The owners of The Highlands apartments in downtown St. Thomas are getting set to construct their second tower. “We are at the city right now to add a nine or 10 storey building, which will add great housing to the supply in St. Thomas,” said Lee Greenwood, a partner in the property. If all the permits are in place by the end of 2027, they will be able to take advantage of a new incentive bylaw passed by St. Thomas city council. In order to meet their housing targets and unlock funding from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) agreement, the city is offering a 50 per cent reduction on development charges for high-rise buildings five storey’s or greater. This reduction will save hundreds of thousands of dollars. “It’s a huge reason to start a project,” said Greenwood. “It takes a substantial line item out of the budget and allows us to deliver really good quality housing at the best rents we can.” On Oct. 21, 2026, the governments of Ontario and Canada gave St. Thomas $19.6 million in funding to support housing growth and critical infrastructure. It will be money used to help offset the reduced charges. “We’re making it easy for someone to start a project that used to maybe be too expensive,” said Joe Preston, St. Thomas mayor. There are currently three other proposed high-rise properties who could take advantage of this discount in 2027. The third building at Alma College, a new multi-residential development by Drewlo Holdings on the brownfield site at Elm Street and Wilson Avenue and the two future towers at Elgin Centre. “It’s going to take a long time to build those, but they’re going to do it with a bigger smile on their face even than they did last time,” said Preston. “If you’ve got less upfront money or you able to borrow money at a cheaper rate because some of it is already paid by not being a charge, it lets the simplicity of building affordable housing be there for people.” The City’s original target of 1,183 new housing units between 2025 and 2027 increased to 1,204 as part of the additional funds received early in 2026. The additional housing targets for affordable units and missing middle have already been achieved. They have only reached 15 per cent of their target units in buildings five stories or greater. Ontario Housing Minister Rob Flack says the $19.6 million, along with reducing the HST on purpose building housing rentals is already showing tremendous success. “We got rid of the HST in 2023, and this year alone, up until September, we’ve seen more than 20,000 units built across the province, up 40 per cent over last year, which was also a record year,” said Flack. “With the increased supply comes increased competition and what are we seeing across the province is rent coming down. We’re bringing affordability back on the menu.” The new Highlands apartments will be market-rent housing, but they’ll work with the city to determine potential affordable housing units. The first building is full of young professionals and people moving to the community for work. This next one will be within the timeline of the incentive program and calls the offer by the city a “game changer.” “This allows us to put the money back into a building to deliver great units and great amenities,” said Greenwood. “The community we built here at Highlands is fantastic and we want to replicate it again.”
