LaSalle celebrates the groundbreaking of massive $200 million commercial development

LaSalle is seeing a $200 million commercial project being built. CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco checks it out.

There was no hiding how LaSalle mayor Crystal Meloche felt Thursday morning at the site of a massive $200 million development.

“So excited to finally be the day we’re breaking ground and, hopefully, in less than a year we will be cutting ribbon,” Meloche said at the official groundbreaking ceremony for the town’s largest ever commercial project.

“We’re seeing so many different things coming to the site. There’s a possibility of the hotel. There’s a possibility of a gas bar. There’s the grocery store. There’s banking. There’s Shopper’s (Drug Mart). There’s restaurants. You name it, it’ll all be here,” she said.

The D’Amore Group and Petretta Construction have partnered on the commercial development near the Windsor Crossing Outlet Mall.

Work will be spaced out over two phases.

“You’re going to see a couple of things hopefully open before the end of the year but the majority of the things here in, I’ll call it phase 1A, will be opening in the spring of next year,” said Scott D’Amore, president of The D’Amore Group.

When The Shoppes at Heritage is complete, D’Amore said it will be the crown jewel of the 280-acre development. The 24-acre site that is under development will house over 250,000 square feet of commercial and hospitality space and create over 400 jobs.

Hundreds of jobs have and will be created on-site throughout the duration of the project which is expected to carry over into 2027.

“It truly is the type of project that can transform a community,” D’Amore noted.

D’Amore believes, despite the uncertainty of U.S. tariffs, the project will come in on budget because everyone involved in the project is doing their best to work together to be as cost effective as possible.

“There’s things currently that are being stored that we’re not going to need for six months that we normally wouldn’t have purchased for six months, but the price was right,” D’Amore explained.

“We could lock it in, we could adjust it like we talked about it, maybe the vendor eats a point or two, maybe we eat a point or two, but we deliver that end product at an agreeable cost.”

The town’s first McDonald’s is set to be an early opener with Food Basics, Dollarama, Taco Bell, Pet Valu, and Shopper’s Drug Mart also making commitments to the development with others waiting in the wings.

D’Amore feels having big name companies interested in their project in LaSalle has helped and will help commercial properties near and far.

“I think you’re going to see whether it’s across the street and our neighbors at Windsor Crossing, start to get more of a tenant mix or whether you see it other places in Windsor, Essex County,” said D’Amore.

“I think the fact that people have now dug in and looked into Windsor, they’re hopefully going to see, I believe they’re going to see that we got a market worth investing in.”

The development will feed an area in town that is under-serviced and growing.

“We are going through that Howard-Bouffard Secondary Plan where we’re going to see the town grow by another 20,000 plus people and this location is very close to where that development will be, so that’ll provide those residents with groceries and food options close to home.” Meloche said.