Thunder Bay Waterfront Committee ComE Out With A Winning Design
By Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
It's been 20 years in the making but Thunder Bay finally has a plan for the waterfront that will change the course and image of the city. Finally after two decades of crunching numbers via business mobile phones and holding meetings in conference halls, Thunder Bay is ready to make a step forward. After 1 year of existence and a review of previous studies and new consultants ideas the Waterfront Development Committees comprised of 5 city councilor and appointed members from the community at large agreed upon their concept of what our waterfront should be. Initial public reaction is positive and the project should be approved by April 2007 at a city council meeting. With $8 million already in the bank for the project all lights finally appear to be green for this exciting project.
Mark Bentz is a City Councilor and Chair of the Thunder Bay Waterfront Development Committee. The popular 41 year old politician is an engineer in the day with Rockwell Automation having obtained a degree in physics and working in high tech since graduation.At night he works on bringing Thunder Bay forward. It has been a long journey for the waterfront in Thunder Bay. Our committee got together over a year ago and we are committed to see something happening sooner than later. We have a lot of thanks to give to past committees that worked on the waterfront as a lot of their work and thoughts have gone into
this, stated Mark Bentz. As our consultant Ann Breen has stated, many cities go through a number of variations to finally get to the point where they are ready to act. We are not uncommon as the city has taken a couple of decades to get to this point. We have the political
will in place, we have the money in place and now we have a plan. All these ingredients are needed to have something happen and we have them all right now. We have a lot of community support as well and they are happy with the plan because it balances all the interests quite well - commercial and residential green space all have been enhanced.
The plan is scalable so the private development community in Thunder Bay can take part in this. It is not too large a project for local developers. It is low risk for Thunder Bay. Most of the money will come from outside sources including about $80 to 90 million from the private sector and upper levels of government and $10 to 20 million from the city. If the private sector don't come to the table to take part in this project we don't invest our money so we are using our money to leverage other money, noted Bentz. We have already assigned over $8 million to the waterfront reserve and have other reserves we can draw upon as well. All the councillor's saw the presentation at the TBCA on March 7th and liked what they saw.
What will the waterfront be like?
You will see a waterfront that is more closely tied to our city. It is going to be an extension of the core in some ways, a gathering place. What we've got envisioned for the base of Red River Road is a public area with a pedestrian crossing and right down to the end of Public - Pier 3 and Public - Pier 2. We have a waterfront plaza like an amphitheater and will call this first phase of development- Prince Arthur's Landing at Marina Park which spans from Red River Road to goal is to tie the waterfront to the core. That is where the development community is interested.
Why don't you put the hotel and condominiums in the downtown core?
The answered is the development community is not interested in that or they would be doing it now. We have to attract people to the area. The plaza and market square will be the new gathering place in our community. There will be a splash pad for the kids. The skateboard park
will be an attraction as well. People don't realize how many people take part in the sport as we have over 2000 active skate boarders right now and they have no place to go and express themselves. There will also be an artisans building which along with the current CN building
and new hotel will form a enclosed area on three sides. Our design guidelines for the hotel and condominiums are a maximum of six floors with very specific types of materials. They will be stepped back with less units as you go up. We will have a lot of control. Portside was
the wholesale sell off of the whole south side. We will have more control and the main development will happen at the Prince Arthur's Landing as it will have more impact on the core. Every expert we spoke said to have the maximum benefit you can have is to tie it closer to
where the people already are so you build a critical mass. The condos will be 54 units each and there will be upwards of 90 or 100 units in the hotel. If there is no private sector involvement there will be no funding. The Federal and Provincial want to be involved with the
private sector to foster job creation and economic revitalization. What kind of a reaction are you getting from the private sector as they will make the bulk of the investment in the waterfront?
The private sector is very positive. We aren't at the signature stage but they have been involved. If you were a developer would you like to develop on the waterfront or some swampy area in the city. We have interest from Hotelier already. Investors don't look at Thunder Bay as
a dead market. Look at what is going on at the Thunder Centre. Sometimes it is the residents that are most negative about our future. People who have they money and want to develop are coming here.
Will There be a Phase 2 to the waterfront?
There will be phase two. There can't be residential in the south part because of the rail set backs. There is a functional dock on the Pool 6 site and this is where we want the cruise ships to come. We are moving south in the park but we need to develop this critical mass first. The
land will be extended in Phase 1 to add to the park. 100 years ago none of this land existed. The waters edge was just in from the CN station and we keep claiming land for these building. We have a lot of clean fill from the Pool six site.
How will our Waterfront compare to Duluth's?
This is in my opinion a better design than Duluth. I do find it a little bit of a concrete jungle in Duluth's waterfront. Ours will have there is a boundary between the hotel and walking path. We will have more public spaces and the waterfront plaza will be a more cozy place to have smaller went too far to the privatized sector.
Putting an arena on their waterfront probably was not a good usage of
the land. The last thing you want on the shoreline is a building in which you go inside and not really look out. For a 7000 seat arena you would need a lot of parking which would eat up most of the lands. We can accomplish the arena on the lot where our bus depot is now. The
Fort William Gardens is being studied. The boiler failed but my understanding is most of that will be paid for by insurance. We may get another 10 or 15 year out of it but I do expect in the next decade or so Thunder Bay can expect a new multi purpose facility. That will work
nicely as right now we are funding a waterfront development. The next project could be an arena. We are getting a facilities repair study back in the next few month's. If it says the roof has to be replaced and there are structural problems which will cost millions to fix we
wouldn't fix it but accelerate our plans for an new facility which is What can we expect to see happen on the Waterfront in 2007?
Til the end of 2007 you will see our private sector partners well established with design and plans. Our implementation plan will be complete. We have to expand lands and determine how we will do that with out impacting service. The new skate board plaza will be constructed by this fall. The new marina will be started with 200 plus slips in the south. The land moving and dredging will have started. The project is 5 to 10 years in implementation. We have to rezone the land and in a few years construction should happen. Three years isn't' a
long time given we have been talking about it for 20 years. It is quite exciting for this community. Each year things will be happening. As soon as council ratifies this in April administration will have th e green light to start doing the implementation. The private industry is very happy we have our funding in place. Our committee will stay active. We turn our minds to phase 2 and beyond.
What your opinion of Thunder Bay and it's future?
Thunder Bay is a great city. We are going through a transition but we are not a dying community, but one in transition and there is a big difference in those two. We are building new economies here,progressing and we can become the community we once were. We have a lot
good infrastructure here and great people who want to see the city succeed That's what you need. Countless people invest here and live here. It is a great place and I choose to live here. This city has a wonderful energy and we just have to capture it. The forestry economy
is undeniable in a transition state and may never come back to its former glory so that industry will transition and scale back but we will always have it. We have to foster the knowledge based industry and are progressing well with the new molecular research project, the
medical school, the hospital all of which are great initiatives that other communities would like to have.
The recent census showed our population holding steady. A lot of people were predicting the worse, that we would be down 10,000 people but we are actually up slight ly so things aren't as bad as some people will try and make you believe. Most of us are positive, we have good
leadership and our financial ship is in order. A lot of recent debt is in water but we are far ahead of most communities in Ontario in terms of water treatment. Tourism is something we have our eye on and we want to grow that business. Our most logical market is the mid west US with a population of 5 to 10 million near us. What are we doing to get those people the extra 1 1 /2 hour up the road from Grand Marais is an important question.
How are you enjoying your city work?
The job is very enjoyable. It is not for everyone but certainly for me. taken care of and the right decisions being made, so it is a good fit for me.
