Windsor, Ontario - To help ease the pressure on the local rental housing market, and to provide a secure welcome to international students, St. Clair College recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Fairmount Properties to accommodate up to 400 students annually within “Global Village Windsor” on the site of the former Salvation Army Grace Hospital in downtown Windsor.
“This proposed partnership with Fairmount Properties will, we think, help to alleviate some of the pressures on that element of the housing marketplace, by automatically providing a substantial portion of our first-year enrollees with affordable housing, and a host of on-site services and amenities, noted St. Clair College President Patti France.
The Global Village site on University Avenue West (at Crawford) will also be geographically convenient, because almost all of the 400 St. Clair students who will be accommodated there will be enrolled at the College’s Downtown campuses.
As it is currently doing with its on-campus GEM Residence at its South Windsor campus, the student-tenants of the Global Village will see their tuition and rental fees “bundled” by the College in one lump sum, so that the bulk of fees will be easily understandable for prospective international students.
Two years ago, Fairmount was chosen by Windsor’s municipal government to develop the long-vacant Grace Hospital site.
Fairmount Properties expects to complete its “due diligence” research for the Global Village by the end of this year, after which more definitive details about the project (including its scheduling) are expected to be unveiled. Fairmount Properties could not be more thrilled to bring its mixed-use experience working with colleges and universities throughout the US, over the past 25 years, to Windsor, Ontario. Of the 31 projects we have developed to date, Global Village Windsor will, by far, be one of the most transformative.
Global Village will celebrate the international students with restaurants, and retail that will appeal to a variety of tastes including those from their home countries as well as amenities for programming, events, prayer and gathering with the broader community to celebrate Windsor’s rich cultural heritage. In working with President France and her leadership team , it was abundantly clear that the highest priority was in providing a welcoming and rich experience, both academically and socially, hopefully leading to a greater number of St Clair students remaining in Windsor after graduation. Among many things, we understand the importance of affordability for our future residents. While interest rates and construction costs are at historic highs, our shared focus is to provide housing that’s safe, secure, code compliant and adds a significant community dimension, at a price point that’s achievable.
