Another potential investor has come forward to buy the old Hiram Walker Power Company building at the corner of Devonshire Rd. and Riverside Dr. E.
The four-storey building was built in 1911 and has an extensive industrial past, part of the reason why despite its desirable location and prominent heritage features, it's stood empty for at least a decade.
Valente Property is seriously considering investing in it but needs to know first how much it'll cost to clean up the site. It's appearing before the city's Planning, Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee to ask for grant money under the city's Community Improvement Plan for brownfield developments. If it's successful, it could get $32,500 for a remedial assessment, environmental study and feasibility study.
Ward Four Councillor Chris Holt would be thrilled if that happened, but admits plans have been abandoned in the past because of cleanup costs.
"You can imagine for some time it's been used for light industrial," he says. "The train tracks went right by there, and they're not the cleanest of operations, so there's some contamination around the site."
Should Valente follow through and redevelop the building, Holt thinks it would be a boon for the north end of Walkerville. He's keeping his fingers crossed the costs are not prohibitive.
"I tell ya, there's a lot of people in the City of Windsor that really hopes a developer takes that project under their wing."
So far, there's no word what Valente has in mind for the building although plans for commercial and residential development have been floated in the past.