How the New Gordie Howe International Bridge Is Fueling Real Estate Deals in Windsor

In June, Windsor, Ont. and Detroit were linked for a fourth time when the bridge deck of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge was completed. This landmark project is already sending ripples through the local commercial real estate market and two G7 economies.

Slated to open in September 2025, the project marks the first new crossing between Ontario and Michigan in more than 60 years and doubles the number of access lanes between Windsor and Detroit.

“It will create seamless connectivity between the U.S. Interstate 75 and Highway 401,” says CBRE Windsor Senior Vice President Brook Handysides. “That’s appealing for companies that do business on both sides of the border.”

The Gordie Howe bridge will give a boost to North America’s busiest land port. Together the Detroit Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge carry over 40,000 vehicles on a typical day, while the Michigan Central Railway tunnel is estimated to handle 400,000 railcars annually.

The new bridge will make moving goods to the U.S. a breeze relative to the previous setup. The Gordie Howe Bridge will bypass downtown, keeping most commercial traffic off the city streets. To access the existing Ambassador Bridge, which opened in 1929, drivers getting off Highway 401 must pass through up to 10 sets of streetlights, creating significant bottlenecks for Windsor.

Trickle-Down Benefits

The new bridge promises to improve trade flow between Canada and the U.S. and its benefits will be felt beyond the Windsor area.

“It will provide access to new markets on a greater scale,” says Handysides. “Even companies in the Greater Toronto Area will benefit from the improved infrastructure and logistics.”

Handysides anticipates increased activity in the local industrial and manufacturing sectors once the bridge is completed, and trickle-down effects for the residential and retail sectors as more jobs are created.

“Windsor is anticipated to have the fastest-growing GDP in Canada over the next few years,” says Brad Collins, who runs CBRE Windsor’s operation with Handysides. “This will have positive effects on our commercial real estate market and the community as a whole.”

“The bridge project has put a spotlight on Windsor and made this market more attractive to investors than it’s ever been,” Handysides adds. “It’s helping us to reimagine our city and what it can become.”

A Real Estate Boon

With the launch of the Gordie Howe bridge construction a decade ago, the Windsor area experienced an uptick in real estate momentum.

“Even though it’s not complete yet, the bridge has already had a profound effect on the local market,” says Handysides. “It’s an enormous vote of confidence in Windsor from the federal government, which has picked up the entire tab for the construction – and people see that.”

“The construction alone created thousands of jobs and drew talent from across the globe,” adds Collins. “It’s already spurred several spin-off businesses and construction projects, providing stability to our market.”

Its connectivity to the Motor City has meant Windsor has been seeing lots of automotive-related real estate activity lately.

In 2022 a joint venture comprised of Korean technology company LG Electronics and European automotive giant Stellantis acquired a 220 acre site in Windsor, creating Canada’s first lithium-ion electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing plant, a $4.9-billion project set to be completed around the same time as the bridge in 2025. The deal spurred the City of Windsor to free up nearby airport land for industrial and business development.

More recently, Volkswagen Group and PowerCo SE, in partnership with three levels of government, selected neighbouring St. Thomas as the site for a new battery cell gigafactory.

Collins and Handysides are also listing 4600-4655 G N Booth Drive, two industrial buildings with lease options from 40,000 to 327,000 sq. ft., seconds away from the Gordie Howe bridge. The largest building is currently undergoing retrofits to accommodate manufacturing, warehousing or logistics users and will be available for occupancy in early 2025.

The Gordie Howe bridge construction has also catalyzed activity across other property types, namely residential and retail. The CBRE team has seen grocers investing in previously less desirable city areas, for example. “Retail availability in Windsor is tight,” says Collins. “We’ve seen an uptick in brick-and-mortar retail interest, especially in recent months.”

Long Overdue

Construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge has been a long time coming. “It should have been built 20 years earlier,” says Handysides. “Our world has changed so much since the last crossing was built nearly 100 years ago. Our needs today are vastly different, especially with the increasing demand for just-in-time delivery. We were long overdue for a better solution.”

Part of the delay stemmed from legal battles with the Ambassador Bridge’s owner, who attempted to block the construction of the new bridge on the U.S. and Canadian sides.

The bridge project has created challenges. It has contributed to a tightening of the Windsor housing market due to a quickly growing population. It has also made it harder for local businesses to find skilled tradespeople for local projects such as the new Windsor-Essex hospital, driving up construction costs and delaying projects in the area.

“It’s put a strain on the local labour market,” says Collins. “The bridge project absorbed a lot of talent and increased costs. But local businesses can rest assured that things will start to improve in about a year.”