Harrow high school site to become residential development

The Former Harrow High School is to be turned into a housing development. CTV’s Michelle Maluske reports.

A new chapter has been announced for the former home of the Harrow Hawks.

Essex has sold the century-old high school to a Windsor developer to build residential homes.

Horizon Investment Holdings plans to build 160 new units on the 3.4-acre site.

Horizon Investments CEO Wing On Li is hoping to be done by 2028.

“We have been building houses and condos in South Windsor in the last eight years at amazing speed. With our record, we have finished three buildings and four buildings in Windsor within 25 months each. So I expect this is three years is a very easy timeline for me if the market cooperate,” he said.

The company says the homes will be a mix of two-storey townhomes and three-storey six-plexes, with a mix of ownership and rental opportunities.

The Town of Essex confirmed that the property was bought for $845,900 in December 2021. Bondy was unable to confirm the number at the time of the interview.

Bondy says the ball diamond, track and green space will not be developed, just the footprint of the old high school.

“This point, I can say that we paid $780,000. The number that we are talking about with Horizon isn’t public yet, but we have more. We’ve got more than $780,000. So that’s a good announcement, because it basically means that we got the green space for free.”

The developer also plans to create community space by preserving 7,000 square feet of the old high school as an homage to its history.

One neighbour says he’s pleased just to know the building will have a new life after so many years boarded up.

“This has been sitting here (depreciating) for too many years now, and, it’s good to,” says neighbour Dennis Swarts. “Something’s going to be happening. I mean, because I live right across the street for a minute, and I’ve been living there since 1998, and my grandmother lived there for 90 years. So it’s kind of cool that something’s finally going to be happening instead of just falling apart, for sure.”