The new seven-storey development will create 150 units in the Lakeview community, including 64 one-bedroom, 73 two-bedroom, and 13 three-bedroom apartments. Of these, 33 will be fully accessible suites meeting Ontario Building Code (OBC) standards. Regional staff confirmed the project is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2028.

Navigating a decade of delays

The project was first announced in September 2017, but it faced a series of hurdles that pushed the start of construction back by years.  According to regional staff, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant setbacks, with essential excavation and complex underground work alone taking 1.5 years to complete.

Article by Ayesha Ghaffar – Mississauga News

The Spirit Awards celebrate the hard work and excellence of frontline workers who power the Greater Toronto area’s hotel and hospitality sectors. Staff were honoured across 19 categories ranging from administration and security to culinary and housekeeping. Returning Master of Ceremonies Anthony Farnell of Global News presided over an enthusiastic crowd of attendees made up of hotel employees from across the region.

“This is now my third year attending the Spirit Awards as president and CEO of the association, and the momentum and excitement for celebrating hotel staff keeps building each year,” said Sara Anghel. “I’m most impressed by the professionalism, care, and service quality embodied by these award recipients — they help make our region’s tourism industry second to none.”

Ashok Baghel, Chair of the Spirit Awards Committee and general manager at the Hyatt Regency Toronto, echoed this sentiment. “Every general manager knows that employees are the lifeblood of the hotel,” he said. “This happy occasion gives us a chance to celebrate all hotel staff and honour a few remarkable individuals who represent the best in hospitality.”

The 2025 Spirit Award winners are:

• Accounting Ambassador of the Year: Natalia Kuzyk – Delta Hotels by Marriott Toronto Airport & Conference Centre
• Administration Ambassador of the Year: Jiwon Yoon – Delta Hotels by Marriott Toronto
• Banquet Ambassador of the Year: Frank Richardson – Hilton Mississauga Meadowvale
• Bell Person of the Year: Ambrocio Ramiro – The Yorkville Royal Sonesta
• Concierge of the Year: Cameron Carr – Omni King Edward Hotel
• Culinary Ambassador of the Year: Dario Ferreyra – Radisson Blu Toronto Downtown
• Engineering Ambassador of the Year: Darren Harold – Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites
• Food & Beverage Outlets Ambassador of the Year: Cris Vila – Hilton Toronto/Markham Suites Conference Centre & Spa and Karmen Stefanec – Park Hyatt Toronto
• Guest Services Ambassador of the Year: Josefina Palomo-Lee – Courtyard by Marriott Toronto Downtown
• Housekeeping Room Attendant of the Year: Cynthia Xu – Hilton Toronto and Margarita Roca – Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square
• Housekeeping Support Services Ambassador of the Year: Raymundo Toledo – Chelsea Hotel, Toronto and Alganesh Mekkonen – Toronto Marriott City Centre
• Laundry Ambassador of the Year: Colin Caseley – InterContinental Toronto Centre
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Norival Da Rosa – Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel
• Reservations Ambassador of the Year: Carina Cunanan – Fairmont Royal York
• Rising Star Award: Fady Saleh – Four Points & Element Toronto Airport
• Security Ambassador of the Year: Johnson Jonathan – DoubleTree by Hilton Toronto Downtown
• Steward of the Year: Ricardo Llamas – Delta Hotels by Marriott Toronto Mississauga
• Switchboard Operator of the Year: Cinzia Celada – The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto
• Valet/Door Person/Shuttle Driver: Brendon DiBenedetto – The Hazelton Hotel

Additionally, the 2025 inductees into the GTHA Hall of Fame were announced: Klaus Tenter (1943-2024) and Nicholas Vesely (1953-2024), two exemplary hoteliers who devoted their lives to the advancement of Canada’s hotel industry. The awards were accepted posthumously by their respective families and friends.

Born in Poland and raised in Germany, Tenter came to Canada for Expo 67 — and stayed to build one of the country’s most distinguished hotel careers. A longtime Four Seasons executive, he served as general manager in Calgary, Newport Beach, and Toronto, where he became affectionately known as “the Mayor of Yorkville.” Following his retirement, he founded G7 Hospitality Group and helped launch Toronto’s acclaimed Hazelton Hotel. Renowned for his integrity, empathy, and leadership, Tenter embodied the very best of the hotel profession.

Vesely began his career as a cook at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge before finding his true calling in hotel management. A fixture of Toronto’s hospitality community for nearly five decades, he managed several major Toronto properties with warmth, humour, and professionalism, earning recognition as Hotelier of the Year and serving on both local and international industry boards. Admired for his kindness and mentorship, Vesely left an enduring mark on colleagues and the broader hospitality community alike.

“Klaus and Nick each represented the heart and spirit of our industry,” said Anghel. “They led with compassion, professionalism, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Their legacy will continue to inspire current and future generations of hoteliers across the Greater Toronto region and beyond.”

Traditional shovels were ditched at the launch of an innovative housing development in Windsor on Monday, with dignitaries instead wielding torque wrenches as the ceremonial tools.

“No shovels, no dirt,” said Justin Amicone, general manager of Amico Design Build and A-LINX, a local builder of finished modular units. And, despite the wintry weather outside, no snow at this formal groundbreaking.

A-LINX Building Technologies, with a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on 8th Concession Road in Oldcastle, hosted Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex’s first “indoor groundbreaking,” with that organization showcasing its latest partnership with industry leaders aimed at making home ownership accessible to more local families.

“Today marks a turning point,” said H4H Windsor-Essex CEO Fiona Coughlin. “Modular construction allows us to deliver homes faster, with high quality and greater predictability, which is exactly what this housing moment requires.”

After receiving national attention in 2022 by partnering with the University of Windsor to build a multi-unit building in Leamington using 3D-printed construction techniques, Coughlin’s organization is now on track to do the same with metal-framed, factory-built modular homes.

Partnering in Windsor-Essex with A-LINX is “writing the playbook on how to make housing affordable,” Habitat for Humanity national president and CEO Pedro Barata said Monday. The housing affordability crisis has become so acute, he said, that “a majority of Canadians are now sacrificing basics, like food,” in order to keep a roof over their heads.

“Our mission is simple — build better homes and build faster,” said Justin Amicone, general manager of Amico Design Build and its affiliated division, A-LINX. And the goal, he added, is “so housing can be made attainable for all.”

Habitat for Humanity gave details Monday on its next big project, a 16-unit townhouse development in Amherstburg. Unlike its more than 150 previous local builds — which would see volunteers and prospective owners wield hammers alongside on-site skilled-trade professionals — the Amherstburg build will see those units completed entirely indoors and then, according to Amicone, trucked over and “dropped on the foundation.”

Coughlin said her local group has set a fundraising goal of a million dollars to help finance the project, and she announced the first $200,000 donation from developers Anthony and Dino Maggio on behalf of their family. Construction is expected sometime in 2026.

“What starts as 16 homes in Amherstburg can become thousands across Canada,” said Coughlin, who cited a current local waitlist of more than 9,000 families “without safe, affordable homes.”

Amico Properties Inc. and Habitat for Humanity were partners in an ambitious multimillion-dollar project with the Town of Leamington to turn the former Leamington high school into an “attainable housing” community. That project was scrapped earlier this year after the parties couldn’t come up with the economics to make it work.

“Habitat and Amico really felt badly about the failure of the Leamington project,” Cindy Prince, Amico Properties Inc. vice-president of development, told the Star. Monday’s A-LINX event is part of their response.

With an ever-deepening housing affordability crisis across Canada, and developers and builders saying the private sector alone cannot solve it, last week’s federal Liberal budget saw multiple billions of dollars committed to tackle the problem.

Both Habitat for Humanity and A-LINX representatives told the Star they are actively pursuing some of that funding. Home ownership is becoming “further and further away from reality,” said Habitat’s Barata: “Young people don’t want that dream to die, and neither do we.”

Prince told the Star Amico and A-LINX would “absolutely” seek to partner with the City of Windsor, which has been freeing up publicly owned municipal lands for developer proposals to add to much-needed local housing stock.

Amicone said A-LINX’s steel framing is cost comparable to traditional wood construction, lasts much longer and is completely recyclable. Guests on Monday applauded when told A-LINX uses made-in-Canada steel. Amicone said indoor modular construction can be done year-round (no bad-weather or winter downtime), and done faster and with greater efficiency and less waste. With a catalogue of ready models, he told the Star A-LINX can “drastically reduce the cost of design.”

Asked about cost for consumers, Amicone told the Star that a trimmed-down new starter home, like the ones Habitat for Humanity is planning to build for first-time homeowners, could be offered to the consumer for about $350 per square foot, which is much less than going market rates for housing.

“We can absolutely make that dream come true,” Amicone said.

“None of us can do this alone,” Coughlin told the Star on the need for such partnerships between non-profits, the private sector and governments. She described the project announced Monday as a “scalable, efficient and community-focused solution” to help address Canada’s housing crisis, and to do that with the potential of expanding and diversifying the Windsor-Essex manufacturing sector to generate new jobs.

“This is a very exciting day,” Prince said Monday.

A-LINX, which was involved in construction of The Hive boutique condo building on Pelissier in downtown Windsor, manufactures fully finished modular units that can be configured as single homes, duplexes, fourplexes or multi-unit, multi-story buildings.

“This is the future of housing innovation,” said Habitat’s Barata: “Building hope, building ambition.”

The approximately $39.3 million contract was awarded to Fortis Construction Group Inc. of Tecumseh, coming in $3.6 million under the estimated construction cost.

With this approval, the project will move forward into the construction phase. Work is expected to begin in December, with completion anticipated in early 2028.

The hub will bring together a new civic centre, library and museum at the former Sears location in the Downtown Chatham Centre.

Overall, the project budget is $52.8 million, including about $7 million in contingency funds.

Chatham Coun. Marjorie Crew called it an investment in the community, as well as its people.

“Sometimes it’s fearful to make those decisions, to make your vision a reality,” she said. “If we keep putting it off, it’s going to cost more in the long run.

“This is not a Chatham project, this is definitely a Chatham-Kent project.”

Council approved the tender 14-4. Opposed were councillors Michael Bondy, Rhonda Jubenville, Alysson Storey and John Wright.

Before the overall vote, Storey entered an unsuccessful motion, which fell 4-14, to postpone the matter, saying she wanted further financial information for ongoing lifecycle and operating costs.

“I still don’t think we have that full picture,” she said.

However, West Kent Coun. Lauren Anderson slammed the “filibustering” of the issue, given the number of motions related to the hub throughout the approval process.

“I also think that it’s allowed those that are opposed to nitpick and snip apart certain things, that would deter people from being in favour of a project like this,” she said. “I think that that’s been detrimental in the public outlook on this project.”

Calling the filibustering comment “a bit of a cheap shot,” Storey said she “would call that doing due diligence for the taxpayer.”

West Kent Coun. Melissa Harrigan said staff already completed the financial work, adding the report is “reassuring to me.”

South Kent Coun. Anthony Ceccacci reminded how previous councils faced public pressure not to spend money on civic centre renovations, leading to this point.

“I’m putting my hand up to say I’m one of those individuals that buckled under the pressure of the community saying we’re struggling with financial challenges, we’re struggling with homelessness, we’re struggling with uncertainty,” he said.

“It wasn’t smart for us to do that. We should’ve fixed it.”

South Kent Coun. Trevor Thompson admitted he also voted no to previous renovation recommendations.

He called out the politics around the horseshoe, as well as lobbying efforts within the community, related to the hub.

“The ship has sailed. And I don’t want to play these games anymore,” he said.

Staff reiterated the construction will move forward without any new property tax increases, with the project funded through a combination of property sales, existing reserves, and long-term financing within the municipality budget.

There is also the possibility of donations and naming rights, however, these were not included in the current funding model.

Staff have maintained the hub will not result in the closure of any rural libraries or municipal service centres.

In a media release issued after the vote, Mayor Darrin Canniff said this decision represented a significant step for the community.

“This is an exciting moment for Chatham-Kent. The community hub will be a cornerstone for civic life. It will be a place that connects our residents to services, culture, learning, and community,” he said.

“The fact that this project is moving ahead, and already under budget, is a testament to the strong planning and fiscal responsibility behind it. This is an investment in the future of Chatham-Kent and it will serve generations to come.”

Further project updates will be shared at www.letstalkchatham-kent.ca/community-hub