Within two years time, you might see more waterfront living in Owen Sound.
Council has given the Rafa Corporation of Toronto site plan approval for a 250 million dollar development on the former Russel Brothers site north of the Bayshore Community Centre.
Developer Moe Zadeh says with the approval, work on phase one of the project will get underway hopefully in spring.
That phase will be the larger of the two condo buildings, with 133 units.
Zadeh says that will take about 18 months to complete, and luckily be done sometime late in 2013.
The sale of the land was done in 2006, and the developer has held up the project in the past years — but Zadeh is optimistic the time is right now for the build to go forward.
He says preliminary market research shows there is interest in the units, and they project 60 to 70 per cent of them to be sold before shovels hit the ground in April or May.
Zadeh says they are getting interest from Owen Sound, Collingwood, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and London, and requests for unit layouts.
When all is said and done, the entire development will include two condo buildings, a hotel conference centre, retirement homes and a retail shopping centre.
Zadeh expects that will be a five to seven year process.
Mayor Deb Haswell says the time is right and council is cautiously optimistic about the development.
She says they aren’t creating anymore waterfront in Ontario, and Owen Sound has a beautiful strip of it and council is very excited to see movement happening on the east and west sides of the harbour.
Haswell then alluded mysteriously to plans that will be coming forward from the group that has purchased the former Rusty Gull property.
