The Markham, Ont. owner of the old Nicolet Tavern, Rednecks Saloon building at 304 Albert St. West was one of three proponents who submitted proposals for redeveloping the Sault's old hospital properties.
"We did bid on the hospital project, which we unfortunately didn't get and we're very upset about," Tony Stirpe from Sault-based Topline Developments, told a recent meeting of the city's committee of adjustment.
Stirpe was speaking on behalf of Isnize Living Development Ltd., the Markham company that's also redeveloping the former Nicolet/Rednecks building and other properties in the Huron Street/Albert St. West parts of the city.
Isnize Living Development Ltd. is controlled by Suping Zou of Markham.
The company was granted a minor variance by committee of adjustment 11 days ago to construct six apartments on the ground floor of the former watering-hole.
The city rejected Isnize's hospital proposal and instead sold the former renal building for $2 million to Ruscio Construction.
The derelict General Hospital building was sold for $1 and other considerations to Green Infrastructure Partners, who agreed to demolish the building at its own expense.
Stirpe, who's working with Isnize on its Sault Ste. Marie developments, said nothing more about the hospital bid, but revealed that Isnize has some ambitious long-range plans for our city's west end.
In addition to six apartments (two of them wheelchair-accessible) on the ground floor of the former Rednecks, the company is also planning 16 other apartments in the basement and second and third floors, Stirpe said.
"What we started about 30 days ago, and what the building looks like today is unbelievable," he said.
"We've had nothing but comments from everybody: the next-door neighbour, the neighbour across the street, people coming over to to thank us for cleaning up that corner of town that has been an eyesore for many, many, many years.
"And once it's finished, it will be something. You come off the bridge and it'll look wonderful."
Stirpe said he's been helping Isnize fix up another house at 326 Albert West, and they've been working to buy another nearby residence.
"The neighbourhood's already looking beautiful. The neighbour painted his house right away. The neighbour next door to our house painted her house and cleaned it up, so that sort of starts to grow down the street.
"I've been in the city and I've been in construction a long, long time and I've dealt with a lot of different contractors, and I know what the people are talking about.
"There's a lot of fly-by-night contractors in town right now doing work in this city because of the economics of buying homes and flipping them. But this guy is not.
"This guy is a true quality home builder coming from southern Ontario and and he wants to put in these low-income apartments.
"He's already purchased another building on James Street... another dump right here. 196 James St. He's purchased that building and intends to bring that back to life and renovate it into 20 apartments.
"And we put an offer on 455 Queen St., the old banquet hall, and he plans to turn that into another building."
As for the Rednecks transformation, at least one person in the neighbourhood is skeptical.
lrma Giovanatti-Bre attended the committee of adjustment hearing and expressed concerns about the numbers of newcomers moving into the area, all sharing the same sewage system.
Giovanatti-Bre said that on two occasions her basement flooded with sewage, the most recent about four years ago.
A report from the city's director of public works confirmed that there was a main blockage on Alexandra Street in 2021, and that such blockages are usually caused by foreign material such as grease.
Topline's Stirpe added that the restaurant in the old Nicolet may well have played a role in any sewer blockages.
"There were no grease traps in the design of that old restaurant," Stirpe said.
"So I could imagine the stuff that was being poured down the sewers for years when it was run as a restaurant, there's nothing in the building to protect."
City staff say they aren't aware of any sewer deficiencies that would prevent additional housing units from being added to the system.