Investing in Olde Walkerville

I find it inspiring when people are courageous enough to start a business, let alone when they decide to start it in economically depressing times. Luckily for Walkerville residents, there are still people who believe enough in our little corner of the city to invest their hard earned dollars and make a go of it.

Two developments are happening at the corner of Wyandotte and Chilver. In the old Bank of Montreal building, formerly occupied by T'Dye For Hair Spa, extensive renovations are underway for The Gourmet Emporium. I was invited into the building last week to see for myself, and let me tell you, BJ, the owner, is sparing no expense. I am looking forward to their Grand Opening scheduled for early November.

Across from The Gourmet Emporium on Chilver is the mystery development happening in the old Complex nightclub. I don't know exactly what is proposed for this building - but you know they are serious when Rosati is hired as the developer. Is seems as though the entire complex is being gutted. Keep an eye out for something here.

Over at the seemingly ever-under-construction Club Lofts, the windows are finally going in!

I attended their open house at Willistead Manor what seems like years ago, and the renderings I saw for these suites made me want to sign up on the spot. I do hope that the real estate market picks up in time so that the adaptive reuse of underutilized buildings such as Hiram Walker's warehouse becomes economically viable. These kinds of development really infuse life into a community that's experiencing rough times.

And then over on Walker Road, the old Hydro Sub-Station that was snapped up during Enwin's sell-off of unnecessary properties is seeing some life happening within it's walls. I was told that an architect had purchased the property, but when I was there, there was a host of cameras, lights and models strolling around the building and the grounds. The building has been beautifully restored - the windows are amazing - and work is obviously continuing.

So keep at it, Windsor. there's still a lot of life left in you!

Debunking the Growth Myth, Part 4

Myth Number 4
If we try to limit growth, housing prices will shoot up.

Reality Check: Growth controls can produce many benefits for a community and may even result in a better distribution of affordable housing than market-driven growth.

Housing affordability has the potential to become a key issue in any local debate about how to control growth. The development industry has repeatedly used the housing affordability issue to defeat growth controls on the grounds that anything that restricts the supply of housing, or pushes up the cost, will affect housing affordability.

Concerns about how growth controls affect the availability of low and moderate-income housing are legitimate. But such concerns should not be used merely to thwart and undermine growth controls. Rather, these concerns should serve as the motivation to create responsible policies that truly address the community's housing needs.

A 1992 study compared housing prices of seven California cities having growth controls with comparable cities not having growth controls. This study compared each community's home prices every year from 1980 to 1987 and found that "median single-family home prices did not rise any faster or to higher levels in the seven case-study cities than in their counterpart pro-growth cities. Indeed, by the end of the 1980's, housing was more affordable in some of the growth control cities than in their corresponding comparison cities."

read the rest of the argument against Myth 4 here.