An area municipality is not moving forward with a proposed attainable housing development.
On Thursday, the Municipality of Leamington announced it could not finalize an agreement with Amico Properties Inc. for a proposed development on the former Leamington District Secondary School property on Talbot Street West.
In a news release, the municipality says it was unable to reach terms that would be in the best interest of Leamington taxpayers.
In August 2023, Leamington council voted unanimously in favour of Amico's attainable housing development proposal but recently said, "After ongoing negotiations, the parties could not reach an agreement."
Mayor Hilda MacDonald told AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show that they are still looking to develop the property; they just couldn't come to terms with this developer.
"It was a variety of things. There's always the developer needing to make a profit, and the municipality has timelines. All of those things, we just couldn't work it out," she says.
The preliminary concept plan included two six-story apartment buildings, with 95 and 105 apartment units, respectively, and 105 townhouse units for a project total of 305 dwelling units.
The plan also included a central park area, a smaller parkette around the central mailbox, and a daycare building.
The proposal had indicated that 30 per cent of the dwellings would be attainable units.
MacDonald says they still want to develop the property.
"Housing is still a focus; affordable and attainable housing is still a focus. Looking at some other options ahead,' she says.
MacDonald says they are looking to move forward with the demolition of the building.
"We're hoping to move quickly on that, and perhaps that will even make it a little more appealing to a developer that if the building is down, it might move things along quicker," she says.
Leamington bought the former high school property in July 2020.