Back in September of 2018, North Bay City Council announced that New Vision Condominium Residences of Sudbury had expressed interest in building three condominium buildings on the site of the former Kenroc/Uniroc Industrial property on Memorial Drive.
At a special meeting, council approved the conditional sale of the property.
The $15 million project would be completed in three phases.
The estimated cost was $5 million per building, with each one containing 21 units.
The developer recently requested an extension until April 2020, which council approved at its regular meeting on Tuesday night.
Initially, August 2019 was the date given to complete the sale.
“All we’re doing is giving them an extension to be able to sign off on all the conditions that were in the original offer. In other words, they’re just doing their due diligence,” said North Bay Mayor Al McDonald.
“The purchase price did not change. It is just an extension on the offer.”
When council approved the conditional sale of the property, putting condos on the site was part of the Waterfront Downtown Master Plan.
The mayor says the company can still walk away from the deal if it can’t satisfy its concerns.
“They’re looking at the market. They’re serious. They have the capability to build. They have the financing. They have done large developments in other centres but at the end of the day they still have to do their due diligence. We have our fingers crossed. We hope they move ahead, but at the end of the day it is their call.”
If the offer doesn’t go through, the city has another option.
“If that is the case, we would more than likely, I can’t say council absolutely will, but I believe council would just put it out to RFP (request for proposal),” said McDonald.
“The conditions in real estate now in our community are getting stronger, so there might be other interests out there. But the previous history on that piece of property, because it was a brown site, there wasn’t a lot,” said McDonald.
“It is a contaminated site and with building codes changing and market conditions, they want to satisfy all their needs. They might be taking a little bit of a different direction. I can’t speak for them, but they’re still very interested in the property.”
The mayor says an environmental study has already been completed.
“Back I’m thinking ’06-’07, when that proponent did not go through with it, we bought that environmental assessment from them, so we do have it on record. The proponent that is on record now has that study.”
Any changes to zoning or bylaws would have to go back to council for approval.
McDonald has his own sense of what any new plans might entail.
“I think they might be looking at making it bigger.”
But as McDonald says, it is only a guess.
