A residential apartment tower will rise on the site of a former roller bearing factory that dominated the St. Thomas industrial sector for 66 years.
A residential apartment tower will rise on the site of a former roller bearing factory that dominated the St. Thomas industrial sector for 66 years.
A city council committee has approved a 14-storey tower with more than 160 units for the former Timken Canada site at 1055 Talbot St.
It’s the latest and highest-profile development for the site where two separate developments have added commercial and retail businesses to the property east of the city core.
The land was bought in a partnership between Fast Forward Ventures Inc. and Canadian Commercial, which had purchased about 13 acres of the 20-acre (eight-hectare) site about a year and a half ago and already has built a commercial plaza there. About 2.5 acres (one hectare) of the site will be home to the tower near the corner of Talbot and First streets.
“We feel very fortunate, this is such a unique property,” said Diana House, a developer with Canadian Commercial.
“The traffic is here, there are already successful businesses nearby. It is cool to introduce St. Thomas to so many tenants.”
The site is also the location of a city transit hub.
And Canadian Commercial is close to submitting a proposal to the city for a second tower on the site, House added.
“We envision this will be a place where people can live and walk to get lunch or go to Starbucks and walk to other stores and services they need.”
The development was approved at a site plan committee meeting and will go to council, but the site is zoned and designated for the development, meaning there are few hurdles, said Lou Pompilii, director of planning for the city.
“This is a very significant development. It represents a great use for that site,” he said.
The factory was torn down in 2017 and extensive cleanup and remediation was done before development could proceed, Pompilii said.
“It is exciting to see this take shape. It is such a good site, strategically located. This tower will bring some new housing types to address the housing needs in the city. It will help the housing mix and supply.”
Canadian Commercial is building the first phase of a commercial development on about four acres (1.6 hectares) that will house 16 retail tenants at Talbot and First. The tower will be located nearby.
Another developer bought about six acres (2.4 hectares) north of the tower plot and has also built a commercial plaza.
“This verifies our growth. We used to have an industrial complex in downtown and now we have commercial plazas with residential on site. We are growing in a smart way,” Mayor Joe Preston said.
The Timken site is just one of several new housing developments, including towers, proposed in the city, he said.
The Timken site was bought by the city in 1922 for economic development purposes and the plant was considered “the cornerstone of the city’s industry,” Coun. Steve Peters said.
“It is new life for that site, and now a new economic driver for the city,” he said.
TIMKEN CANADA
- St. Thomas plant opened at 1055 Talbot St. in 1947
- Closed in April 2013 and demolished in 2017
- Workforce at its peak was about 400, with120 remaining when plant closed
- Site covers 20 acres, or eight hectares
- Today it’s the site of residential and commercial development