The town is looking for a buyer for the final block of old hospital land in downtown Oakville.
The three-acre parcel runs between Reynolds and Allan Streets, near the new Oakville Trafalgar Community Centre and adjacent to Wyndham Manor, a long-term care centre.
The only catch?
The buyer has to build some form of seniors housing on the property and figure out how to deal with the 114-year-old historically designated former high school and its resident colony of threatened chimney swifts. Plus, create a publicly accessible civic square.
Those are the parameters approved as part of a 2017 master plan of the former hospital land. The remainder of the plan for the site has been or is being implemented.
At its meeting on March 28, Oakville council voted to market the property through the Oakville Municipal Development Corporation (OMDC), a town-owned subsidiary chaired by Mayor Rob Burton.
Town staff say the agency has experience marketing heritage properties and can undertake more flexible negotiations with developers than would be possible under a town-issued RFP process.
The OMDC will be paid a management fee of 1.5 per cent of the purchase price if it can find a buyer interested in redeveloping the property within the town’s vision. Outlined in the staff report to the March 28 meeting of town council, that vision includes:
- A seniors-oriented housing development fronting on Reynolds Street, which could provide independent or assisted living, or some combination. The property has a four-storey height limit and is designated for medium-density development or about 30 independent units.
- Construction of a publicly accessible civic square fronting Reynolds Street, with pedestrian connections to nearby parks and the community centre. Completion would be required within seven years of the property's purchase.
- Preservation and refurbishment of the former Oakville Trafalgar high school that has sat vacant for more than 20 years. Built in 1908, the school has a heritage designation and is currently home to a colony of chimney swifts. Town staff say the building will require substantial renovations but could be used for either residential units or as commercial or office space related to a seniors’ development.
In 2019, the Oakville Galleries had proposed a plan to restore the old high school as a permanent home for its art collection at a cost of about $34 million.
The town pledged $3.1 million toward the project and sought federal infrastructure funding for the restoration. That money didn’t materialize, and in the March 28 report, staff concluded that the building’s poor condition would make any use by the Town or a community group cost-prohibitive.
Rehabilitation of the school will require both a town heritage permit and permission from the province related to changes to the chimneys used by the birds, which are designated a threatened species.