New student residence boosts Windsor construction
A new, five-storey student residence at St. Clair College in Windsor is the big news in the city’s January 2020 building department major construction report. A comparison between January 2019 and January 2020 shows that residential construction permits have doubled, year to year, but the value of industrial permits dropped from $2,684,000 to $536,430, and commercial permits are slightly down, from $2,510,701 to $1,911,595.
Residential permits issued this January are twice the value of a year ago – up from $4,761,687 to $11,574,508.
Overall, the value of January 2020 permits have more than tripled compared to January 2019, from $11,045,938 to $37,861,332.
But the most significant construction project in Windsor, year to date, is the $23 million St. Clair College project. Foundation work is already underway on the project (that permit was issued in 2019), and a new, $18 million permit was issued in January, for above-ground work scheduled to start in May.
The new residence, expected to be completed this fall, will house 512 students, many of them international students. The college reports that about 5,000 international students attend St. Clair College.
The new residence is being built in modules, produced by Z Modular, for owner GEM Corp. The modules will be transported to the site on over 300 trucks, and then assembled. Z Modular has described the new building as “one of the most innovative student residences in North America.”
Z Modular is owned by Zekelman Industries, headquartered in Chicago; the company CEO, Barry Zekelman, was born and raised in Windsor, and attended York University in Toronto.