What worked downtown elsewhere: seven cities' records hold lessons for Windsor's core

Windsor's downtown office vacancy sits at 40.6%. Calgary, Hamilton, Grand Rapids, Oklahoma City and others faced the same problem and tracked what worked. Here are 7 options, and what Ward 6's Jeremy Renaud says Windsor should try.

Topics: Community

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From Calgary's office-to-home conversions to Oklahoma City's pay-as-you-go penny tax, cities with problems like Windsor's tried tools that Windsor could borrow. Here is what they did, what it cost, and what their records show.

Windsor's downtown has the highest office vacancy rate among Canadian downtowns tracked by commercial real estate firm CBRE. CBRE Windsor put it at 40.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, against a national downtown average of 18.2 per cent. Its estimate for downtown retail vacancy was 33.1 per cent.

The City has started to respond. In 2024 it launched Strengthen the Core, its downtown revitalization plan. In an August 2026 update, the City reported more than 45 security cameras installed under Project Greenlight as of June 30, about 249 added parking spaces, more than 30 businesses opened or relocated downtown, and new housing projects advancing in the core. The Downtown Windsor Community Improvement Plan pays $2,500 for each new home, up to $50,000 per property, and offers tax-increment grants.

Other cities have faced the same mix of empty offices, a small residential base, surface parking and visible addiction and homelessness. Some tracked their results. Here is what their records show.

Calgary: paying to turn empty offices into homes

Calgary's downtown emptied out after the oil downturn. In 2021 the City began paying developers $75 per square foot to convert obsolete office towers into homes. The cap is now $15 million per project, and the money is paid only when the project is finished. By the end of 2025, the City reported 21 projects covering about 2.68 million square feet that are expected to produce about 2,650 homes, plus a 226-room hotel. The City says each $1 of public money has drawn $4 in private investment. Since the program reopened, part of the funding has come from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

Hamilton: tax-increment grants and loans for housing

Hamilton uses a community improvement plan (the same Ontario tool Windsor uses) together with a low-interest loan for downtown housing. In a five-year review of those incentives this year, City staff recommended keeping the downtown programs and adding a stream for projects that rebuild public parking underground as surface lots are developed.

Grand Rapids, Michigan: a downtown authority funded by its own growth

Grand Rapids' Downtown Development Authority uses tax increment financing, the extra property tax that comes from rising downtown values. The city adopted GR Forward, a 10-year downtown plan, in 2015 with a goal of about 12,000 residents. Downtown's population has grown since then, but it is still well short of that target.

Oklahoma City: a temporary penny, paid in cash

In 1993, Oklahoma City voters approved MAPS, a temporary one-cent sales tax that ran for 66 months. It raised more than $309 million plus about $54 million in interest. The City built a downtown ballpark, a canal through the old Bricktown warehouse district, an arena, a library and convention upgrades, and it paid as it went instead of borrowing. A 21-member citizen oversight board reviewed the spending. Voters approved later rounds of the model, MAPS 3 in 2009 and MAPS 4 in 2019.

Greenville, South Carolina: narrowing Main Street

In the late 1970s Greenville cut its Main Street from four traffic lanes to two. It added angled parking, trees and wide sidewalks for outdoor dining, and it worked with private partners on the redevelopment. In 2002 the city removed a four-lane highway bridge that hid the Reedy River falls. It replaced it with the Liberty pedestrian bridge in 2004, and the riverfront has since filled with new development. Published accounts agree on the sequence. Hard before-and-after numbers are harder to find, and this is the least quantified example here.

Detroit: a public square as a front door

Civic groups and businesses paid to rebuild Campus Martius, a downtown square, as a programmed park that reopened in November 2004 with a winter skating rink and movable seating. Compuware built its headquarters on the square, and in 2010 Quicken Loans moved 1,700 workers into that building. Detroit still filed for municipal bankruptcy in 2013, which shows that a successful downtown cannot fix a city's finances by itself.

Medicine Hat, Alberta: housing first, measured monthly

Medicine Hat used Housing First, which moves people into housing quickly and then adds supports, along with a real-time list of everyone who is homeless, known by name. In 2021 it became the first Canadian community verified as reaching "functional zero" chronic homelessness, meaning three or fewer chronically homeless people for three consecutive months. Its community housing society later reported that chronic homelessness rose again after the pandemic. That shows the approach works only as long as housing supply and funding keep pace.

Options Windsor could use

Pay for conversions, not just new builds. Windsor's CIP pays $2,500 a unit, with a $50,000 cap per property. Calgary pays up to $75 a square foot, and only once units are finished. Hamilton adds housing loans.

Report on tax-increment tools. Windsor already offers tax-increment grants. Hamilton and Grand Rapids report publicly on theirs, and Windsor could do the same.

Build on surface lots. Windsor's new downtown housing projects are a start. Hamilton's new incentive rewards projects that replace lost surface spaces with underground public parking.

Retune streets for people. Greenville's two-lane Main Street and London, Ontario's curbless Dundas Place, which can close to traffic for events, are both mid-size city designs. Windsor's 2026 curb-lane parking changes went the other way, adding spaces.

Lean on anchors already downtown. The University of Windsor's School of Creative Arts in the former Armouries already brings students downtown. Detroit's park-plus-employer pairing shows what a second anchor can add.

Measure homelessness by name. Windsor's weekend outreach pilot is a start. Medicine Hat shows that a by-name list combined with housing supply can drive the numbers down, and that the gains need sustained funding.

Fund a defined list, in cash, with a public board. Oklahoma City's model asks voters to approve a specific list of projects with a sunset date.

No option here is a quick fix. Grand Rapids missed its population goal and Detroit's turnaround ran through bankruptcy. The cities that moved their numbers chose a few tools, funded them for a decade or more, and reported results every year.

What Windsor's incoming council said

Windsor News emailed Mayor-elect Fred Francis and all 10 councillors-elect on Oct. 28 with the seven options above and three questions, and asked for answers by 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29. One replied by the deadline.

Ward 6 Councillor-elect Jeremy Renaud asked that his answers be presented as his own views. "The following responses below are of my opinion only and do not reflect the opinions of others who will form Windsor City Council in the very near future," he wrote.

Renaud said three of the options stood out to him. On Medicine Hat's approach, he wrote: "Personally, I really believe that we have to address human dignity and overall safety first before we even begin to take a look at the revitalization of business growth in support of the Core." He said a by-name list "ensures that we know every individual experiencing chronic homelessness by name while understanding their specific needs rather than taking a generalized approach."

He also backed building on surface lots, saying the core "has a wealth of asphalt surface lots that fragment overall streetscape and reduce foot traffic," and streets designed for people. "Ouellette Ave. and surrounding streets need to feel safer, greener, and more inviting," he wrote.

For his first year, Renaud said he would like council to speed up residential growth downtown by streamlining development approvals and expanding targeted Community Improvement Plan incentives. "To get businesses into the core to open and more importantly stay open, we need more people living downtown 24-7," he wrote. He said he would want to hear from Ward 3 Councillor-elect Renaldo Agostino, his future council colleagues, the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association and area businesses before pushing for a fast-track approval process for dense, mixed-use housing in the core.

Asked what Windsor should avoid, Renaud pointed to office conversion grants like Calgary's. Windsor should avoid "unguided, blanket office-to-residential conversion grants without rigorous structural pre-screening," he wrote, because some office floor plates may be too deep to convert "without astronomical costs per square foot." He said public money should instead be "surgically targeted toward mid-rise, adaptable structures or directed toward strategic ground-up infill on surface lots."

Mayor-elect Fred Francis did not respond by the deadline. Councillors-elect Darcie Renaud (Ward 1), Frazier Fathers (Ward 2), Renaldo Agostino (Ward 3), Chris Holt (Ward 4), Ken Acton (Ward 5), Angelo Marignani (Ward 7), Gary Kaschak (Ward 8), Kieran McKenzie (Ward 9) and Mark Masanovich (Ward 10) also did not respond by the deadline. Windsor News will add any answers that arrive later.