A 60-year-old Great Northern Road architectural landmark is slated for demolition, with a seven-storey apartment building proposed to replace it, SooToday has learned.
If City Council approves the project and needed federal funding is secured, a new Holy Trinity Anglican church will be included on the ground floor of the new structure at the corner of Northern Avenue and Great Northern Road.
The church will donate the land to Cara Community Corp., which owns apartments on property adjacent to the existing Holy Trinity church
Cara is planning to release details of the proposed demolition and new development next week.
Project manager is Ed Starr of Newmarket-based SHS Consulting, which has built many similar community development projects, including one in Thessalon.
Pre-consultations have been held with City of Sault Ste. Marie planning officials, who reportedly are supportive of the project.
”They understand the need for this type of housing. If we are successful, it will bring millions of dollars in federal funding to Sault Ste. Marie,” Starr told us.
The proposed new building will have 58 apartments, many of them designed for seniors and the disabled.
To qualify for federal assistance, Cara is planning to rent at least 30 per cent of those units at least 20 per cent below market price.
Starr says as the final construction costs are tabulated, the percentage of affordable apartments could actually be higher.
Cara expects to submit a formal application to the city over the next couple of months, hoping for construction to start around the middle of next year.
Holy Trinity has served the Sault since 1918, when its first service was held in a little white church at Huckson’s Corners, Tarentorus that was used for the next 43 years.
In 1959, sod was turned for the existing church building.
A new wing was added on the west side of the structure in 1986, including the distinctive white cross that appears in architectural renderings of the proposed new building.
Tarentorus, according to a history written by parishioner Marie Egglesfield, means “the devil’s abode.”