Michael Loewith of Loewith-Greenberg Communities made an impressive presentation to city council Tuesday, outlining his proposal for developing the Alma College property.
There have been proposals in the past for the site of the former school for girls, so is this latest presentation the real deal?
“He (Loewith) is the right guy,” insisted London Developer Gino Reale, current manager of the Moore Street property.
“It took a little while to find him. But, I think we found the right guy . . . I’m not a builder, but if I find the right guy then that’s who is going to buy it. And this guy, in my books, is the right guy.”
Loewith has a conditional offer to purchase the property, as Reale explained earlier this week.
“There are conditions on the offer until April. As far as he (Loewith) is concerned, it’s a done deal. Until he sends me the paperwork and says he waives the conditions – which was primarily this meeting with council and a couple of other minor things – it will solidify or fall apart by April.” Continue reading
Monthly Archives: February 2018
The Alma College property deserves ‘building something that is beautiful’
Alma College plaque
Members of St. Thomas city council got their first look Tuesday at a proposed development on the Alma College property.
Michael Loewith of Loewith-Greenberg Communities outlined his plan for three, seven-storey residential towers on the site of the former private school for girls. One of the structures would replicate the front facade of the main Alma college building.
The development would entail 400 units of various configurations geared to young families and empty-nesters alike. Much of the land on the 11-acre Moore Street site would be devoted to green space and pathways. Continue reading
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Cost of remediation at 230 Talbot Street comes with no firm guarantee
The city is eager to begin remediation at 230 Talbot Street, site of the proposed “social services and housing campus” on a parcel of land purchased last year from London developer Shmuel Farhi.
The winning tender for cleanup will come to council Tuesday for approval.
And, it comes in significantly above the anticipated range of $400,000 to $600,000.
At Tuesday’s meeting, council will be asked to endorse the tender submitted by All Season Excavating at $728,819 for remediation of the large tract of land.
The work includes removal of all contaminated materials in preparation for the new social services building and construction of a new parking lot to replace the existing lot on the northwest corner of the site. Continue reading
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‘Worker safety should have taken priority over policy’
Time spent at a coroner’s inquest brings with it the emotion of family members and friends sitting through graphic testimony in the courtroom interspersed with details of protocol, procedures and guidelines that seem, at times, almost callous in nature.
Such was the case this past week with the four-day inquest into the death of St. Thomas construction worker Brian Daniel, killed on July 2,1014 when he was struck by a pick-up truck on the Highway 3 bypass at the Burwell Road bridge.
The recommendations – excellent in scope and most of them put forward by Daniel’s daughter Krista McColl – can be found here.
But to better understand the context of the back-and-forth testimony heard throughout the inquest, here are snippets of what was presented to the five-person jury. Continue reading
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Jury recommendations from the coroner’s inquest into the death of St. Thomas resident Brian Daniel
Brian Daniel was a flag man working on the Hwy. 3 bypass at the Burwell Road bridge when he was struck and killed just before noon on July 2, 2014. A four-day coroner’s inquest into his death concluded Feb. 8, 2018 at the Elgin County Courthouse in St. Thomas.
Here are the 13 recommendations endorsed by the five-person jury.
1. Amend the definition of ‘highway’ to state: A general term that denotes a public way for the purposes of vehicular and pedestrian travel, including the area within a right of way. This includes King’s Highways, regional and county roads, and rural roads, municipal roads and streets with a normal posted regulatory speed that is over 60 km/h and is 90 km/h or less. Continue reading
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Bridging the gap: Province acknowledges local concerns with new 401 interchange
The province has listened and the stretch of Glanworth Drive known as the farmer’s freeway will remain intact with a new alignment of the overpass at Highway 401.
At a public information centre held Thursday (Feb. 1) at the Stoneridge Inn, London, the Ministry of Transportation unveiled its preferred alternative for interchange improvements at the 401 and Col. Talbot Drive.
The original plan would have seen the Glanworth Drive bridge demolished, forcing farmers to move their massive implements on to busier roads. The new interchange will see the Glanworth Bridge replaced and realigned further east with the roadway repositioned to meet Col. Talbot Drive north of its present junction at Littlewood Drive. Continue reading
Ian's City Scope 