Fairgrounds owner courts university in Barrie

Downtown location not written off yet
By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance Oct 17, 2013
Laurentian University may not be a part of the downtown Centre for Excellence in Education as it looks down Essa Road at the old fairgrounds property.
“It’s a site we’re aware of. We’ve been out in public seeking sites and working to identify potential sites,” Laurentian vice-president Craig Fowler said.
“It’s quite traditional as site selection goes on, developers will come to us with concept drawings in hand. We’ve been out there with our interest in 20 acres and our interest in 180,000 square feet, in parking and recreational space.”
The university’s board is to consider choosing a site in the next few months, after university staff presents options for a Barrie campus, which is to open in 2017 or 2018, Fowler added.
Developer Osmington Inc. has presented a proposal that includes two academic buildings — one four-storey and one five-storey — as well as a 500-bed student residence, athletic building and sports fields.
wned by Osmington Inc., is 67 acres. It stretches along Highway 400 from Essa Road to Tiffin Street and includes a former industrial site, the fairgrounds and a retail plaza. It has easy highway access, is at a gateway to downtown Barrie and is a short distance from the Allandale Waterfront GO station.
Fowler said the university hasn’t completely written off being part of the Centre for Excellence in Education, a redeveloped Barrie Central site that would include post-secondary and entrepreneurship training centres and a smaller high school.
But he did say the 11-acre downtown site isn’t big enough for what the university needs.
“We’ve always been looking for at least 20 acres. There’s a possibility for student residences. It could also include a student centre. We’re looking for partnerships for our gym and recreation facility,” Fowler said.
Simcoe County District School Board superintendent Paul Sloan confirmed the board is not counting on Laurentian being part of the Barrie Central project.
“We’re not sure what their plans are. I wouldn’t say anything’s a given,” Sloan said. “We’re putting the request for proposals out and we’ll see who responds.”
Osmington development director Brad Keast said city-approved plans for a retail development aren’t progressing well and the company is changing tracks.
“To kick off the development, we need an anchor tenant and we’re having trouble finding one,” he said, adding the market isn’t as the developer hoped when retail concept was approved in 2008.
“Obviously Park Place is our closest competition in terms of leasing interest and they’ve been able to proceed. If tenants want to go today, they can (locate there). We need to do more work before we can build a retail centre.” Keast said.
“Laurentian is in the market and is talking to a number of landowners and they’ve been approached by pretty much everyone within 100 kilometres. If we could do something, it would be great.”

Barrie Mayor tells board to get serious about Central plan
By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance Oct 22, 2013
Two days after Barrie enthusiastically approved an artificial turf partnership with the Simcoe County District School Board, Mayor Jeff Lehman told the board to get serious about Barrie Central.
In an Oct. 9, letter to SCDSB chairperson Rob North, Lehman warns the board a requested rezoning of the downtown high school site to permit commercial use could be in jeopardy if the board doesn’t focus on obtaining viable partners to rebuild the city’s oldest high school.
Lehman raises “many unanswered questions,” including legal title, the total size of the available lands, the size and specialty of the proposed high school.
In a document The Advance obtained through a freedom of information (FOI) request, the board asks Ontario’s Education Ministry for a 429-student high school. The documents say Central is on a 5.9-acre site, which adjoins a city-owned 3.7-acre sports field. The board asked for provincial funding for the school to open in September 2015, but instead the board received funding for a higher priority — a high school in the city’s southeast end.
Central would close in June 2016 if partners willing to help rebuild the high school in a declining attendance area by September 2014 are not found, the board also told the Education Ministry.
That has Lehman worried.
“We are increasingly concerned with the pending deadline of Sept. 30, 2014 to secure viable financial partnerships, given the lack of progress with the issuance of the final (request for proposals),” he said.
He also raised the question of the Prince of Wales site, which the board is considering pulling from the development proposal, although the board wants it to be rezoned commercial as well.
In an Oct. 15 interview, Lehman told The Advance he’d ensure the rezoning would not backfire on taxpayers by raising the value of the land, which the city could purchase if the SCDSB deems it surplus.
“Could we get stuck with something that’s expensive and have to pay that (higher value)? I don’t think so because the rezoning is for a specific purpose,” he said.
He added he was looking forward to the school board moving on the RFP.
“I suspect the (RFP) will be issued really soon,” he said.