Financial incentives 'great carrot' for developers to create housing downtown

There is a demand for more housing across Greater Sudbury.

Part of the answer could lie in the downtown core, where at least three large buildings are up for sale: the Scotia Tower on Cedar Street, the old diocese building on St Anne's Road, and an old school on Mackenzie Street.

All three could easily be converted into multi-unit residential buildings, said real estate broker Paul Kusnierczyk, adding that the C6 zoning allows for that.

Potential buyers are interested, especially because of incentives the city has available.

"Financial incentives are a great carrot to spur development in the downtown core and in other areas of the city," Kusnierczyk said, adding that it "makes it very attractive for somebody to undertake a redevelopment."

Because housing is a priority for Greater Sudbury, the city created a number of policies and incentives for all housing options.

One of those is the Strategic Core Areas Community Improvement Plan (CIP), which senior planner Melissa Riou said replaces the former downtown and town centre CIP. It can be applied to the downtowns and town centres of Sudbury, Capreol, Chelmsford, Copper Cliff, Flour Mill, Kathleen Street, Levack, and Lively.

The program means grants and loans are available to developers who are interested in these areas, including those interested in creating residential development.

A sub category of this CIP is the Residential Incentive Program, which provides a per door grant.

"It would fund creation of newly created habitable space or creation of new dwelling units within the downtown. Those incentives are directed to encourage housing within the downtown core," Riou said.

Another incentive is that development charges are exempt for downtown development.

Cassandra Beach is a sales representative with Royal LePage North Heritage Realty in Sudbury.

She said the pandemic showed employers that they didn't always need a physical space, especially when many employees can work from home.  

"So we're seeing an increased number of listings for lease and for sub leases, making it harder to lease office spaces," Beach said. 

As of Mar. 28, there were 117 commercial listings for lease in Sudbury Proper on the Sudbury Real Estate Board MLS System. Listings in downtown Sudbury represent 50 per cent of the spaces available.

However, only 12 of 59, or 20 per cent of leased spaces in Sudbury Proper in the last 365 days were in downtown Sudbury, as per the Sudbury Real Estate Board MLS System. 

Beach said she has "high hopes for the downtown."

"I hope to see it revitalized, and I do think that having more residential housing downtown may be  a part of that solution, if we're not able to fill up office towers with commercial uses," she added.

Despite some recent issues, Kusnierczyk said there's "lots of really good value that exists in the downtown."

"You put more people in the downtown core and things get better — restaurants do better, stores do better. So I think that's the way the downtown should be moving, is more multi-res [residential]" Kusnierczyk said.

In the near future the city plans to update its downtown master plan, first created in 2012. That update will look at both commercial and residential components of the downtown. 

Riou said there will be significant consultation with key stakeholders and the public. 

"Our role as the city is really to create the appropriate policy framework and incentive framework to encourage redevelopment and development within the downtown, to create more sense of place and additional vibrancy within these strategic areas."