Development Issues

April 4, 2013	City turns its back on 'Food Deserts'
Jen Skerritt, Winnipeg Free Press Winnipeg will not explore ways to encourage grocery stores to open in neighbourhoods in need after a city committee shot down the idea.  Full Story (PDF)

July 30, 2012	Rush to raze leaves lingering holes
Brent Bellamy in the Winnipeg Free Press It is hoped that a new building will soon rise on the Shanghai site and the vacant lot will be a short-term condition. The damaging results, however, of previous demolition without firm plans for redevelopment can be seen across Winnipeg's checkered downtown. Full Story (PDF)

April 20, 2012	Flames tear at heart of Exchange
Gabrielle Giroday & Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press One of Winnipeg's oldest residential dwellings has been consumed by a $430,000 fire that destroyed an Exchange District heritage building and sent heavy smoke billowing across downtown. Full Story (PDF)

April 19, 2012	Change in the East Exchange
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press Sunstone Group and Qualico Group plan to transform a windswept surface parking lot in the East Exchange District into a $35-million mixed-use development featuring 100 apartments, a parkade and some retail or office space. Full Story (PDF)

April 4, 2012	Itching to move in
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press One of the city's most talked-about downtown revitalization projects - the $12.4-million conversion of the long-vacant Avenue and Hample buildings on Portage Avenue, is about to open to tenants. Full Story (PDF)

July 18, 2011	A window to Exchange's future
Colin Fast, Metro Sitting at the Fringe, he could see Old Market Square as a window to the future of the Exchange, but it would be nice if we could finish the Exchange District project. Full Story (PDF)

July 2, 2011	City's downtown growing fastest
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press Downtown Residential Development Strategy identifies the Exchange District as the downtown neighbourhood with the most potential for population growth.  Full Story (PDF)

May 16, 2011	Winnipeg rethinks suburban sprawl
Siri Agrell, The Globe and Mail "An unprecedented level of development is under way in the Manitoba capital, as Winnipeg attempts to reverse decades of movement out to the suburbs."  Full Story (PDF)

March 28, 2011	Downtown condos gaining steam
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press "One condominium developer is in the starting gate and another is pacing on the sidelines as the downtown revitalization effort picks up steam."  Full Story (PDF)

April 16, 2011	You can always go downtown
Staff Writer, Winnipeg Free Press "taxpayer incentives are necessary if the city wants to find a use for older buildings while increasing the number of people living downtown ... $40 million sounds like a steep price to pay, but the cost of doing nothing is much more.  Full Story (PDF)

April 16, 2011	You can always go downtown
Staff Writer, Winnipeg Free Press "taxpayer incentives are necessary if the city wants to find a use for older buildings while increasing the number of people living downtown ... $40 million sounds like a steep price to pay, but the cost of doing nothing is much more.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 4, 2011	Affordable on Waterfront
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press "A new condominium development that aims to give younger Winnipeggers a chance to own a home on Waterfront Drive has been approved for one of the last city-owned properties on the picturesque downtown street."  Full Story (PDF)

May 3, 2010	Blot on downtown landscape
Brent Bellamy, Number Ten Architectural Group, in Winnipeg Free Press Winnipeg's history of building demolition to make way for open parking lots has left our downtown resembling the toothless grin of Bobby Clarke.  Full Story (PDF)

Apr 19, 2010	Crafting and Exchange Artwork
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press Exchange Community Church, which owns the building at 75 Albert St, wants to turn 22 studios into studio apartments.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 26, 2010	Time to renovate Winnipeg's 'living room'
Peter Kaufmann in Winnipeg Free Press When we talk about our downtown we need to rethink our position. The $10 million is a great start but we need to spend $100 million or more to make an impact.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 26, 2010	Vibrant Downtown - Housing is just the start
Stefano Grande, Exec. Dir, Downtown Wpg BIZ,in Winnipeg Free Press Politicians are eager to cut ribbons, but they need to follow a plan and leave behind not just housing units, but a fully revitalized downtown.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 26, 2010	Developers hail downtown housing aid
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press Developers say they got much of what they were hoping for in the announcement of new incentives for downtown residential projects  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 26, 2010	A boost for downtown housing
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press The city and province will offer up to $20 million of tax incentives to developers over the next 3 years in the hopes of creating 500 to 800 new units in downtown Winnipeg. Full Story (PDF)

Feb 3, 2010	New Condos for Exchange
Martin Cash, Winnipeg Free Press Condo development in Exchange District just got a boost with from Qualico Developments - a committment to build up to 150 units in seven retrofitted heritage buildings. Full Story (PDF)

Jan 11, 2010	Incentives seen as key in core
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press Things like loans, grants, tax breaks or rent subsidies could all be useful weapons in the battle to lure more retailers to the downtown.  Full Story (PDF)

Dec 5, 2009	MTS Centre freebies could boost downtown
Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press How about a Downtowner Pass handed out to those whose full-time residence is downtown and would give them free access to any event at the MTS Centre?  Full Story (PDF)

Dec 2, 2009	Parkades need not be the ugly stepchild of the downtown
Stefano Grande, Winnipeg Free Press Parking is only one piece of the downtown puzzle, but it's a crucial gear in the machine that drives development in a vibrant downtown community  Full Story (PDF)

Nov 17, 2009	Exchange makeover creates excitement
Murray McNeill, Winnipeg Free Press THE largest residential conversion project in more than 20 years is being planned.  Qualico wants to purchase six heritage buildings on Market and James avenues from Nygard International and convert them to residential/commercial use.  Full Story (PDF)

Nov 23, 2009	Parking is the problem, not the answer
Robert Galston, Winnipeg Free Press With the Sports Manitoba development planning to demolish a small building built in 1884 to build a parking structure, and the Grain Exchange Annex scheduled for demolition to make way for a loading dock and parking structure, this aricle looks at the parking evils.  Full Story (PDF)

Nov 23, 2009	Arena not a panacea
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press "The [MTS Centre] has been an unqualified success. But the arena has not done a hell of a lot for Winnipeg’s underpopulated downtown. And to be frank, there was no way it could do anything in this regard.  Full Story (PDF)

July 28, 2009	Jewell #1: The Exchange District
Regan Wolfrom, Blog The Exchange District, our #1 jewell is on its way to becoming a “world class” destination.  Combined with several other attractions, the Exchange District has the potential to make Winnipeg a tourist destination.  Link

June 25, 2009	Affordable housing gets $24M
Arielle Godbout, Winnipeg Free Press "All of us love our downtown, and ... we have to do more to revitalize the shopping district and the area around that," said Gord Mackintosh, the provincial minister of family services and housing. "And we know the most important way -- the most effective way -- to revitalize downtown is to have people living there." Full Story (PDF)

June 18, 2009	Make the old new again
Nicholas Hirst, Winnipeg Free Press [We should] use Portage and Main as a catalyst to make Portage Avenue what it once was: a place where people strolled and talked. Portage Avenue is our city's main artery and Portage and Main is the heart that makes it pump. Our Winnipeg should take the heart off life support.  Full Story (PDF)

May 23, 2009	Tax Trio
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press IF you love downtown Winnipeg and look forward to the day when the Exchange District is completely revitalized, it’s easy to be frustrated by the glacial pace of change.  Here are three relatively simple things the city and province can do to open up the floodgates to more downtown residents.   Full Story (PDF)

May 1, 2009	Saving downtown a long-term venture
Dan Lett , Winnipeg Free Press Naysayers may dump on the pace or the scale of CentreVenture's track record, but few can argue that these projects would have existed without the resources and stewardship of this agency.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 31, 2009	Loft-style apartments eyed for Exchange District
CBC News Apartments are coming to the old Penthouse Furniture building in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Taurean plans to create 60 to 70 loft-style apartments, each about 800 square feet. For $750 a month, someone will be able to live like a millionaire artist living in TriBeCa, New York, he said.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 16, 2009

Saving downtown once more

Dan Lett , Winnipeg Free Press Many believe we should make it more affordable for development by offering more money in up-front grants while also lowering property taxes on high-density residential development downtown.  We've studied this one to death. Government may have been wagering that they could offer developers a few crumbs and get them downtown. The bluff didn't work, and it's time to get moving on new incentives.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 16, 2009	It's broke; here's how to fix it
Murray McNeill , Winnipeg Free Press One of the city's key incentive programs for stimulating new downtown housing development is "useless" and need to be quadrupled to make such projects financially attractive, according to one downtown developer.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 12, 2009	Downtown dreams remain unfulfilled
Nicholas Hurst , Winnipeg Free Press Downtown working in Winnipeg has not translated into downtown living, nor has it spurred, so far, the development of easy mass transit to bring folk from home. The question is why not? Full Story (PDF)

Mar 7, 2009

District in need of direction: Realizing the Exchange's vast potential will take a co-ordinated effort

Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press As any die-hard urbanist will tell you, the Exchange is the Winnipeg neighbourhood with the most potential for transforming the entire city.  Achieving that goal is both incredibly easy and extremely complex. Governments love megaprojects, but small-scale incentives for businesses, developers and apartment owners could effectively transform the entire neighbourhood one building at a time.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 6, 2009	18 new towers for downtown?
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press Forecasts of future economic growth in Winnipeg, which predict up to 9,700 downtown jobs will be added over the next 25 years, suggest the core will require another 3.7 million square feet of office space, a figure that translates into 18 new buildings.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 3, 2009	One of the city's oldest structures to house group promoting heritage preservation
Staff Writer, Winnipeg Free Press The city’s downtown development agency and the owners of Kelly House announced they had reached a deal to restore the diminutive 1880s building at 88 Adelaide Street in the Exchange District.  Full Story (PDF)

Mar 1, 2009	Perspective: all together now
Chris Cariou , Winnipeg Free Press The new Sport Manitoba building: a true union of the young and the old -- today's athletes, grassroots or elite, together with tomorrow's potential Hall of Famers -- merging in a historic setting with the institution that honours those who have gone before.  Full Story (PDF)

Feb 23, 2009	Chill falls over condo development
Murray McNeill , Winnipeg Free Press Developers for The Edge on Princess and the Residences on York haven't been affected by the credit crunch because their financing was in place before the financial crisis hit, but on a go-forward basis, money is going to be much harder to get.  Full Story (PDF)

Jan 24, 2009	New parking to go inside historic facade
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press The 112-year-old building at the corner of King St. and Bannatyne Ave. will become an 186-stall parkade with 8,000 square feet of commercial space on the main floor and the red-brick facades on the building's north and east sides will be saved.  Full Story (PDF)

Jan 22, 2009	Hydro 'holding off' on plans for Exchange District Buildings
Winnipeg Free Press Manitoba Hydro will make no moves to purchase and gut three historic buildings in the Exchange District until it consults with concerned citizens and business groups, utility president Bob Brennan said Thursday.  Full Story (PDF)

Jan 22, 2009	'Power' play in the Exchange
Winnipeg Sun I's true Hydro needs to grow its substation to supply power but this plan sounds way too ambitious to not affect this district immensely. To use the old adage, once it's gone you can't bring it back.   Full Story (PDF)

Jan 21, 2009	Gut historic buildings: Hydro
Aldo Santin, Winnipeg Free Press Heritage building advocates and Exchange District residents are alarmed by Manitoba Hydro's plan to gut three historical buildings on McDermot Avenue to make way for the expansion of an area substation.  Full Story (PDF)

Jan 3, 2009	124-year-old warehouse becomes battlefield
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press A battle is brewing between heritage advocates and downtown revitalization types over an East Exchange warehouse that's slated to become a new home for Sport Manitoba. But there are conflicting reports about what's planned for the 124-year-old structure formally known as the Smart Bag Company Building.  Full Story (PDF)

Jan 2, 2009	Warehouse owner seeks to demolish Exchange Building
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press The owner of a 124-year-old warehouse in the Exchange District wants the city to remove the five-storey structure from its heritage inventory as a prelude to demolition. The company wants to knock down the structure, officially known as the Smart Bag Company Building, in order to sell the lot for redevelopment, the report states.   Full Story (PDF)

Dec 31, 2008

New [residential] project pitched for the Forks

Geoff Kirbyson, Winnipeg Free Press The CEO of The Forks North Portage Partnership, the non-profit organization that manages the site, is in the early stages of planning a reconfiguration of the popular tourist destination to coincide with the pending construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. "We're looking at some form of what we'll call a mixed-use development and we're considering a variety of options. It could (include) residential, but also office and commercial." Full Story (PDF)

 

Dec 15, 2008	Tax plan could renew downtown
Stefano Grande, Downtown BIZ, printed in Winnipeg Free Press Our politicians are considering an important economic development tool for urban renewal, one that could transform our downtown into the kind of place to work and play that Winnipeggers deserve.  Full Story (PDF)

Nov 27, 2008

Save the last house

Editorial, Winnipeg Free Press The city should not allow the owner of the last intact house in the Exchange District to tear it down. David Rich says he wants to demol­ish the 126-year-old home known as Kelly House because it’s in terrible shape and it would cost too much to refurbish. There’s no question the house on Adelaide Street has seen better days but ... its loss would be a stain on the community’s commitment to the integrity of the national historic site.  Full Story (PDF)

Nov 11, 2008	Plan needed
Editorial, Winnipeg Free Press South Point Douglas would be a natural and trendy extension of the downtown and a fitting bookend to the development at The Forks. The district needs a development plan, but mostly it needs developers with confidence and a vision of how a northern extension of Waterfront Drive could be incorporated into the fabric of Winnipeg's  downtown. Full Story (PDF)

Nov 10, 2008	Gritty area going downtown?
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press CentreVenture wants to bring more homes, restaurants and businesses to South Point Douglas by expanding the definition of downtown to include the gritty, inner-city neighbourhood. Full Story (PDF)

June 21, 2008	Only developers know if tax plan will fix downtown
Dan Lett, Winnipeg Free Press If you TIF it, they will come. That's the theory behind a proposed new tax-financing plan the city and province hope will be the key to revitalizing a downtown that remains -- decades and millions of dollars later -- a struggling eyesore. The NDP government tabled a bill that would allow for the creation of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) zones.  Full Story (PDF)

June 2, 2008	What downtown needs is a sense of urgency
Dan Lett, Winnipeg Free Press Urgency can take many forms but in many communities, it appears in the form of direct, aggressive public funding delivered in meaningful ways. It's an agenda that says we want change sooner, rather than later. In Fargo ... the funding took the form of tax credits.            Full Story (PDF)

May 26, 2008	Downtown revitalization
Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press To Winnipeggers obsessed with the endless efforts to revitalize our own enormous downtown, the progress in much smaller Fargo is both impressive and perplexing. That's because the main stimulus for downtown Fargo's revitalization is a combination of city and state tax incentives that have yet to make their way ... to Winnipeg. Full Story (PDF)