If ever there was a real estate venture with tons of profit opportunities Drouillard Road is it. To prove that point, all one has to do is drive up the street and pay attention. Pay attention to detail. Architectural details, infrastructure, the lay of the land, parking availability and location. This tired commercial corridor has been looking for the right lift for a long time. With the Ford Foundry ramping into oblivion there is yet another dynamic to affect change.
In recent years the city of Windsor has provided a fresh new street with beautiful lamp standards, sitting areas, trash receptacles, nice trees and colourful planters. There is lots of parking and even a nice park. The shop fronts are a bit tired and dated in appearance but a little planning and TLC could make them sparkle in no time. Many of the historical buildings which dot the street can be brought back into play. And let’s not forget Drouillard’s historical murals. All of the trappings for a hot commercial area are already in place.
In recent years the city of Windsor has provided a fresh new street with beautiful lamp standards, sitting areas, trash receptacles, nice trees and colourful planters. There is lots of parking and even a nice park. The shop fronts are a bit tired and dated in appearance but a little planning and TLC could make them sparkle in no time. Many of the historical buildings which dot the street can be brought back into play. And let’s not forget Drouillard’s historical murals. All of the trappings for a hot commercial area are already in place.
A variety of buildings and shops
A variety of buildings with lots of parking
The building on the left is currently for sale for $180,000.00
The location is textbook as well. The street reaches from Riverside Drive clean through to Tecumseh Road with feeders like Wyandotte, Seminole, Tecumseh Road and a few in between. Proper development of Drouillard could easily service Old Walkerville, Wards three and four as well as any other takers from in and around Windsor.
What’s that noise? Ahhh yes…The naysayers. “What Drouillard Road? Are you nuts? The place is a slum! It’ll never happen. Don’t waste your time and money. You’ll never get it back”. In 1984 we heard the same sounds about Monmouth Road. Everyone who bought into the street at that time got a steady ear banging from friends and relatives who could only see the street as a bad, bad place. The vision and potential was clear to those nervy enough to venture in at the time. Since then the home values on the street have risen to eight times the original value and there is no shortage of people who want to buy in today. Drouillard Road is the same story waiting to happen but only on a much grander scale. Real estate values on the street are just right for visionaries who can invest a little cash and sweat equity.
So what is the recipe for all of this? The first thing required is dialogue between business people of various kinds. Retailers, bakers, barbers, restaurateurs, banks, artists, designers, whoever has the guts and wherewithal to want in. An action plan should be established which ensures that the street will get repopulated and revitalized in a timely manner. This might even be a good game for all of the big boys and girls out there, business people who can afford to drop some legacy money into a very cool development. Once a solid core of businesses open more will follow. And when the shops, restaurants, night clubs, banks and retail stores et al are there the urbanites will surely come.
Looking for all takers. Do the drive by. Who wants to make some history?
What’s that noise? Ahhh yes…The naysayers. “What Drouillard Road? Are you nuts? The place is a slum! It’ll never happen. Don’t waste your time and money. You’ll never get it back”. In 1984 we heard the same sounds about Monmouth Road. Everyone who bought into the street at that time got a steady ear banging from friends and relatives who could only see the street as a bad, bad place. The vision and potential was clear to those nervy enough to venture in at the time. Since then the home values on the street have risen to eight times the original value and there is no shortage of people who want to buy in today. Drouillard Road is the same story waiting to happen but only on a much grander scale. Real estate values on the street are just right for visionaries who can invest a little cash and sweat equity.
So what is the recipe for all of this? The first thing required is dialogue between business people of various kinds. Retailers, bakers, barbers, restaurateurs, banks, artists, designers, whoever has the guts and wherewithal to want in. An action plan should be established which ensures that the street will get repopulated and revitalized in a timely manner. This might even be a good game for all of the big boys and girls out there, business people who can afford to drop some legacy money into a very cool development. Once a solid core of businesses open more will follow. And when the shops, restaurants, night clubs, banks and retail stores et al are there the urbanites will surely come.
Looking for all takers. Do the drive by. Who wants to make some history?
14 comments:
I do believe that this was tried before in the late 70's. Nothing came of it.
To anonymous: I do recall this but the times and conditions were quite different (by the way it was in the early eighties). There was only a couple of new developments and they were both on the north side of Wyandotte. One was the Bavarian Village restaurant which is now a care facility. At that time the main stretch of Drouillard was already populated with a bunch of bars like the Temple Tavern. Not much was up for sale and we were in the middle of a very bad recession. Interest rates at the bank were as high as 20%. This was a tough time. Even so, the bars and restaurants which were there at the time enjoyed a rather broad patronage. Also, the Home Hardware which is now on Seminole street used to be on Drouillard. It was quite a large store and all of us used it then as we use the new one today. The best cauliflour soup was also to be had at one of the local diners and everyone in town frequented this quaint little place. We need a surge of entrpreneurs like that today to kick start the street.
Don't forget that the local street and Ford City improvements came much later. 1990's I believe. Theere is a lot more to work with now.
I think a key factor will be what happens to the ford plant. Is the entire area going dormant or will it be demolished. If the Ford lands could be converted there is some great potential. A mixed use plan between Walker Road and the east side of the ford plant could make for great gentrification with Drouillard Road road as the commercial corridor.
An inner-city development... not sprawl, I must be dreaming am I still in Windsor.
If you listen you can almost hear Drouillard Road ...."If you build it they will come..If you build it they will come".
Drouillard could be another gem for the city but the city only PLANS things. They NEVER DO anything.
Please check the other gem of an area that is even smaller.
It is an area I call West Village (or River-West Village if the previous is copyrighted).
It is bounded by Riverside Dr. W to the north and University Ave W to the south.
Bruce Ave to the east and Caron Ave to the west.
It is adjacent to the so-called urban village (that has NOT got off the ground regardless of what he Mayor says).
Talk about a gem that could impact downtown!
All we need is a little help from the city with regards to tax incentives...Oh yeah! The city is the only municipality that doesn't have tax incentives for building up neighbourhoods.
Regardless...come by and check out some of the restaurants and houses. It is a little area that is not to be missed.
Hey Anonymous...
You just pushed a major button. I know the area well. Always been a pet peeve with me. This area had a huge chance in the early 80's. It was taking off quite well with restaurants like Traiteurs and Black Jacks etc. New ones were even 80 to 90 percent along with permitted renovations when the city wiz kids of the time decided to expropriate the entire area for a new arena. Imagine taking someones permit money and watching them go the gamut with renovation and then pullingd the plug on them). They bulldozed much of it away and you know the rest. I was involved in the early announcemet stages of the so called Urban Village which I thought was kind of comical because they tore down a perfectly good urban village to make way for a pipe dream which didn't come to fruition (arena). And now, as I understand, the Urban Village may be off because a large chunk of that land was traded off to the Mayor's London developer buddy for the east end land track where the new arena will be built. Don't take me there either. You know what...I am going to take your advice and go for a walk through the area. Thanks.
I have always believed that there is a very bright future for Drouillard Road. Soho in N.Y. started life as a down-and-out community with many troubles. Then the artist community took advantage of its low rents and high amenities and it became one of the hippest places in the country. Sure, they gentrified their way out through the increased property values which they could then no longer afford. These days, there's mechanisms in place to prevent that from happening again.
Drouillard Road has a bright future, for those with the vision to see it.
Theres a very cool tool on topher holt's local blog called Walkscore.com. It rates a neighbourhood on how many restaurants, grocerystores drugstores, ect are within walking distance. It's a new site opened July 23rd and a lot of local businesses are not entered. Local owners and offices should contribute. Monmouth Road has a score of 34/100. I think it is a lot higher.
Drouillard 800 Block has a walk score of 37 :)
Mr Mayor. I just read topher holt's blog and he's interested in the same goals as our blog. Why not add his blog to our links?
You must be dyslexic or drinking a few to many. 800 Block Monmouth is rated at 43%
Hey folks...Thanks for the input! I did read "scaledown, windsor" and thought it to be a very cool and relevant post. Walkscore.com is pretty interesting too but I get a little itchy when it comes to quantifying such things. We are becoming too spreadsheet happy. To make a case, none of us purchased our homes or picked our hoods based on a "neighbourhood score" of any kind. Rather, we liked the look, feel and touch of the place. Perhaps some of the elements which the alogorithm factors in were at our subconscience such as proximity to certain destinations but I'll bet that we looked at architechture and historical relevance first, investment r.o.i. etc. I'll wager that 90 plus percent of us still require a car (a toy which I still like) to travel to and from work, families etc. Don't get me wrong. I cherish the walkability of Old Walkerville but it was never a factor for choosing the hood. This brings another analogy to mind: You can bet that I and most people in our immediate wards will be eager to walk to a new Zehrs if they plant one on Walker Road north of Ottawa Street but you know that someone, in some ivory tower somewhere, is looking at a spreadsheet and determining that the area won't support it. They rarely look past their data because computers keep us safely removed from the gut aspect of the consumate business decison.
Good Posting Topher. The word is getting out there.
On the issue of links: I just finished streamlining the link list to all things predominantly Walkerville. The only other blog which I keep a link to is our local aggregator "WeSpeak". One stop there will give you all new postings and all blog links. I recommend that everyone mark "WeSpeak" as a favourite. From time to time M.O.M will provide a link under NOOOZbits. See you out there.
MOM - you are always the visionary, and you should be running for Council. - S.V.
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