Well council has gone ahead and approved the McMaster medical centre on the Board of Education headquarters property downtown. I'm ambivalent. I think the Board of Education building isn't bad and would be worth preserving, especially if the board employees stayed and didn't go up to a new facility where the old Crestwood school was. Building the medical centre on the board parking lot would have been great.
Unfortunately that's not what's going to happen. The entire property is going to get developed and some residential towers at a later date. The city is contributing to the proposal and is paying a ridiculous rate for leasing for space in the building, especially compared to rates normally charged downtown.
I also agree with councillor Brad Clark that General and the old Henderson hospitals haven't really been much of an economic boost for their respective neighbourhoods over the years.
This is really a three steps forward two steps back story. The fact that there's plenty of empty parking lots nearby and in fact across the street plus the money the city will lose paying over the odds for rent is depressing. Mac however probably knew the city was desperate for the project and dictated terms accordingly.
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