City council to discuss next steps to finalize redevelopment of former Stratford factory [Video]

After sitting empty for 50 years, the City of Stratford is moving closer to redeveloping the former location of the Grand Trunk Railways shop.

The plot of land, spanning 18 acres that contains the former factory building, sits on the edge of Stratford’s historic downtown.

It’s a site with a promising future which played an integral role in the city’s past.

“When the shops first came to Stratford in 1890, the population of the city doubled. When they did a huge [expansion] in the 1920s, the population of the city doubled again. There [were] literally tent cities around that property,” said John Kastner, the co-chair of the Ad-Hoc Grand Trunk Renewal Committee, a group tasked with giving recommendations to city council.

With tentative plans for housing, a new library, a YMCA location and retail space, Kastner says council will ultimately have to decide what to do with the building.

“The …