Repurposed TD building opens as student centre

by Richard Dawes

Downtown St. Clair College students and a local business owner agree the school’s newly opened student centre is a good example of repurposing an unused building.

Now named the TD Centre for Student Success, the once empty space at the corner of University avenue and Victoria avenue offers students access to 85 computers, five study rooms, a club room and counseling and tutoring services. Approximately $700,000 was spent renovating and furnishing the 3,000 square foot two-storey building, previously a TD Canada Trust branch. The transformation of the donated building, a gift from TD, began in June and completed in October.

The facility will operate Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. If there is demand the centre will be open weekends too.

Vice President of College and Community Relations John Fairley said “repurposing” is a new hot word, meaning taking a pre-existing building and using it for something different. The centre marks the third building the college has repurposed, preceded by the MediaPlex building which sat empty after the closing of the Salvation Army and the St. Clair Centre for the Arts which was formerly the Cleary International Centre.

“This building will improve the (St. Clair) student experience and act as a catalyst to help the city core,” Fairley said. “We’re just playing our part by bringing students and staff downtown. This centre compliments what we’ve already been doing to help.”

Second year travel and tourism students Sam Holden and Vanessa Ruth both agree there is a need for the centre. The program’s first year class has many more students than last year, and the open lab provided in the MediaPlex is not large enough to accommodate everyone.

“I also think it will provide a place for the downtown students to come together and meet, from both the MediaPlex and Centre for the Arts,” said Ruth.

Windsor’s downtown is receiving attention from the University of Windsor as well, with the recent purchase of the old Windsor Star building and last year’s purchase of the downtown Armouries.

Within a few blocks of the new student centre are a number of local establishments. Villains’ Beastro is a block away and owner Geoff Zanetti said repurposing the old bank is a step in the right direction for downtown.

“The schools moving down here is what’s going to bring people downtown,” said Zanetti. “I’d like to see the students living down here next, and then once that happens we can have a grocery store and year-round food markets. But as of now the schools are a great way get people down here.”

Zanetti also noted that Villains’, another example of a repurposed building, was an antique shop before he turned it into a restaurant.

Though the grand opening for the TD Centre is tentatively set for early November, the building is now open for students. St. Clair students who attended the TD Centre’s soft opening got their first look at the new computer equipment and refinished interior. There is office space for St. Clair staff who will run the centre and also for the downtown Student Representative Council office which has moved from the Centre for the Arts.