Taylor Campbell/The Windsor Star
After nearly three decades in an office complex near the expressway, Dillon Consulting has moved its Windsor workplace back to the city’s core with plans to participate in the downtrodden neighbourhood’s revival.
The firm, which has around 70 local employees, now calls the 12th floor of 1 Riverside Dr. W. home.
“We’re thrilled to embark on this new chapter in our company’s history,” Dillon partner Karl Tanner said ahead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.
In part due to the City of Windsor’s Strengthen the Core plan — a multi-part strategy aimed at revitalizing downtown — Tanner said Dillon felt compelled to return to the core.
“We really have to be downtown. We have to lead by example,” he told the Star.
Dillon Consulting began in London in 1946 and has had an office in Windsor since 1960. The firm’s first Windsor location was downtown, but it moved to the Greenwood Centre near Central Avenue in 1995.
Although the Greenwood Centre was a “great location for the time” and “where we needed to be,” Tanner said the firm saw a need to return to the core.
“We’re not just tenants here in the downtown. We want to be active members in the community and collaborate with local businesses and different endeavours in the downtown core.
“You’re going to see us take a leadership role moving forward. We really want to be a part of this reactivation.”
The new office location overlooking the waterfront includes multiple boardrooms, office rooms, and desk workstations with an elevated view of the area.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who toured the new office location this week, thanked Dillon for its confidence in the city and municipal efforts to improve downtown, which include increased policing.
“I think this is another vote of confidence for the work that we’re doing,” Dilkens said. “We want to encourage businesses like this one to come back to the downtown core, to set up, to bring folks back downtown, and to help make our downtown more lively once again.
“There is no firm in this town that is more invested in building Windsor’s future (than Dillon),” the mayor said.
The consulting company does engineering, planning, environmental sciences, and management, Tanner said. It has roughly 1,100 employees across Canada.
“We’re part of every part of your community, from land development through to road reconstruction, highways, ports — literally everything you can think of, we generally do when it comes to infrastructure and building our communities,” Tanner said.
Ward 3 Coun. Renaldo Agostino, who represents the urban neighbourhood, called Dillon’s return to the core a “big win for downtown Windsor.
“It’s another step in the right direction for Strengthen the Core, for bouncing back downtown Windsor.”