It’s being labelled a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the downtown core in St. Thomas. Tuesday night, the Elgin County Railway Museum membership voted to sell eight acres of land at the west end of the property to St. Thomas developer Doug Tarry for a proposed 240-unit residential development. Matt Janes, vice-president of the museum’s board of directors, says the vote was “overwhelmingly in favour.”
Tarry is offering to pay $300,000 per acre for the planned residential development that would front on to a new street to be built off Ross Street and north of Jonas Street.
His father was a founding member of the Elgin County Railway Museum in 1989, and now Tarry has the opportunity to offer a financial lifeline to the organization.
He describes the museum as a gem and, “There is such an opportunity to incorporate how that building works and what it is being used for and how we can expand that into a real revitalization of the centre of downtown.”
Tarry explains there are no firm plans at this early stage – and the artwork shown is just a rough representation of where certain elements could be located – with the first order of business being an environmental assessment of the property located just to the east of Ross Street.
In fact, adds Janes, it could be several years before the eight acres of land is officially transferred to the St. Thomas homebuilder.
Tarry reminds, it’s a brownfield site and a significant amount of remediation will be required to get it up to speed for the proposed 240-unit residential development.
He adds, “And we need to work with the railway museum to create a comprehensive vision for moving forward.
“We think it’s such a tremendous opportunity for helping both the downtown and the museum.”
