilion, costing an estimated $12 million, that would house interactive design, printing and packaging galleries, labs for graphic and packaging technology, and a performance and presentation atrium;
(Due to technology requirements, that building is expected to be entirely new.)
-Contributions in cash or in kind from the city, province, federal government and business.
-The buildings should be located near each other somewhere in the Victoria Park or civic square area.
-All work would be done between 2005 and 2009.
Groarke grins at the obvious question: which two existing buildings do Laurier and Mohawk want?
Since the plan was announced a few weeks ago, divining the locations has become popular sport in conversations about the downtown. Groarke variously smiles or says "Yes, I've heard that one too," as scenarios involving the Forresters building on Market Street and 50 Wellington St. (both city-owned), and the Wyatt-Purcell are recounted.
Finally he leans forward and says: "I can't tell you which rumours are right."
Of course, the building game is a two-way proposition. While Laurier Brantford has acquired space with the city's assistance as facilitator, the young campus is contributing ever more capital investment and economic spinoffs in the area.
Although it's now in the millions of dollars, Groarke considers the capital investment in building renovations secondary to the spinoffs provided by growing student and staff numbers, and business ventures targeting them.
First, by September Laurier will employ close to 40 full-time faculty and staff with an overall payroll of $1.4 million, and 60 part-time contract staff with a cost still to be finalized. That means a total campus payroll of about $2 million.
Add to that the fact that by next month there will be 250 students living in the university's residences, and 50 to 100 more in other accommodation in the downtown. That's a total of up to 350 people who eat, sleep and make most of their purchases in the area.
The total enrolment in September will also jump to 700 full-time students, hopefully spending their money in the downtown.
"Going from 300 to 700 students is going to have a very significant impact," says Groarke.
That can be seen in such major ventures as the $1.15 million investment by G.K. York Management to refurbish the old Commercial Hotel block on Dalhousie for better retail space on the ground floor and apartments targeting students on the second floor; and a $1.2-million construction by Rizzo of a private residence exclusively serving students.
All 30 beds in Rizzo's creation -- to be called "156 Colborne" -- were pre-booked months ago.
The business community also gains from the lack of cafeteria services in the university's residences because the student population is still too small to provide an in-house service cost-effectively.
"As a result, the students are eating a lot of meals and buying groceries in places near them," says Groarke.
Groarke waxes enthusiastic as he considers all the accomplishments to date and what lies ahead in the next five years.
"This is the most important thing I have ever done in my life," he says.
"I've learned growth is very taxing, but it is so energizing too. We're on the verge of fantastic possibilities."
www.brantfordexpositor.ca, Brantford Expositor
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
By Michael-Allan Marion
Brantford
A Laurier Brantford official assured a city council committee Tuesday that the university fully intends to construct a new $7-million building for classroom and residence space, after it tears down the Wyatt Purcell building.
But the committee also heard the university has a number of balls to juggle — including finding funding — before it can afford the new five-storey structure.
Meanwhile, the present building at Darling and George streets is in such poor shape it must come down now, they said.
But it took many questions and much debate before the community development committee finally endorsed a staff recommendation to issue a permit to Laurier to demolish the 130-year-old building.
If it’s approved by council, the building could come down in weeks.
Although concept designs prepared for the new building were arrayed at the front of the room, they were not the main focus of discussion. Councillors were more concerned about tearing down a venerable old building so soon when the university still has a fair distance to go in its plans for a new one.
“If there is a plan to build something now, then let’s tear it down. But if there isn’t, let’s wait,†said Coun. Mike Quattrociocchi, the only one to vote against demolition.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t want to impede Laurier, but I’m concerned about the length of time between tearing down what’s there now and building something new. It could be years. The best laid plans could change. We could be left with a vacant lot.â€
But other committee members eventually sided with the demolition request after listening to remarks from Ron Dupuis, Wilfrid Laurier’s assistant vice-president of physical resources.
Dupuis said the university had planned to redevelop the property earlier, but suffered a setback when its Superbuild application was rejected by the former Ernie Eves government.
The election of a Liberal government in October has added a further delay, since it is preparing a new infrastructure grants program to replace Superbuild.
Laurier was forced to concentrate on finishing the Grand River Hall and Post House residence projects. It will need more classroom and residence space as early as next September, he said, “but timing is an unknown for us. We’re waiting on the new government.â€
Dupuis also told the committee the Wyatt Purcell — erected in the 1870s as a house, used more recently as legal offices and purchased by Laurier about a year ago — has been so water-damaged by a plumbing leak during an exceptionally cold spell last winter that it would cost too much to refurbish for educational use.
Much plaster has fallen and mould has collected.
“Whenever people hear the word mould, there’s a phobia, no matter how well it has been remediated,†said Dupuis.
If a demolition permit isn’t granted, he added, the university would have no choice but to board it up until a more auspicious time when all its plans are ready.
“I don’t want to see another boarded up building in the city of Brantford,†said Mayor Mike Hancock, who is also a member of the Mohawk-Laurier post-secondary committee.
“A vacant lot with grass would be a heck of a lot better than that.â€
Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith, also a member of the Mohawk-Laurier committee, said she had the same concerns as Quattrociocchi, but accepted that the university is the victim of timing problems.
“I have faith that something like this will appear,†she said, gesturing to the drawings of the proposed building. “And I believe it won’t be years from now. From all we’ve seen, the university is here to stay and plans to grow.â€
According to plans, the new building will have one below-ground floor and five above-ground storeys. The basement level and the first two storeys will contain classroom space. The top three storeys will house 60 students.
The university is committed to saving components of the Wyatt Purcell’s front entrance during demolition, and using them in the new building. The final design will also be compatible with the architectural features of the Post House Residence next door.
James Calnan, of the city’s heritage committee, commended Laurier for working with his group on this project and other buildings taken over in the downtown for the new campus.
Later in the hallway, Dupuis insisted Laurier has been working enough all along with city officials and heritage enthusiasts that its building plans should be accepted as bonafide.
“I think we’ve demonstrated our intentions,†he said. “We’re not pulling the wool over anybody’s eyes. Land is scarce in the downtown. As soon as there is a chance, a building will be put there.â€
Dupuis also said it’s important the Ontario government become involved in helping Laurier grow.
“We’ve got a new government. They seem very interested in helping post-secondary education. But they’re just getting their ducks out, let alone getting them in order.â€
Developer plans second student residence
Date Posted: December 10, 2003
www.brantfordexpositor.ca (Brantford Expositor)
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
By Michael-Allan Marion
Brantford
Local developer Nick Rizzo wants to build a second $1.25-million private student residence right beside one he recently built on Colborne Street.
The community development committee endorsed a staff recommendation Tuesday to sell to Rizzo for $121,000 the vacant city-owned property where the Colonial Restaurant once stood, on the north side of Colborne at Market street.
The $121,000 offer is less than the $149,440 the city recently paid George and Tina Bujouves for the property.
Rizzo plans to build a second, seven-unit bedroom apartment building as student housing. The offer is conditional on the project receiving a downtown performance grant from city hall equal to 20 per cent of the project’s total cost — about $250,000.
The new building would go between the first one, 156 Colborne Street (dubbed Rizzo Residence by university students) and the Scotiabank building — the spot where the Colonial Restaurant was destroyed by fire last year.
If built as proposed next summer, the second residence would meld into the first, creating the visual effect of one building.
Committee members generally favoured Rizzo’s overall plan.
“It’s a good project for that site,†said new chairman Greg Martin. “It will tighten up the look of the buildings by closing in a space, and provide a uniform front in that area of Colborne.â€
But Martin wasn’t happy about the purchase price or the fact that Rizzo was the only bidder in a formal request for proposals issued by the city.
The city's purchase of the Colonial site was part of an overall plan to acquire 12 derelict properties on Colborne and Dalhousie streets from various owners for about $1.9 million and demolish them to make way for a proposed civic square. The former Bujouves property has since been declared surplus to the square’s needs.
“It proves the city overpaid for those properties,†said Martin, a frequent critic of the plan to use casino money in the downtown fund to pay private property owners.
“The city should not have bought them in the first place,†he said. He bets any properties the city sells that are not needed for the square will likely not cover the price paid for them or the demolition costs.
The sale price also doesn’t include the still undetermined cost to the city of demolishing the charred building in August.
Another consideration is the condition that the project get a performance grant. The advisory committee overseeing the program has yet to examine Rizzo’s proposal. Also, it has only about $300,000 left in the downtown performance grants account, which originally stood at $750,000.
A staff report says Rizzo’s proposal fits in well with the overall objectives of the downtown renewal process.
“The adjacent development has proven to be highly successful,†the report says. “And it can be expected that this development would also be successful in meeting, through the private sector, some of the housing needs of students in the downtown area.â€
Another project in downtown Brantford
Downtown mall plan draws good response
By Michael-Allan Marion
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 01:00
Local News - Business organizations and Brant Museum officials are warming to city council’s decision to acquire Market Square Mall and have it revamped according to a plan from developer G.K. York Management Inc.
“There is so much momentum in downtown redevelopment and this project is important to it,†said June Grieve, chairwoman of the Downtown BIA.
“I’ve seen the proposal and it fits right in with the downtown plan we’re following.â€
Museum oficials, mall merchants and other downtown business owners expressed enthusisam Tuesday in the wake of council’s hotly debated decision the night before to proceed with its tentative deal to proposal to buy out Ivanhoe Camnbridge’s lease in the mall for $2 million. Council also decided to negotiate with G.K. York to turn the mall over for the same price and have the company spend another $11.3 million in renovations.
The work would include relocating the Museum in the Square satellite operation within the mall, renovating the first floor to accommodate municipal staff from a number of departments in city hall and other downtown buildings, and improving business conditions for mall merchants.
Council chose to negotiate with G.K. York because its proposal was more detailed and comprehensive than those submitted by three other companies.
Calvin Diegel, president of the Brant Historical Society which oversees the Brant Museum, was cautiously optimistic about G.K. York’s proposal to give the mall museum maximum exposure.
The company would move the museum to the western side of the building to take advantage of the Dalhousie and Colborne streets entrances.
“We’re happy they’re considering the museum as part of their development,†said Diegel. “They could have said you have to get out, but they didn’t. That part of it pleases us a great deal.â€
Diegel said the board wants to speak more with the company about its plans.
“It’s the beginning of the process,†he said. “We will have to see how it develops from here.â€
Tim Philp, chairman of Brant FreeNet’s board of directors, who has represented smaller mall merchants on the issue, considered G.K. York’s proposal “a great deal†for tenants and the downtown.
“The major concern I had was that the small merchants would be protected,†he said. “I think this proposal answers it.â€
Philp noted that many tenants — not including Brant FreeNet — do not have leases because Ivanhoe Cambridge wouldn’t offer them.
“G.K. York has committed to signing leases with all current tenants who want them. It has also committed to giving six months notice and helping any who can’t stay relocate to other premises run by the company outside the mall," Philp said.
“This firm has committed to treating merchants fairly.â€
However, Philp added he is aware that fair treatment does not mean the status quo will remain. He noted that Brant FreeNet, for instance, has been asked to move to a new location in the mall to make way for the museum.
“That’s fair as the company makes its changes,†he said, adding that G.K. York officials have already contacted him about arranging a meeting with mall merchants to brief them about future plans and to listen to tenant concerns.
Mayor Mike Hancock said he has been receiving good feedback downtown concerning council’s decision to involve a private partner in the mall’s redevelopment.
“The private sector understands the intangibles that make a difference in business,†he said.
“It takes, for instance, the private sector to recognize the value-added in having a museum as a tenant and using it as a marketing tool for the building.â€
One condition remains on the city’s deal with Ivanhoe Cambridge and G.K. York: the province must amend by the March 19 the old Ontario wntown Revitalization Plan loan agreement from when the mall was built in the 1980s, or the deal could die.
John Gerretsen, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, promised to get cabinet’s approval, but it hasn’t come yet.
“If we don’t have the amendment in time, I’m going down to the ministry and I’ll stay there until I get an answer,†said Hancock.
“I don’t want to lose this on something like that.â€
