By IAN ROSS
The Sault’s north end and Great Northern Road continues to be a beehive of construction activity.
A new hospital is under construction and down the street more retail outlets are springing up around the Wal-Mart/Home Depot plaza.
City planner Don McConnell says the arrival of big box stores like Wal-Mart and the construction of the new Sault Area Hospital are attracting some complementary businesses along with new housing.
A Boston Pizza and TSC farm hardware store are expected to open this fall with other undisclosed chain retailers going up on the east side of Great Northern Road. Those stores are going in the same plaza as the newly opened Future Shop, Reitmans, Payless Shoes and Mark’s Work Wearhouse.
There are other commercial developments in the works for Great Northern including a major financial institution.
The opening of the city’s biggest-ever institutional project, the new Sault Area Hospital, in 2010 and its 1,700 employees will attract new business as well, says McConnell.
The construction consortium of Hospital Infrastructure Partners are heading up a new project to replace the downtown Plummer Memorial Hospital and General Hospital.
The total estimated project costs of $988 million of construction, furnishings, equipment outfitting and ongoing operational costs will be spread out over 30 years.
It’s also resulted in new residential development with survey work and groundbreaking for two nearby subdivisions nearby with two more future projects planned.
Just to the east of the hospital, homebuilder Sam Biasucci of SalDan Developments is behind an upcoming planned development of 193 lots called Fox Run.
Some of the zoning allows for some flexibility for semi-detached housing, townhouses and apartment blocks. There could be as many as 300 units, says McConnell, as Biasucci develops the project in phases.
McConnell likes the site plan as it preserves the area’s green open space and ravines. A large setback has been established along Third Line with no houses fronting it. There will be walking trails, ponds and a small park. “It’s a big step-up (from most standard subdivisions),” says McConnell.
“They’ve done it with a fair degree of environmental sensitivity.”
To the south, a subdivision is under construction along Old Garden River Road with roads going in for a phased development. Two developers, Dave Ruscio and John Bitonti, are building an 88-lot subdivision of single family homes called Windsor Farms.
To the west, between Third Line and People’s Road is a greenfield subdivision under construction of 100 single family lots led by Mid Canada Construction Corp.
The anticipated surge in traffic has meant the city plans to extend Third Line to People’s Road to siphon vehicles away from the busy Great Northern Road-Second Line intersection.
In the downtown, the city has approved plans for a six-storey, 24-unit condominium development on a former Shell Oil tank farm property. The 10-acre waterfront site along Bay Street, next to the Sleep Inn, is being developed by Sam Pringle.
A prime piece of waterfront property is expected to open up for likely upscale residential development in the next few years at the existing sites of the Plummer and General hospitals.
“That’s obviously a huge issue with the city, redeveloping that 22-acre property,” says McConnell, as part of the Sault’s downtown redevelopment strategy.
This fall, many Sault residents were wondering if the ambitious $54-million Borealis tourist attraction would ever get shovels in the ground.
Its status was shrouded in great secrecy at city hall.
In October, Borealis developer Philip Garforth made splashy front page news when he was photographed with his designers touring the 12-acre St. Mary’s River property.
Garforth and the city have been hung up on whether there needs to be an in-depth soil contamination clean-up before he submits the final site plans.
There’s also been questions whether private financing through Commercial Capital of New York is in place.
Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. president Bruce Strapp expressed optimism the project will go off, but is disappointed Borealis is two years behind schedule.
“There’s some obligations that the private sector and the city each have to have. The EDC is in the middle of the two players and we’re trying to facilitate solutions with regard to keeping the project on track."
