New Downtown Windsor Market Planned to Occupy Former Windsor Arena Space

By Owen Wolter

Monday January 9th, 2012

Posted at 7:03pm

(screenshot)

The former home of the Windsor Spitfires, Windsor Arena — affectionately known as The Barn by most Windsorites — will be transformed into a new permanent year-round Downtown Windsor Market.

King Developments Ltd. prepared a major facelift plan for the market under the guidance of Windsor City Council and news of the plans were released to the public this evening.

The project still must be approved by City Council, but Mayor Eddie Francis suggested that contractors are expected to begin transformation of the site in the spring, with completion slated for a year later.

The interior plans call for 38 vendor kiosks, a permanent butcher shop, permanent bakery, a restaurant, a cafe, five “culinary incubators” and 38 retail spots.

The arena structure will largely remain intact in terms of steel structure, but decorative glass elements and a major roof overhang will transform the corner of McDougall and Wyandotte Street West at an area where Wyandotte Town Centre meets the Downtown Core.

A website has been set up with conceptual renderings for the plan.

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Laurafoy84

Wow, that’s ambitious!
Nicole

By “permanent”, can we assume year round? Because that would be wonderful!!!
Ken

This is exciting!
Steve

This image looks nothing like the barn, which is one of the oldest hockey arenas in Canada… shouldn’t we be protecting out heritage?
- Darren
  
  Steve check the website:
  
  http://thebarnatwindsorcitymarket.com/
  
  I was skeptical at first of the heritage preservation from the above picture. However, it seems as though they will be doing a nice job of adaptive reuse and preserving the general structure of the barn which, debatably is its biggest heritage asset.
  
  Also, the investors were just on AM800 and seemed so passionate, really have a good pulse on what Windsor needs in the downtown. I really hope this goes through, not too often that you get private investors looking to spend so much money on something that could be a healthy and viable attraction to downtown Windsor.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Byrne/58015972 Chris Byrne

Impressive! This news is particularly exciting as it involves substantial private investment. Hopefully the momentum continues …
Anonymous

Great… who are King Developments Ltd., and where are they from!?? thanks.
Anne

This look like it will be like the Market Square on Ottawa St. and Walker Road. I think it would be nice to maintain some outdoor market space and get Windsorites outside!
Geoff

Sounds exciting, more retail and foot traffic is always welcomed to a downtown core. Hopefully the city can continue to work with business to foster ideas like this.
Mtiberia

I am a big advocate of new concepts and opportunities within our region, I just hope the investment group doesn’t screw it up like the current market on Ottawa and Walker Rd.
ThaFunk

Why not try to revive the dying market this city already has? That place is dwindling and slowly emptying. I don’t know why this city is so keen on building the same thing within ear shot and having empty facilities around. Clearly the city cannot fill 1 market, what makes anyone think they can fill two of them?

That being said, it is a slick looking project and I would be all for it if I really thought it was a viable thing.
- http://twitter.com/loltax loltax
  
  The city (and area as a whole really) is already saturated with grocery and food options. Some people have a market fetish though. That said, I for one won’t be making a special trip to this market unless they have specials/food remarkably different from any other grocery or farmer’s market in the city that is closer to me. And I highly doubt they will
Jasonverspeelt

I’ve been saying for a long time that Windsor needs a grocer downtown.
- http://twitter.com/loltax loltax
  
  So the corner of McDougall and Wyandotte E is downtown, but 3 or 4 blocks away at the corner of Elliott and Goyeau isn’t downtown? Wow. That’s a new one
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bonnie-Nicholls/100000002571168 Bonnie Nicholls

I like the new market where the old place is
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