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“Talk about money going up in flames.”
Ward 3 Coun. Renaldo Agostino said last week’s huge blaze that not only burned down a century home at the downtown’s southern entrance, it also took away a large piece of urban artwork that cost him $3,000.
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“I’m not gonna miss it, but that’s three grand I put out for paint,” he told the Windsor Star.
Just four days after fire ripped through the fenced-off, long-vacant structure at 841 Ouellette Avenue, crews and heavy machinery were already busy on Monday, tearing down the leftovers near the intersection with Elliott Street.
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For almost a year, city council’s downtown representative said he’d been pushing and prodding the out-of-town landlord to do something with the “eyesore” at the gateway to Windsor’s downtown. Last fall, Agostino offered and was granted permission to let some local mural artists go at it with pails of paint. It became the Rainbow House.
“Every week, I’m calling these guys, putting on pressure,” said Agostino, known even before his 2022 election to council as a huge booster and promoter of downtown Windsor.
“Ironically,” he added, the same day of the overnight fire last Thursday, sturdier new fencing was expected to go up. He said work was finally anticipated to begin by the end of this month.
“Obviously, they’re disappointed,” he said of the owners and the architect designing the structure’s future use.
Agostino said the plan at one point was to renovate the historic house and open a pharmacy. Later, the intention was for a pharmacy “with some apartments.”
Now, it’ll be vacant, just like the surrounding property owned by the Downtown Mission. With the latest word from the mission that it hopes to move its operations closer to the city’s proposed Homelessness and Housing Help Hub further to the west, Agostino said there’s new potential for the area.
Windsor police are investigating the fire, which is being treated as suspicious.
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Agostino wants to see more housing, including for the site of the former Windsor library main branch directly across Ouellette Avenue.
“Everything we’re looking at from a development standpoint in the downtown now should be housing,” Agostino said.
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