With Panoramic Properties submitting zoning applications to the City of Greater Sudbury last month, as planned, Mayor Paul Lefebvre told Sudbury.com the company has his confidence.
Earlier this week, Sudbury.com reported that there were still no updates from the company on their proposed plans for the long-vacant old hospital building on Paris Street.
In a media release issued on Aug. 8, 2023, the Niagara Falls-based company said they’d planned on submitting official plan and zoning applications with the city that year.
Sudbury.com reported this week that these applications had yet to appear on planning committee agendas. An inquiry was sent to company president Angelo Butera and Panoramic Properties digital marketing manager Kyle Chiki prior to publication in which an update on the project was sought. This inquiry remains unanswered.
“Panoramic filed their application at the end of December 2023, and now it’s within our team at the City of Greater Sudbury and notice of application will go out shortly,” Lefebvre told Sudbury.com. “It’s in the system, it’s ongoing.”
As such, Lefebvre said he remains confident Panoramic Properties will proceed with its project.
On Aug. 8, 2023, the company issued a media release touting the property as the future site of three residential buildings, including a 20-storey condominium, 16-storey urban loft (rental) building and a 12-storey retirement complex.
Panoramic Properties has owned the property since 2010, and a prior condominium proposal they made public appeared to have stalled by 2017.
At the time, Sudbury.com noted that “repeated efforts” were made to talk to those behind the project, but were unsuccessful.
Upon receipt of their Aug. 8, 2023, media release, Sudbury.com reached out to the proponents for additional insight, but they deferred all comments to the media release.
Earlier this week, Sudbury.com sent an inquiry to all 13 members of city council asking whether there was any appetite for the city to either purchase or expropriate the property. We received six responses.
The current batch of elected officials voted last year to purchase a swath of downtown property to accommodate an as-yet undefined proposed arena/events centre project, which included expropriating one property.
In addition to Lefebvre, Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre, Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée responded to Sudbury.com’s inquiry.
With a proposal on the table by the existing land owner, Lefebvre said there’s no appetite for the city to take on the property.
“No specific comment from myself, except I look forward to their application at the planning committee for council to discuss,” Lapierre said.
“I’m certainly not advocating for a purchase or expropriation at this time,” Sizer said. “I do, however, anxiously await the start of Panoramic’s promised development.”
Projects like this take time, Fortin said.
“If it is as advertised, then it will be one of the most significant residential construction developments in a very long time and we need all the housing we can get,” she added. “I am looking forward to being part of the Council that works with staff, the developer and other stakeholders to move this project forward.”
Although optimistic that Panoramic Properties will proceed with the project, Parent added, “if nothing happens by 2026, we (the city) will need to move in and do something.”
In her response, Labbée said good intentions alone aren't enough to guarantee that something is going to happen, and that an important aspect missing from Panoramic Properties' media release in August was a proposed timeline.
"It's time that we get that commitment because way too much time has lapsed," she said, adding that if they can't provide guarantees the city might have to pursue punitive measures.
Existing bylaws have lacked the teeth to force property owners to maintain their buildings at what some deem to be an acceptable level. The city is, however, looking into options.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
