The City of Windsor is launching the Expression of Interest process for the Caron Avenue Parking Lot as part of the Housing Solutions Made for Windsor strategy.
The EOI invites developers and proponents to submit comprehensive proposals for sustainable, inclusive, and community-oriented housing development.
The housing strategy announced in March 2024 is focused on increasing the supply of housing and meeting aggressive housing targets by identifying and making shovel-ready various municipal lands with high potential for residential development.
Dilkens says proposals for the Caron Avenue Parking Lot will be accepted until August 23.
"For this particular property, our planning department has identified that they can go up to 14 storeys already," he says. "There's the prospect that with some other infrastructure work, perhaps underground work, we could go even higher at this particular site. It's really all about what makes sense for us as a city and what makes economic sense for a developer."
Dilkens says they want to find a balance at the Caron Avenue site.
"Having a developer build something nice that ultimately increases the housing stock, both on the affordable side and the missing middle side, but also that makes business sense," he says. "This has to make sense with a developer as well, so we need to work together collaboratively to find a pathway that achieves both goals. Adding the maximum amount of density while also allowing a developer to make a dollar."
Dilkens says they could be really prescriptive on these developments to ensure affordable housing, but the more prescriptive you are, the more developers will be cut from the process, so it's about finding the balance.
"Our goal is to try and generate and drive some affordable housing in the process without being too prescriptive, where we just start driving developers away because they say this isn't economically feasible," he says.
The former Windsor Arena at 572 McDougall Street and the former Grace Hospital Site at 339 Crawford Avenue have also been added to the list, joining the previously announced former Lowe Secondary School site, Caron Avenue Parking Lot, Pelissier Street Parking Lot, and Roseland Golf Club Parking Lot.
In July 2020, the city selected Fairmount Properties to develop the six-acre former Grace Hospital site with a proposal for a $100 million 'Global Village Windsor' with 11 mixed-use buildings of residential and commercial space.
But in December 2023, council voted in-camera to scrap the agreement with Fairmount over issues with how the project was moving forward.
In March 2024, the Ohio-based developer announced it was taking legal action against the city over a decision to cancel the development.