Downtown boosters hopeful new plan leads to residential renaissance

A local realtor and long-time downtown resident is hopeful a proposed community improvement plan heading to a council committee Monday night will lead to a residential renaissance in the core.

"If you really pay attention to the streets of downtown Windsor, they are dominated by commercial," said Rhys Trenhaile. "You see the difference immediately when you have residential density in a downtown core and when you don't."

Trenhaile believes the untapped potential of downtown Windsor lies in the vacant commercial and office space above the ground-level retail strip and that the key to unlocking it is contained in the Downtown Windsor Enhancement Strategy and Community Improvement Plan.

The $964,000 plan, which will be the focus of a panel discussion Monday night on CBC Windsor News at 6,contains an array of grants designed to encourage the switch from commercial to residential and to spruce up blighted areas in the core.

Items called for in the plan include:

• An Upper Storey Residential Conversion Grant Program: "Provides $5,000 for every new residential unit created in the upper storey of an existing building, up to a maximum amount of $50,000 per building."
• A Residential Development Grant Program: "Property owners will be eligible to receive a grant of $2,500 for every new residential unit, up to a maximum of $50,000 per property."
• Commercial/Mixed Use Building Facade Improvement Program: Property owners will be eligible to receive a grant for 50 per cent of eligible costs of facade improvements, up to $20,000 per property with certain projects eligible for a $10,000 boost.
• Building/Property Improvement Tax Increment Grant Program: This program will cover for five years an increase in property taxes associated with "rehabilitation and redevelopment of properties" in the core.
• Retail Investment Grant Program: Program provides a reimbursement grant up to $15,000 per retail unit in a building that has had vacant ground floor space for at least six months.
• The Little Things That Matter Community Benefit Grant Program/Residential Micro Grant Program: These programs provide assistance to grassroots organizations focused on improving neighbourhoods.
• Commercial Alley Enhancement Program: Property owners will be eligible to receive a grant for 50 per cent of the eligible costs of the approved alley improvements, up to $10,000 per alley segment.