City Unveils 'River District Phase 2' and Reopens 1st Ave E 900 Block as Project Nears Completion
City of Owen Sound reports the construction project is "mostly complete within budgetary parameters" as the fate of three properties backing onto the $2 million beautification project remains unclear.
Beautification efforts in the 900 block of 1st Ave E are nearing completion as the City of Owen Sound announced this morning that Phase 2 of its Downtown River Precinct project is “mostly complete within budgetary parameters.”
A small number of minor items, including landscaping and signage, are scheduled for completion when the weather conditions permit. The City has promised to plan a celebration and ribbon-cutting in the future.
The Downtown River Precinct project plan was created in 2012 and built upon the master plan for the entire downtown, which was released in 2000. Council approved the conceptual designs by Northwood Associates Landscape Architects in January 2013.
Almost two decades after that master plan was envisioned, the first phase—which saw the reconstruction of 1st Avenue East between 8th and 9th Streets—was completed in 2019.
An artistic rendering of the previous project plan featured “gateway columns” at each end of the street and seemed to suggest the area would be a pedestrian-only shopping promenade closed to vehicular traffic.
Phase 2 of the project was first tendered but not awarded in July 2022. The lowest and only bid at that time was over budget at $2.7 million but the total project cost, as approved in the 2023 Capital Budget, was capped at $1,767,000.
Staff then presented a redesigned plan and updated budget to City Council at a special meeting in July 2023. Pam Coulter, Director of Community Services, delivered the updated materials and a revised budget of $2,100,000.
The updated design retained the riverfront “boardwalk,” though it was made narrower at the north end and transitioned from concrete to timber on piles at the south end. That change reduced the boardwalk cost by about 61%, Coulter reported.
The armour stone barrier between the boardwalk and parking spaces was also retained. All planting along the boardwalk was removed, and the gateway columns at each end were reduced from two to one. Coulter submitted new concept drawings to Council at that July 2023 meeting:


Despite these changes not only in design but in purpose and function, Phase 2 would build on the positive results of the 800 block reconstruction, Coulter wrote. She noted, “The space (Phase 1, 800 block of 1st Ave E) has become an area where people want to be, where people feel safe, the natural environment of the river is highlighted, and the space has an evolving new identity.”
Coulter described the 900 block of 1st Ave E as “a narrow 12.2 m (40 ft) right-of-way and former rail corridor that has been neglected and has the greatest opportunity for transformation and investment by the businesses in the River District.”
The City would not be responsible for winter boardwalk maintenance, Coulter told Council, as property owners would be responsible for clearing the sidewalk and their private property.
Council approved the budget and allocated $134,000 toward it from the Kerr Reserve, Red Reserve and Land Sale Reserve. Phase 2 was tendered again and eventually awarded to MacDonnell Excavating Ltd., for $1,730,968.13.
As part of the Downtown River Precinct project, ownership of the small riverfront lots previously used for parking was transferred to each adjacent building owner. These lands were subject to a Crown patent that required the City to lease them to the owners of the properties that front onto 2nd Ave East.
In 2020, Council decided to exercise its option to terminate the lease by transferring ownership of the lots in exchange for approximately $1,200 each to cover the City’s legal fees. That process was completed in 2022.
Just who will end up with some of these buildings and lots—and who stands to benefit from the City’s River District Phase 2 investments—is something of a mystery. Three of those properties that front on 2nd Ave and back onto 1st were seized by creditors in November 2024 after then-owner BG Wealth Group defaulted on its financing obligations.
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The Owen Sound Current verified on January 9, 2025, that 2nd Avenue East properties 950-956, 942-944, and 948—as well as a registry parcel associated with 942-944 2nd Avenue East—were part of an ongoing court-appointed receivership process. The receiver had appointed a property manager “to provide consistency and stability for the day-to-day caretaking of the buildings and residents.”
Whether or not those buildings are listed on the open market at some point and how any funds raised are distributed is up to the court.
BG Wealth Group purchased the River District properties in 2019-2020 as part of what they marketed as a real estate investment trust. The Toronto-based firm promised investors big returns by doubling rents on Owen Sound tenants.
In a pitch deck we obtained from an investor, Dunkerley writes of his Owen Sound investments: “Undervalued properties in gentrifying markets where city officials are passionate about economic development represent an immense ROI opportunity to increase property value for BG Wealth Properties and its shareholders.”
Dunkerley valued his 15-year refurbishment plan for Owen Sound at an astonishing $13 billion, thanks in part to the availability of city grants and the River Precinct revitalization project.
That “immense ROI” didn’t pan out. By September 2024, their Owen Sound properties were listed for sale and a growing chorus of investors were asking why, when their monthly distributions had stopped a year earlier, they could not cash out their BG Wealth investments.
All traces of Owen Sound had been scrubbed from the BG Wealth website—including a video that featured the City of Owen Sound’s Manager of Community Development and Marketing talking up the “Owen Sound opportunity.”
Dunkerley also implied a close relationship with the City of Owen Sound in his pitch deck, stating that he “helps the city identify gaps in types of businesses needed and works to attract these businesses as commercial tenants in its buildings.”
In addition to the receivership and uncertainty around the 900 block buildings, owners Craig Dunkerley and Claudia Harvey left dozens of those investors unpaid and over $286,000 in property tax debt in their wake when their investment scheme fell apart late in 2024.
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The Owen Sound Current has asked City staff and Council to clarify the nature of the City of Owen Sound's relationship(s) with Craig Dunkerley, Claudia Harvey, and BG Wealth Group. We will share any information received in a follow-up article.
We have also reached out to Dunkerley and Harvey several times. They refuse to be interviewed.
The City’s media release notes that the total budget for this project phase is $2 million, and that it was partially funded by an OCIF (Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund) Grant and the Enabling Accessibility Fund (EAF) – Small Projects Component program.
We’ve asked the City to provide more detail on the current budget and those funding sources, and will provide an update once that information is available.
The City has reopened 1st Avenue East between 9th and 10th Streets to both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Winter maintenance is now in effect for the area, and municipal parking enforcement will continue to honour temporary DRP2 Parking Passes until the end of January.