Talks are underway for a joint downtown Windsor library and St. Clair College classrooms.
Mayor Drew Dilkens and College President Patti France are exploring the idea of a new building downtown that will address the growing number of students attending the college and at the same time, find a new permanent location for the Windsor Public Library branch on Ouellette Ave.
"The timing is perfect for this," says Mayor Drew Dilkens.
The current Central Library has been sold to the Downtown Mission to serve the homeless and create some affordable housing.
The library has to vacate that location by June 2019 and will move to a temporary location until a permanent one is built.
Dilkens says the classrooms would attract about 2,000 students downtown and he is also looking to approach a private developer to build student residences.
"We are looking to build a building that is about 90,000 sq. ft. and the beauty of this is that it will energize the library space but also make the classroom space more interesting as well."
He called it a 'massive piece toward downtown redevelopment', although the project would still be three to five years away.
"We know that a 90,000 sq. ft. building would probably be in the $40-$50-million range to construct," he says. "We are looking down the road to plan this out properly to make sure we are not taking on additional debt."
AM800 File Photo of St Clair College, September 2015 (Photo by Zander Broeckel)
St. Clair College President Patti France says the college is growing and needs room to expand.
"We are looking for capacity, additional capacity, number one and number two we want to continue the vision to support the city in bringing more students downtown.
France says the downtown appeals to students.
"A lot of our students and they are international students, are actually finding housing downtown and want to live in the downtown area," says France. "So certainly if our students can go to school downtown and live downtown, it is more convenient for them and they don't require public transportation as much."
She adds the college is currently looking for some short-term space downtown to house new programs which will be taught in the fall.