Leamington scraps deal to turn school site into affordable housing

Describing it as a major disappointment, Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald announced her town was scrapping a deal with a private developer to knock down the former Leamington District High School to create a 13-acre residential community.

In a news release Friday, the municipality stated it was unable to reach a deal with the developer that benefited local taxpayers. The decision comes almost two years after an agreement was signed with Amico Properties.

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MacDonald told the Star the town still plans to demolish the municipally owned site and explore alternatives to ease the housing affordability crisis.

“It’s disappointing,” said MacDonald, adding that, though this agreement did not pan out, the municipality remains “open to developing the property.

“This does not signal an end to our desire to provide more housing in our region, and it does not signal an end to us wanting to work with partners,” she said.

MacDonald added that Amico Group did not provide the municipality with a “definitive timeline” for when the project would begin: “That was concerning.”

“Building Homes Faster — as the province said — is a great hashtag, but it is not always steeped in reality. There’s rising costs of labour. All of that affects the ability of developers to build as quickly as we want, or they want.”

Amico’s winning proposal, approved in August 2023, would have created two six-storey apartment buildings, a park and small parkette, vehicle and bike parking, and a daycare building on the former secondary school site.

Shown Aug. 15, 2023, Amico’s preliminary concept site plan for redevelopment of former 13-acre Leamington District Secondary School property into a residential ‘community’ with 30 per cent of the proposed 305 units dedicated to households of more modest means. Photo by IMAGE COURTESY TOWN OF LEAMINGTON /Windsor Star

The multimillion-dollar development included 305 residential units, including 105 townhouses, 30 per cent of which would have been designated for lower-income residents. The municipality planned to attract a diverse community of residents, from young families to seniors.

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“Development today is very complicated and very risky,” Amico Properties vice-president Cindy Prince told the Star Friday.

“There are so many unknowns that the amount of risk associated with development is really at an all-time high. While Amico wasn’t looking to make any profit on this project, it also couldn’t withstand a big loss.

“So, despite everyone’s best efforts, despite all the hard work, we just weren’t able to come to terms. I think we were very close, but at the end of the day, we just weren’t able to make it happen.”

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In the meantime, MacDonald said the municipality, contingent on council approval, will tear down the former secondary school in hopes of making the site more appealing to potential developers.

The municipality bought the property from the public school board in January 2021 for about $1.7 million. A call went out shortly after inviting the private sector to submit proposals to address the local housing crisis.

“We hope that the municipality can find the right project for that land,” said Prince.

“We feel badly that we were not the solution that the municipality was looking for.”

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