Article content continued

The plan for the land includes: 119 detached residential lots; four townhouse blocks with 48 units in total; five condo-type buildings with a total of 230 units; 7.8 acres of commercial land; and a seven-storey hotel.

Photo by Nick Brancaccio / Windsor Star

A significant hotel for the east side of the city has been seen as a longstanding tourism and business need, especially one located next to the WFCU Centre. Farhi, who has purchased and redeveloped several downtown hotels, is well versed in the hotel business, according to Tanner. “If there’s a market for a hotel in the east end, it would happen very quickly,” he said.

“We would like to see the whole development built out in five to seven years and if the market conditions stay the way they are now that shouldn’t be a problem, quite frankly.”

The Brownfield Development Community Improvement Plan was approved in 2010 to spur action on the 559 acres of potentially contaminated former industrial land in the city. Farhi’s project “would be the most significant brownfield redevelopment to date — accounting for approximately 11 per cent of the land on the city’s Redevelopment Opportunities inventory,” notes a report from city senior planner Greg Atkinson.

He told committee members the incentives are intended to help developers pay the considerable cleanup costs associated with former industrial sites.

“That’s exactly what the program is geared toward, to level the playing field between a brownfield site and a greenfield site, because those are costs you wouldn’t have to pay at a greenfield site,” he said.