A Waterloo developer is planning to repurpose a long-vacant school in Elliot Lake, creating 50 new apartments, accompanied by 40 townhouse units, on seven acres of land.
The former Roman Avenue Public School, which has been vacant since 2016, will be developed by the numbered company 2862485 Ontario Inc., which is owned by Daniel Tarasko of Waterloo. His son, Nathan Tarasko, who helps run the company, led a public information session on Dec. 19 held at the office of Brown and Fabris, the law firm representing the company.
“We’re in the middle of working with the city to get this all approved,” Nathan Tarasko said. “We’ve been working with this for about a year now and this is where we are at and we’ve been pre-emptively approved.”
The company already owns two duplexes on Fobrel Drive, so the owner and his son are familiar with Elliot Lake.
To date, the former school has been cleared of asbestos, and the company is planning one- and two-bedroom apartments inside.
“We’ve cleaned it out on the inside and structurally it is intact,” Nathan said.
Another apartment unit will be built about midway in the former track field with 50 units, surrounded by about 40 townhouse units.
According to lawyer Antoine-René Fabris, the company has already applied to the city for rezoning of the property from institutional to residential.
The city has received the site plan drawing created by 3rdLine.Studio architects from Sudbury.
Street access to the property will come off of Roman Avenue to the right of the gymnasium to the homes and apartments planned for the rear of the property. The property is surrounded by bush, which will be kept intact.
Nathan said the developer’s target market would be people between 40 and 60 years of age.
Fabris said the viewing is the first step in the process of moving the development forward.
Once the rezoning is approved by the city, the process will move on and will see further public meetings to get input on the how the end development will look.
“We are looking at a start date next year and we are looking at a phased-in development,” he said of how construction will proceed.
No specific end date for construction of the development has been announced until city approvals are finalized.
The rezoning, including parking lots and streets, has to be approved along with an eventual condo application on how condo sales will be done and governed.
Public meetings will also help in determining how the final project will look, and the company said it will consider issues raised by neighbours and residents.
Nathan said the company hopes to have a management office for sales and rentals once approvals are in place.
— ElliotLakeToday
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