An application to support as many as 1,900 residential units at the former Holmes Foundry site in Point Edward has been submitted and is under review, says Hamilton-based developer Tyler Pearson.
“I believe it’s the best undeveloped piece of land in Lambton County,” he said. “It has the ability to be a village within a village with mixed-used development that has a heavy emphasis on a residential component.”
Pearson, who grew up in Corunna and attended St. Christopher Secondary (now St. Pat’s) in Sarnia, purchased the 16-acre (6.5 hectare) former foundry property two years ago.
He called the vacant brownfield an “unprecedented opportunity” that could eventually be developed with residential, long-term care facilities, a hotel, a grocery store and retail.
The concept includes buildings that are anywhere from five to 30 storeys high.
Pearson’s company, Malleum Partners, is a private equity business with experience developing properties that need remediation.
A month ago, Malleum submitted a request for a zoning bylaw amendment and an amendment to the official plan that would allow the mixed-use, high-density concept.
A planner working for the village is reviewing the application, said Point Edward CAO Jim Burns.
The land is in a high-profile location next to Highway 402, just east of the Blue Water Bridge. It has been marketed for decades as a prime development site but was tied up in litigation and remedial environmental issues for more than 30 years. Pearson purchased it in the spring of 2022.
“There have been ideas put forward but this is the first time an application has been submitted for it,” said Burns.
“I want to do something with this piece of land that no one has been able to do for 35 years,” Pearson told The Journal.
The application he submitted allows Pearson “to keep his options open.”
At the same time, it draws attention to capacity at Point Edward’s sewage treatment plant.
There is also another application before village council relating to a large housing subdivision on Exmouth Street for about 160 residential units.
While the sewage treatment plant still has some capacity, there is “no way” it can support both developments without an expansion and new infrastructure, said Burns.
The village recently applied to the Ontario Housing Enabling Water System fund for approximately $25 million to help expand the plant and facilitate housing development.
“If governments at the federal, provincial and municipal levels are passionate about moving development forward and supporting residential growth, then they have to find a way to get behind projects like this,” Pearson said.
Housing prices are pushing people out of the GTA into more rural areas like Lambton County where new affordable housing is needed for them, he said.
Since acquiring the property, Pearson has demolished the last of the foundry buildings on the site and submitted a risk assessment to the Ministry of the Environment. Once that is approved, a record of site conditions will be filed.
“If that all comes together with Official Plan and zoning amendments, we’ll have a piece of property ready to develop,” Pearson said. “If there’s more clean up that needs to be done, it will be done.
“I think there’s a dire need for housing and that the community wants this to move forward.”
A community forum of some sort will be scheduled to allow for local citizen input, Pearson added.
“We’re a business doing this for economic reasons, obviously. But we want to engage the community too,” he said.“It’s been rewarding to get to this point and the village is wonderful to work with.
“This is a very exciting opportunity.”