City poised to sell land for new bridge

[kraig]

City poised to sell land for new bridge

By Dave Battagello, The Windsor StarMay 4, 2009



The Brighton Beach area of west Windsor is the location for a new border crossing. The city is in the process of selling the federal government the land needed for a crossing and plaza.

Photograph by: File photo, The Windsor Star

Windsor is close to completing a deal that would see the federal government purchase more than 100 acres of city-owned lands in Brighton Beach for a new border crossing.
“There has been active negotiations and discussions for several months,” said Mayor Eddie Francis.
“The City of Windsor is doing everything we can to assist the feds with regards to the plaza and crossing location.
“We are very close to finalizing the arrangement and transaction.”
The deal is expected to be brought forward to city council for final approval sometime before the end of May, Francis said.
The land — mostly former residential lots — was purchased by the city over nearly 20 years starting in the 1980s to create an industrial park on the city's far west end and a buffer zone for the Brighton Beach power plant.
Securing the city-owned land would be “another significant step” in the federal government’s effort to build the next Windsor-Detroit crossing, said Mark Butler, spokesman for Transport Canada.
The federal government is overseeing construction of the bridge and customs plaza, while the provincial government has responsibility for building the planned $1.6-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway linking Highway 401 to the new bridge.
The full project will cost about $5 billion.
The purchase price for the city land is being kept confidential until a report goes to council for final approval, Francis said.
A local real estate agent, whose specialties include industrial lands, did not want to guess at a property value of lands included in the deal, but noted that nearby properties sold recently on Sprucewood Avenue and Weaver Road have fetched in the range of $50,000 to $60,000 per acre.
That would translate into a deal with the feds in the $5 million to $6 million range.
“It turned out to be a smart move on city’s part to assemble [[the land),” said Mark Lalovich, commercial broker with Remax Preferred Realty. “It turned out to be visionary with the new bridge going in the area.”
© Copyright [[c) The Windsor Star

I hope that the Detroit City Officials and the property owners of Delray are paying attention.

[gravitymachine]

interesting they mention the windsor-ssex superhighway, everytime i drive east to ny state i see signs opposing it in the lawns along huron church road

also, next time you copy and paste an article, you can delete the unnesseary portions of it to make it more readable, like this stuff

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[kraig]

interesting they mention the windsor-ssex superhighway, everytime i drive east to ny state i see signs opposing it in the lawns along huron church road

also, next time you copy and paste an article, you can delete the unnesseary portions of it to make it more readable, like this stuff

Actually, next to those should be the photos. Unfortunately, they didn't paste along with the rest of the article once I submitted the post.

As far as the signs of people opposing the superhighway, you're right, but, all of us on this side of the water, aren't supposed to know that there's any opposition to any aspects of the project on the Windsor side. As far as were supposed to know it's all hunky dory and peaches and cream, so don't say anything. Otherwise, will lose our excuses to remain ignorant and deaf, dumb, and blind.

[gravitymachine]

Actually, next to those should be the photos. Unfortunately, they didn't paste along with the rest of the article once I submitted the post.

copy>paste only works for text, not picutres. pictures have to be inserted with [img][/img] tags, with the url of the picture inserted between

[Bearinabox]

copy>paste only works for text, not picutres. pictures have to be inserted with [img][/img] tags, with the url of the picture inserted between

I can see two pictures in the original post. Actually, it looks more like the same picture twice.

[MIRepublic]

There is more opposition to the bridge that'll put more truck traffic through Sandwich than the one being proposed here. There is always some kind of opposition to every project of these sizes, but it's disingenuous, at best, to try and pretend that the opposition level to the Brighton Beach bridge is anyway comparable the plan to make Sandwich town and Mexican/Cork towns an even bigger truck parking lot than they already are. Fact is, the public bridge does far less long-term damage to either community than the 'enchanced' Ambassador Bridge crossing. Sorry. You hope the city's paying attention? You are aware that the city and public have already made it known that they are behind this particular proposal, aren't you?

You can stop trolling, BTW. Posting just to get a rise is the definition of trolling. If you've got something constructive to add to this board, that'd be great.