Two big projects are up for approval for tax breaks at Tuesday's Planning, Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee in Windsor.
Piroli Construction wants to build a $45-million 150-unit apartment building at 850 Wyandotte St. at Crawford, geared toward seniors — it is looking for tax breaks totalling $3.6 million over 10-years under the city's Community Improvement Plan.
Zain and Zaid Investment has plans to refurbish the upper story of a building at 659-665 Ouellette Ave. near Elliot, into 12 apartments — the company is seeking more than $11-thousand dollars in tax breaks under the Community Improvement Plan.
Ward 3 Councillor Rino Bortolin says the Ouellette investment means more people living downtown.
"The most important thing for every issue that we have downtown is people," says Bortolin. "So even the safety and security issues, the more people we have downtown, the more eyes and feet on the street."
Regarding the Crawford investment, Rino Bortolin says it will be a boost.
"It is a great addition to that area, I think the focus in that building will be for seniors as well so when we are looking at the housing crunch that we are in the middle of, and we worry that it will only get worse, these are units that are much needed."
He supports both projects and says if approved, the issue will then go before Windsor City Council.
"I fully expect that they will pass — these are great projects that this is exactly what we envision when we created the program, so especially when we are looking at basically almost a 160 new units that we are looking at building, this is exactly what the CIP was looking for," says Bortolin.
Administration is recommending approval for both applications.
— with files from A M800's Gord Bacon