Heard On The Street

cola barbecue sauce, as well as 2,000 soda flavours from around the world. They’re also working on a promotion with local bartenders who will be invited to use one of the company’s soda flavours in creating a cocktail of the week. For more information, visit: SodaPopBros.com.

After operating The Wreck At Colchester Harbour, 220 Jackson Street, since May 2019, Owners Steve and Mary-Anne Bjorkman have sold the business so they can transition into retirement. “We bought it as a retirement investment and now is the time to sell so we can slide into a retirement schedule,” explains Stephen, who retired from Ford Motor Company a year ago. Mary-Anne, meanwhile, owned and operated two women’s clothing stores in Essex — Just Plus of Essex and Golden Girl Fashions — but had stepped away from those a few years ago. “Running your own business, even a seasonal restaurant like The Wreck, is a full-time enterprise,” says Bjorkman, who recently became Deputy Mayor for the Town of Essex. “All the businesses kept both of us extremely busy and we’ve decided to slow things down for a while.” While Bjorkman declined to divulge the identity of the new owners he did reveal: “Since they bought it fully furnished, I imagine they plan to continue operating it as a restaurant.” In mid-February the home page of the website: TheWreck.ca and a recorded phone message, mention the restaurant is closed for the season and re-opening in the spring. At the time of writing, there’s no word yet on whether the new owners will retain the name or when it will be open for business again.

After almost 40 years, Windsor’s famous Shin Shin Chinese Restaurant is no longer part of the Wing family. It was established at 978 University Avenue West in 1985 by Chef Tek Wing, who ran the kitchen for more than 30 years. For the past decade, the restaurant has been operated by Calvin He, Wing’s son-in-law. Last November the restaurant was sold to a family from London with February 4, 2022 marking the Wing family’s final day as owners. On the website: ShinShinRestaurant.com a pop up message from He thanked everyone as he prepared to move on to the next chapter of his life. “I will very much miss seeing the friends I’ve come to know, and I want to invite you all to visit the restaurant and allow me to say goodbye before I pass the restaurant to new owners in February.” According to: FoodBooking.com (a restaurant reservation service), Shin Shin was expected to re-open March 4. Neither the former owners nor the new owners could be reached for comment before press time.

In preparation for growth and expansion, the Soda Pop Bros. have moved into a new larger store at 5905 Malden Road, Unit 8, in LaSalle. “We’ve been in business for about 18 months and we’ve moved twice already because business has been going so well,” explains Jeremy Kinsella who co-owns the company with Jason Wilson. Previously, they operated out of The City Market on Walker Road and more recently a space on Drouillard Road. Kinsella adds that the partners are anticipating establishing franchises elsewhere in Canada, as well as in the U.S., within the next 12 months. In addition to more than two dozen varieties of their own brand of soda, the store sells t-shirts, hoodies, fridge magnets and cherry A high-profile property at the intersection of Campbell Avenue and Tecumseh Road West, is in the process of being turned into a large, modern laundromat designed to cater to the high percentage of renters and university students in Windsor’s west end. Owner Tony Abraham, who recently bought the property at 1707 Tecumseh Road West, informs Biz X that The Laundry Depot will feature 25 high-end washers and 30 dryers. “A lot of people in that area of the city don’t have laundry facilities in their own homes and apartments, so I believe this will fill an urgent need,” says Abraham, who also operates a similar laundromat in Leamington at 264 Erie Street South. In addition to offering a comfortable, safe space, he mentions the laundromat will also provide customers with Wi-Fi access. Abraham hopes to be open by mid-April. To learn more visit the Leamington location’s Facebook page under: The Laundry Depot.

A hefty increase in government and institutional building permits lifted the total value of permits, issued by the City of Windsor building department last year, to almost $400 million. A total of $98.6 million in government and institutional permits were issued in 2021, compared to $80.6 million in 2020, which raised last year’s total to $396.8 million compared to $392.6 million in 2020. Commercial permits climbed from $34 million to $36.4 million in a year-over-year comparison, but residential fell from $254 million to $242.3 million and industrial permits fell from $24 million to $19.4 million.