Concern is being raised by some downtown residents and business owners over the sale of the Windsor Public Library Main Branch to the Downtown Mission.
On Tuesday, the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association hosted a town hall meeting to discuss the sale and gather feedback from residents and business owners.
Earlier this year, the city announced the Ouellette Ave. branch is being sold to the Downtown Mission for $3.6 million. The building is being converted into 25 affordable apartments.
Most who attended the meeting are unhappy with the lack of community input and the negative impact the re-location will have on the city core.
Ron Bella, who owns the Coffee Exchange on Ouellette Ave. near University Ave. W., is against the sale. "Making a really large centre for social assistance right on the gateway to downtown is going to absolutely harm tourism," says Bella.
Downtown Mission Executive Director Ron Dunn says sale cannot be stopped.
"I hear a lot of support for the mission but not in my back yard," says Dunn. "That's not new, that's as old time itself. You know why don't you move to Wyandotte, why don't you move here, why don't you move there. Well if I was moving to Wyandotte, the Wyandotte Town BIA would have a town hall meeting."
Dunn believes the BIA and the businesses it represents should get behind the project and sale.
"We should be celebrating that fact that we're about to build 25 affordable apartments," he says. "Again somebody's said there has no been development downtown, you're right, so we're developing downtown. Not for the population that maybe the community in there is calling us to do but that's our mandate."
The mission will take possession of the building at the end of June 2019 while its' current location on Victoria Ave. will hit the market later this week.
The DWBIA will have a board meeting tonight to discuss the next steps.