After a lengthy discussion, the City of Windsor will be moving forward with an expression of interest (EOI) for both the Roseland Golf clubhouse and a potential proposal for a residential development.
Council met Monday, with one report looking for approval on nine recommendations. The main recommendation included awarding a contract to Sterling Ridge at a price tag of $2.5-million to demolish the former clubhouse.
With the approval of the demo, an EOI for design renderings for both the clubhouse and a residential development will be put forward.
According to administration, the city is looking for respondents who have experience in building a golf clubhouse first and foremost, with the second part exploring what a residential development could like. Administration added that by combining the EOIs that this will ensure more cohesiveness of how the two builds could work together, and could mitigate any future risks.
Once that occurs, all aspects of the EOI will come back to council to make a final decision on whether they'd like to move forward with this as one giant project, or separate the clubhouse from the residential development.
In March 2024, a proposed plan for the development of a 38-unit luxury condo building was announced to be built next to the clubhouse.
Ward 1 city councillor, Fred Francis, was the only councillor opposed to motion to move forward.
Francis says he's concerned about having these two projects wrapped into one EOI.
"So if you want to build a clubhouse and it's about the clubhouse - you build the clubhouse. If you want to do something else - you do something else. But they should be mutually exclusive because you have to protect the golf operations. There's a lot of hypothetical's, I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens, but that's what I was trying to avoid - the wait and see what happens."
He says if it's about money, the city has paid for other projects that were over budget.
"We have the ice rink right outside, we have the trolley right on the riverfront... both of those projects came in significantly over budget and I don't recall anyone saying we need a residential development to fund them, or sell public land to fund them. So if it's good for them, they should be good for Roseland, the only difference is Roseland's a business that makes money that could've paid for itself."
Francis says he's extremely concerned about the timelines.
"I don't think we should've waited this long, and as a result of that, costs have skyrocketed. We could've done this several years ago, the money was there, the will was there, the intent was there, we could've moved forward on this process a long, long time ago. Why we haven't? I don't know."
Meanwhile, chair of the Roseland Board of Directors and ward 8 councillor, Gary Kaschak, says they're not even sure if a housing development will go on this lot.
"But let's find out in the expression of interest if it's viable. It's not quite the economy that it was 12 months ago, the growth in Windsor has subsided a little bit, there's lots of wait and see, a lot of wait and see... there's a couple of other announcements I think we wish we could've made, but we can't right now because people are hesitant. But, I think this is a good way to do it, we're not going to wait too long on the expression of interest... if it doesn't come back positive we'll just move forward and get that clubhouse built."
He says if they do approve a housing development, it makes sense to do them both at the same time.
"Get all that cabling, all that wiring and that infrastructure that's needed to be done. As the chair of Roseland, I don't want the golf course business to be disrupted, we're making good profits there, we've got record numbers of people that are coming, it's in Windsor, it's not a long ride, it's priced properly, we get people from the county coming in to use it. So, I don't want the golf operation to be disrupted."
Kaschak says he believes people will buy into the luxury condos.
"There's people with money, there's people who have inherited money that will buy these kinds of things. I don't think it's just to do with the economy right now, I think there's a market for that type of luxury condominium, and living there, and maybe going from two cars down to one, and doing a lot of walking and playing some golf might be the way to go for a lot of people."
The results of the expression of interest will be presented to city council during an in-camera meeting only.
Administration has stated that the clubhouse is expected to be completely demolished by March 2026. Construction of the clubhouse will likely begin in 2027.
The current clubhouse has been closed to the public since March 2020.
Conceptual designs for the new 5,500 square foot clubhouse show it would be only one level, facing the putting green, with covered outdoor seating and a grab-and-go style food and beverage area.
Roseland offers an 18-hole golf course designed in 1926 by renowned golf course architect Donald J. Ross and constructed in 1927.