It’s all about seeing cranes reaching up into the sky over St. Thomas.
That was the observation of Mayor Joe Preston on Wednesday morning (Nov. 22) for the groundbreaking ceremony at the 14-storey Highlands Tower 1 apartment building.
It’s Phase 2 of the redevelopment of the former Timken Canada property at Talbot Street and First Avenue.
“It’s the beginning of the next phase of the growth here,” suggested Preston, “and what a great team they have on this project and how beautiful this will be for this corner.
“An old brownfield site of an industry. I loved the Timken company when it was here, but what a great way to re-purpose the site we’re standing on.”
The 162-unit development is being undertaken by Fast Forward Ventures Capital of London.
In March of last year, approval was granted for the first of several towers expected to rise on the property.
Preston called it one more step in attacking the city’s housing shortage.

“To keep it local and to be able to make it happen through our planning department here in St. Thomas has been a great amount of work, but we knew we had good, excited people who wanted to make it happen.
“Who wanted to do a great commercial development and then get into the housing side too. We can’t ask for more right now on the growth of St. Thomas.
Phase 1 of the Timken property redevelopment featured the opening of several retail outlets facing Talbot Street.
St. Thomas native Jeff House of Fast Forward Ventures Capital stressed, “to make housing more affordable, we need to add more supply to the market of all housing types.
“At St. Thomas, the staff know what they’re doing and they know what’s actually required and they really work for the people.
“They realize that the basic fundamentals of economics are that if you add more housing supply, affordability can be better. Whether you build subdivision homes, townhomes, apartments, or affordable, you actually need a whole variety of housing types.
“Talbot and First being such a recognizable corner, a busy corner. To be able to change the landscape of the city is definitely a privilege and something that we are humbled to take on the project and we want to do something that is good for the city.
“Design really matters and what people really think about it at the end of the day, we really care about this.”
House noted there are another six acres at the east end of the property for further residential and commercial development with the potential for as many as four or possibly five apartment towers in the future.

In a conversation with House in March of last year, he pointed out “The goal is for people to kind of be able to have everything right there. From food options to groceries, to get to the bank quick with Libro and TD Bank right there.”
House, who lives in St. Thomas with his wife Diana, formed Fast Forward Ventures in 2016 with a focus on helping “investors, builders, developers, tenants and landlords make wise real estate decisions.”
They have developed a couple of office buildings in London with other projects on the go in London and Dorchester.
One of his partner companies, Canadian Commercial Development, purchased Sherwood Forest Mall in London and has other projects in Strathroy, Hamilton and Orangeville.
Related post:
https://ianscityscope.com/2022/03/19/back-to-back-announcements-this-week-an-example-of-attacking-housing-from-each-end-in-st-thomas/

ENHANCING ELECTRICAL GRID RELIABILITY THROUGH ENERGY STORAGE

Batteries of another sort are coming to St. Thomas.
While work is underway on the Volkswagen EV battery plant, the city has been approached to house a battery storage facility.
EDP Renewables Canada is proposing to build such a project on five acres of land adjacent to Messenger Freight Systems on Highbury Avenue.
EDP Renewables is a global leader in the renewable energy sector and one of the world’s largest wind energy producers.
EDP senior project manager Darren Carl explained battery storage technology.
“It is designed to take power from the existing transmission system in the province to charge the batteries during periods of high levels of generation and when energy generation is lower, it then discharges that power back into the system.”
The facility would provide up to 75 MW over at least four consecutive hours, storing the energy in banks of lithium-ion batteries.
The batteries are typically encased in a shipping container-type of unit (see photo below) which are then spread over a few acres.
“The parcel is five acres,” advised Carl, “and it would consist of the batteries themselves, the access road through the property and the interconnection facility itself.”
There would be no direct electrical link to the EV battery plant itself, however indirectly through the electrical grid it is possible some of the excess electricity could serve the Volkswagen plant.
Carl continued, “EDP Canada is based in Toronto. Our parent company is based out of Spain. We work with the EDP Renewables North America platform based out of Houston, Texas and between our Toronto office and Houston office we have over 1,000 employees in North America.”
He advised the energy storage facility would not be a large employer in the city.

“It is essentially a fixed-price contract. It is a competitive bid process so ultimately the more competitive you are with your bid price the more likely you are to obtain a contract. The requirements under that contract are for deliverability during certain times.”

“During construction, there would be a significant number of labourers who would be hired and typically that would last about a full year. Once the project is operational, there is a handful of direct operational staff who will work either on site or relatively close to the site to do general operations and maintenance for the project.”
A public information session was held Thursday (Nov. 23) at the CASO station where Carl noted, “We’ve had a pretty good working relationship with the city to this point on the project. We’ve been keeping them very much involved with the process and they’ve been quite supportive of the efforts to this point.
“If we are successful we look forward to continuing that relationship in the future.”
The project is being developed in answer to the Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) long-term request for proposals for the procurement of capacity services to meet the province’s electrical grid reliability needs.
Carl explained, “It is essentially a fixed-price contract. It is a competitive bid process so ultimately the more competitive you are with your bid price the more likely you are to obtain a contract. The requirements under that contract are for deliverability during certain times.
“The charging process and discharging process is hours and not days. Generally, you would charge your battery systems within a day and the discharge, depending on the system, would be four hours plus.
“There would be contractual obligations in terms of how long we would have to discharge that power to the system and how much power is discharged ultimately.”
It is anticipated local permits will be issued by the IESO before the end of 2024, with the requirement the facility come online sometime between May of 2027 and April of 2028.

GOALBALL GOLD FOR EMMA REINKE

She laughingly suggested she “just kind of fell into it.” The ‘it’ that St. Thomas native Emma Reinke referenced is the sport of goalball. And thanks to her scoring prowess and blocking ability, the 25-year-old Reinke yesterday (Nov. 24) led Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2023 Parapan Am Games in Santiago, Chile with a 4-3 win over the U.S. Reinke contributed three goals.
In a half-dozen games, Reinke netted 25 goals to top all Team Canada scorers.
She was Canada’s leading scorer at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Goalball was invented in 1946 in an effort to rehabilitate veterans with a visual impairment who returned from World War II.
In 1976, it was introduced to the world at the Paralympic Games in Toronto and a women’s tournament was added at the 1984 Paralympic Games.
We caught up with Reinke at her Ottawa home just before she departed for Chile and asked her about dealing with the pressure at the games.
“Well luckily, we have one of our strong throwers back as well. It will be the two of us on both sides, so that takes some pressure off me.
“I do feel a bit of pressure, but I have to keep reminding myself that it’s a team sport, not just me.”
Heading into the Parapan Am Games, Canada was ranked No. 7 in the world and third in the Americas.
Goalball is a sport exclusive to athletes with visual impairments, played by both men and women.
Played in a gym court, the objective of the game is to throw the ball using a bowling motion into the opponent’s net while the opposing players try to block the ball with their bodies.

“This is really cool. Not everybody gets to do this. I’m so very grateful for this. For the opportunity and all the neat things that happen to us when we travel.”

The 1.25 kilogram ball has noise bells which help orientate the players.
Reinke laughed, explaining she “just kind of fell into it” when asked about her introduction to goalball.
That was back in Grade 9 at the W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind in Brantford.
We asked her about not being able to say ‘No’ when approached to try out for the school’s junior team.
“Someone from the residence approached me and said do you want to play this sport for the junior girls? And I went, yeah OK.
“And then they said if you get good enough, you could go to the senior team for Ontario. And I went, yeah OK.
“And then I started getting taken to the senior tournaments and they said, you know you could probably try out for the Canada team if you want. If you get good enough, you could play for Canada.
“And I went, yeah alright.”
She has been a member of Team Ontario’s women’s goalball team since 2014 and the Canadian national team since 2017.
For Reinke, good time management is essential. Not only as a member of Team Canada, but also with classes and exams at Carleton University in Ottawa.
We asked her how it feels to represent Canada on the international stage.
“This is really cool. Not everybody gets to do this. I’m so very grateful for this. For the opportunity and all the neat things that happen to us when we travel.”
Reinke is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies at Carleton.
“I would like to do conservation. That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I’m still quite far from finishing a degree.
“I’m just taking it one semester at a time. I will figure out a job when I have a degree. Luckily, during these games, my final exams and schedule worked out very well and I have some pretty good professors who are really accommodating.”
Her goal in life may lie in environmental studies, however, the goalball talent in Reinke’s life just won her and her teammates a berth in the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Pretty special for something she just fell into.

FOR THE CALENDAR

The city’s decision to construct a roundabout at St. Catharine and Kains streets is going to be explored further.
A petition with over 200 names opposed to the roundabout was presented to city council at the Nov. 6 meeting. A public information session dealing with concerns raised by area residents will be held in Room 304 at city hall from 6 until 8 p.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 28).

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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.