"We are not completely married to rotating the building," Chris Mark, the Town's director of Parks and Open Space, told council in May, as Oakville News reported. He was talking about the Metro Marine Building, the long shed on Bronte's inner harbour. Its big doors face the lake. Most of the boats are out of the water now, and the boat repair business inside is in its last weeks there. The Town has told the operator the lease ends in December 2026.
Since the 1940s, the building at the centre of the inner harbour has been a place where boats get built and fixed. Under the Bronte Waterfront Strategy, it becomes a place for people to gather. The question still open is how far that change goes, and it comes down to which way the building faces.
A shed built for boats
The Town's 2014 heritage report dates the building to about 1943 to 1944. Northern Marine was using it by 1945. The report describes it as a modified example of a ship-building shed and says Northern Marine is reported to have built 29 boats there between 1945 and 1954. In 1955, Henry Greb bought a water lot nearby and took over the Northern Marine buildings, either as owner or as leaseholder. The Greb family founded Metro Marine, a full-service marina offering haul-out and storage, and Henry's daughter Barb ran it until 2005. The marina business is gone, but the building kept its name. A boat repair business has worked inside it for decades since.
That history is why the doors matter. They face the lake because the building was made for moving hulls in and out. Today, Town staff count that orientation as part of the building's heritage character.
Why December is the deadline
The repair business isn't leaving for the Strategy's sake. It's leaving because of the seawall. In the May 12, 2026 final report to council, staff explain that the north inner harbour seawall is being replaced. The new wall will be higher, for flood resilience, and it needs tiebacks. That work is best done from the land side, which means the building has to move first.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| May 25, 2026 | Council endorses the Bronte Waterfront Strategy and reallocates $989,736 to relocate the building |
| December 2026 | Boat repair lease ends |
| January 2027 | Staff report back on where the building goes, per Oakville News |
| Late 2027 | Building relocation expected to begin |
| Winter 2027 | North inner harbour seawall replacement scheduled to begin |
The staff report says the seawall work is "scheduled to begin in winter 2027" and that the building has to be moved before it starts, with the relocation expected to begin in late 2027.
The money comes from funds already set aside. Council had approved state-of-good-repair funding for the building before the Strategy started. Some of it went to life-safety work, and staff recommended moving the unspent $989,736 to the relocation, since repairing a building that is about to move made little sense. Renovations would need new funding once the building is permanently sited. Mark told council that rehabilitation could take about two years.
What the plan points the building at
The final Strategy document calls the Metro Marine Building "the nucleus for a revitalization of the Inner Harbour Area." It describes a community hub that could host:
- a farmers market, art fairs, and a holiday market
- meeting and event space
- the Town's harbour office, and possibly other harbour-related users
- public and boater washrooms
The design ideas are where the change in direction shows. The document proposes turning the building 90 degrees so its long side runs parallel to the boardwalk, adding large folding windows or roll-up doors on that side, and making room for patios. It also calls for keeping the original double doors, interior woodwork, catwalk, and mezzanine, along with interpretive displays about the building's boat-building past. The plaza around it would stay flexible. A town staff report quoted by Oakville News describes room for "pop-up vendors, food trucks, and other temporary activations using modular kiosks or repurposed shipping containers."
The building also has hard limits. It sits in a floodplain hazard area, so Conservation Halton must approve changes and requires the footprint to stay the same size or shrink. Any new uses also have to fit with public recreation on the waterfront. The building can be reused for something new, but it can't get any bigger.
Which way it faces is the open question
Rotating the building is what makes it face people. With its long side open to the promenade, it would read as a market hall. With its doors still facing the lake, it stays closer to what it has always been. The Town has acknowledged that tension directly. Mark told council a rotation would have to be justified to the heritage committee, because the current orientation is part of the building's heritage character.
People in Bronte are split on it, and both sides spoke at council. Harry O'Shea, president of the Bronte Village Residents' Association, called the plan a "once-in-a-generation transformation" and summed it up this way, according to Oakville News:
"The promenade brings people there, the building anchors the space and the plaza activates it."
The Bronte BIA also backed the Strategy, saying a four-season waterfront would bring visitors outside the summer months. Residents of the condo building at 102 Bronte Rd., which overlooks the inner harbour, took a different view. A petition signed by 73 of them asked council to keep the inner harbour "a calm and peaceful space" with gardens, seating, and walking trails, and to put festivals and vendor markets in Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park and the outer harbour instead. A resident speaking for the group asked that the building go back to its original site once the work is done.
Staff will study placement options and report back in January, so that report goes to the council elected on October 26. Mark has said most of the Strategy's goals can be met "whether the building is turned or not." Where the building ends up will set how close markets and events come to the homes at 102 Bronte Rd.
The rest of the waterfront runs on a slower schedule
So far, the Metro Marine relocation is the only part of the Strategy with money behind it. Endorsing the Strategy sets a direction. It doesn't approve or fund each project, and the rest will go through future reports, studies, and budgets. Staff group the projects as short term (one to three years), medium term (four to seven), and long term (eight years or more), and say some short-term work could start in 2027 if it is funded. These are the proposals:
- Inner harbour promenade. The existing boardwalk would become a wider, landscaped promenade along the north side of Bronte Creek, connecting under the Lakeshore Road West bridge. Temporary detours would make room for boat operations.
- Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park. Proposals include an accessible adventure playground to replace the current one, which has reached the end of its life, plus a winter skating loop with a pavilion, more seating at the performance pavilion, and pop-up amenities that can be moved around.
- Swan Cove. A dedicated launch for canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards near the Berta Point parking, possibly with covered, secure storage.
- East Beach. A groomed sandy beach with a picnic lawn, a medium-term idea that depends on an odour-management pilot coming first.
- Below the Bronte Bluffs. Long-term lake fill would create parkland and a continuous waterfront trail. The forested Bluffs themselves would not change, and an Environmental Assessment is required.
One idea didn't make it. The Strategy looked at a pedestrian bridge across Bronte Creek and decided against recommending one for now, citing trade-offs for boating, accessibility, cost, and harbour operations. It suggests coming back to the idea later.
This winter on the harbour
The boats are still here for the winter. Bronte Beach Park's entrance driveway was closed October 24 and 25 for boat-lift operations, and the Town's 2026 fee schedule lists Bronte Outer Harbour winter storage from October 15 to April 30. Oakville News reported that winter boat storage will also continue in the inner harbour area, and the Strategy's plaza concept keeps room for it. Even with the repair shop gone, hulls on cradles will still be a winter sight here. The plan keeps the harbour a working harbour and adds space for people around it.
The waterfront dining calendar has already moved to winter. The Bronte Boathouse at 2340 Ontario St. has closed its restaurant for the 2026 season and plans to reopen in 2027. Its events team takes bookings year-round. Up in the village, Mi Amor Taqueria opened at 111 Jones Street over the July 4 and 5 weekend, Oakville News reported.
The next big gathering is the BIA's At Home in Bronte for the Holidays on Saturday, November 21, from 3 to 7 p.m. at Bronte Market Square, 2445 Lakeshore Road West. The community tree lighting is at 5:30 p.m. The afternoon includes Santa and Mrs. Claus, caroling by the Circle of Harmony Chorus and The Tempus Choral Society, a holiday market, curling and wreath making, and the Bronte Astronomers with telescopes set up for stargazing. The Strategy lists a holiday market among the possible future uses for the Metro Marine Building. For now, the village holds one a short walk up from the harbour.
The January report on the Metro Marine Building will shape the inner harbour for decades, including what sits beside the boardwalk and the homes that overlook it. If you own near the harbour and want to talk through what these waterfront plans could mean for your property's long-term value, Mr. Sold Group can walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation.
