The City of Windsor has purchased some property in the downtown core for the future home of Windsor Fire & Rescue Services headquarters.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, mayor Drew Dilkens confirmed the city has purchased the former Morris Sutton Funeral Home property at the corner of Giles Boulevard and Goyeau Street.
Dilkens says with the city acquiring the property, the plan is to construct a new station #1 on the site.
He says construction will not happen imminently as the city needs a lot of money to be able to move forward with a new fire hall.
"But when that land became available for sale, the chief and the staff at Windsor Fire & Rescue ran the numbers, looked at the timing and the location and placement of a new fire hall #1 and they determined that, allows them to respond appropriately and so we put an offer in, that offer was accepted and the city now owns that property," he says. "It's an expensive project but in this climate when you have land that becomes available that meets the needs, we move to take that land, this was just willing buyer, willing seller, we put an offer and it was accepted."
Dilkens says Windsor fire also looked at other land in the area.
"I mean the chief looked at the property directly across Elliott Street from where they are now but the price was just way too high and we weren't going to get into an expropriation on that," he says. "So this just made a lot of sense, city council approved it and now we own it."
The mayor says Windsor fire had money set aside to acquire property and says it's completely within budget.
Station #1 is currently located at the corner of Goyeau Street and Elliott Street.
It's also home to the Emergency Communications Centre, Windsor fire administration, public education, and fire prevention divisions.
