Winnipeg | 300 Main St.- Phase II / 360 Main St. | ~142M | 465 Ft | 42F | U/C
 

40-storey apartment tower planned for Portage and Main
Official announcement expected as early as next month

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...373789981.html

- Aprx: 380+ Residential Units
- New Build 300 Main St.(Phase II) | Re-Clad 360 Main St.
- Cost: Aprx: $140M / Reclad $23M
- 3 Floors Commercial space/4 storey podium - Office/Retail
- Start: February 2017 | Completion 2019



April 7.2016 First Render Release:
http://www.metronews.ca/news/winnipe...nd-graham.html
I've edited the photo and scaled it to a smaller size.
Feel free to use it in other discussions and posts.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1644/...b6c0fd0b_z.jpg



Other Conceptual Renders From: Artis REIT

* Note: All images edited/hosted by me. Please add Artis link source
+ This note if using on site: Thx.
300 Main St.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1541/...27dac831_c.jpg
Looking South on Main St.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1595/...6b30c2e4_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1588/...5b96b760_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1531/...f3fa5994_c.jpg
Image Sources: http://www.artisreit.com/360-main-bu...-announcement/

Data Base Diagram Listing
http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=108830

Highrise & Supertall Proposals Thread
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=222016

I don't usually login to SSP after 6:00pm. but when I do It's to add a another game changer to Winnipeg's core and a significant addition to our skyline.

..Gordon Sinclair Jr....Don't let me down...;)

IF both this and SkyCity go up....... WOW..........

What I find interesting is the tower will have the same shape as what was supposed to have been built there. 30 plus years later lol.

This will really pump life into wpg square. And now it won't look like a skywalk to nowhere. It should also help promote filling the other few lots in the area. Towers all the way to the convention centre. Who would have thought.

^^Based on what info? The original conception?

Man I am pumped about this project. it could be the tipping point for our huge downtown and exchange areas. with the Forks being what it is and the extensive walkway system in place, I suspect a lot of winnipegers will, for the first time, start to consider downtown living.

This is very exciting news indeed. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it will happen. BTW, is 134 metres the projected height? That would make it second to SkyCity.

RE: 40-storey apartment tower planned for Portage and Main

I am thrilled to learn about this development.
Finally 40 years later this 40 + floor residential tower will be completed if all goes well and The mate to 360 Main st gets built.
Better late than never I say. Blanche Deveraux used to say better late than pregnant. lol
This 40 + floor tower could definitely be the catalyst for more Portage & Main activity and downtown investment following suit.
I am thinking the shape of the tower may resemble 360 Main but likely a bit thinner so as to have a smaller floor plate and as many windows as possible?
I am wondering if it might be a mixed use building , like part Hotel as well as residential?
It is a guess but I would suspect a premier first class hotel might be willing to have 12 - 15 + floors of hotel?
Great prestige location, underground established mall and we are going to need more rooms in the next couple of years with increased conventions from the RBC expansion and other visitor attractions.

The recladding nextdoor @ 360 Main, will bring a new lease of life to the area and surroundings not to mention the skyline.
Hopefully we will see a hotel built @ 416 Main st. where the Westin project did not come to fruition last year.
It would be great to see all corners of P & M built up with no pavement / surface lots..
I have a really good feeling more great developments will be spurred due to this, True North and Skycity etc...

It's nice to the Winnipeg getting its big city swagger back.

There's at least two generations of users on here that never saw anything happen downtown for 20 odd years, now suddenly a small mini boom of towers going up.. Some of these buildings even pushing past the mythical 30 story boundary.

Interesting times, indeed.

You are right OTL. Remember the old days when we would pour over the details of the smallest project.

Imagine if the true north square towers, Sky city, this building and the Forks Railside all get built.

Still need to fill that damn hole beside 201. I won't be happy until then.

Given that 360 Main has large floorplates and the south tower was supposed to be similar, I would imagine that the apartment building will be considerably skinnier in appearance? I hope that it at least looks substantial to match 360 Main as opposed to being a sliver of a building.

That gap at 201 Portage is really the last big gap at Portage and Main left, and who doesn't think it'll get developed now. Winnipeg Square seemed way more intractable and here it goes. I guess the hotel pad is still up for development, hopefully that won't take forever.

Speaking of Portage and Main, when is that Richardson announcement coming?

What was the original plan for those pads? I thought I remember reading there was supposed to be a hotel and a second tower.

Seems like a hotel on the third pad would be all but a certainty now, no?

Wow, didn't see this coming at all.

Great news to end a great long weekend :cheers:

the first thing i thought was its an april fools prank lol

but on a serious note i cant wait for it to rise!

Any word on renders?

I woke up to this news this morning with a smile on my face! Now I'm even more excited for our downtown, and it involves rental units!!!!

Of course, we have to wait until the official announcement, but the prospect of finally building Phase 2 of 360 Main is definitely really good.

I guess SkyCity Centre and True North Square finally got someone's head out of the sand to build something over that concrete pad.

Not yet. Expect something when they release the news on it next month. :cool:

Wooooow is right!! Fantastic news and it's about damn time!

We've been gushing over TNS and SkyCity getting built along Graham. This will be another huge piece to that puzzle. Adding 40 storeys of people, living right at Portage and Main. Fantastic. I almost prefer this to an office tower. But of course all the business that goes with an office tower would be better.

This is the original plan. The second tower actually looks quite a big larger (floor plates) than the current tower. They could have a similar tower, and not a skinny version, by putting a large number of units on the same floor. SkyCity has 10 units per floor. Maybe this one has 16 or something. Now for a 40-storey tower with 16 units per floor is a lot of people.

I sure hope something goes in to fill the gap between towers above street level. That was supposed to be the original hotel?

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3223/...7bcd589b_b.jpgPortage and Main - The Plan by Christian, on Flickr

^ As desirable as downtown residential is, the original office tower plan would have been much better for that site... even though the tower at 40 storeys will probably be around the same height as the ~30 storey office tower in the original plan, it'll probably have a much smaller footprint meaning much less density on the site. Office space is a bit of a sure thing while with rentals, who knows - look at Place Promenade, it was a pretty nice complex when it opened in the late 80s but it's a little down at the heels now. Few of the 70s and 80s vintage rental towers downtown maintained any kind of air of prestige that they had when they opened... not necessarily a huge deal in a standalone rental property but the stakes are a little higher at Portage and Main... I'd hate to ever see confederate flags or wolf blankets hanging in the windows there.

Anyway, this is not to rain on the parade... getting second prize is better than nothing at all. I guess the Winnipeg office market is such that Artis only wanted to develop office space there, it could have been another 40 years before it happened. Fingers crossed that the atrium hotel gets built some day... that will be the last remaining piece of the Winnipeg Square puzzle.

So I guess that leaves Portage Place as the only undeveloped pad sites left downtown? Or am I missing any?

Hahahaha. What about tin foil on the Windows? I would have to think there would be higher standards, and such trailer trash decorating would be prohibited.

I can only assume that the level of rent would price most if not all of the riff raff out.

New highrise rentals always start out that way.

Whoah whoah. All this excitement over an article by...Gordan Sinclair? Where is Sinclair even getting his information? If his call went unreturned, how does he know any specifics about the project? And really, can any piece of journalism that includes the phrase "the convenience of shopping in Winnipeg Square" be trusted?

I haven't trusted a word Sinclair has written in 20 years. I'll reserve excitement until the shovels are in the ground. And even then I'll still have my doubts. The site has been held hostage for almost 40 years, and I have very little confidence that anything good will ever be done with it.

And how would this possible announcement effect the future plans for Portage and Main? Why do I think that Artis Reit would only move forward with their plan if the city guarantees that no pedestrian will cross Portage and Main for another generation?

So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a wee bit skeptical about this project.

You need rentals too, can't just have condos. The office space market in Winnipeg sucks. So I can live with having rentals.

For context. People move into their million dollar mansions in Waverley West, only to have the police raid the Hells Angels home next door. No matter where you go, there will be riff raff.

^^But Bryan, there will be no shovels in the ground. The foundation has been complete for 40 years!

All kidding aside, I would hope Sinclair has a reliable source. This is how most things seem to go. Someone has a source, which is the owner a lot of times who wants to create a buzz. Talk with the press and there you go. Same thing happened for TNS, SkyCity, people "leak" stuff.

How do any sports reporters get wind of trade rumours? Someone always talks.

Anyways, I anxiously await the announcement next month.

The 'ol Winnipeg bait and switch.

I certainly would not be surprised if this is something that comes up.

True. But this isn't a location hidden away on the north side of Portage, so I would have higher hopes for its long term upscale rent prospects.

I think bryan's doubts are reasonable, but I'm sure the Freep's editors are there to rein in GSJ, check his sources and all that. Surely they must have vetted today's column?

As for the P&M barriers, I'd be interested in knowing Artis' thoughts on whether the corner could be made a destination by allowing people to cross and encouraging more activity there in general. It could be a win-win... I don't think it necessarily has to be a zero-sum game where for every person crossing at street level there is one less shopper underground.

Yeah, fair enough...some buildings have held up well over the years. A few near Broadway (Broadview Manor, Rideau Tower, Fort Garry Place) come to mind.

That's what I was thinking. Perhaps this is Artis trying to get ready for the opening of P&M by having an alternate source of traffic for Wpg Square. 40 stories with, say, 10 unit per floor works out to around 800 or so 'captive' customers.

Sorry about that BigG, Typo, It'll be very close to the height of 360 Main, edited the title..

What's the usual assumption for people per unit? 2, maybe 2.5? I was thinking SkyCity, with its 388 units, would house around 1000 people.

Some people will be lonely single occupants. I think most units would have 2 people. Then some of those 2 people may have a child. Some may a few children.

The end of the article seems to hit that AR is in favour of opening P&M, I'd the source is to be believed.

My guess is that Armin would want it open. If I was renting there I would much prefer the intersection open.

Average occupancy is 2.6 in Canada I believe, but for apartment life I think it would be closer to 2.

So maybe closer to 750 each for SkyCity and the new Winnipeg Square tower.

Not pad a but....The 416 Main Street site is the most glaring of parking lots...The former McIntyre bldg. spot.. It must get done sooner than later. A major eyesore especially to visitors and investors to our city. I do believe a major hotel or mixed use tower that includes a major upscale hotel would serve the area well and keep The Fairmont on its toes.

^ I agree, 416 Main is the most glaring surface lot, but it's not a developed pad site the way that Winnipeg Square and Portage Place are

Ray Wan is the architect for both the re clad and the tower

Speaking of Portage Place I was just there and some guy who appeared to be high fell down the escalators and knocked another down on his way down. Then there was a guy passed out on the floor with fire fighters around him at the exit from the food court. Such a lovely place that has turned into.

I think often that's from a lack of maintenance. Kind of a chicken-or-egg scenario.

The thing that makes me happiest about this project is the fact that if it gets built it can prove/show that building on the Portage Place pads is definitely feasible. And if it's successful at helping Winnipeg Square businesses... man... it could really do a lot for Portage Place.

I also think that this would make Artis want P&M open, if they don't already. You want to be able to sell a good, walkable, downtown lifestyle to people if you're asking suburban people to move downtown. Easier access to the Exchange is a huge benefit. This will also hopefully help Garry (and Fort), which I think has the most potential to become a "bar street" in all of downtown.

You mean like Place Promenade behind Portage Place did?

Some things worth noting about this proposal:

1. How did it leak to the media before being announced?
2. Is there really a market for a 40 story all rental unit building in downtown?
3. Could the lack of new parking as part of this plan hinder its approvals?

It'd be interesting to know how many of the stalls in there currently are rented monthly, and how many are daily. Because I've never had a problem finding a spot there when going in for a few hours, so if they can just rent them to residential people, they should be fine. They have no obligation to provide any parking to casual/hourly patrons (that I know of).

Artis is the only stakeholder who doesn't not want the intersection open

^ I'm sure that many of the tenants at 360 Main (office tower) are monthly parkers and would be in an uproar over any loss of spots in the Winnipeg Square parkade.

Given that Skycity is in the pipeline, the WPS is in a big parking crunch and Winnipeg Square is about to get a whole lot busier, I wonder if the logical thing to do is for a parkade to go into the vacant lot bounded by Fort, Garry and Graham? There is enough room to do a nice two-storey commercial block at the base along Graham, with the rest as parking. No one loves a parkade, but if it helps the viability of those other developments it may be something to consider.

I agree, it is happening. There are some who still have a negative sentiment but I think when they see what is happening and more successful projects and amenities are done, they will slowly be won over. I think there is a large young demographic that is onboard and the tough ones might be the older camp, who may be considering downsizing from their suburban home. Those people are always impressed by the urban living of Vancouver and Toronto but fail to see it slowly taking shape in Wpg. Some grocery stores and more amenities will be the tipping point.

Isn't SkyCity building a 700 stall parkade, then building another parakde immediately north on the St. Regis site (which I have not heard anything about recently)? Methinks that is pletny-o-parking. I want another kick ass development to go on the Smith/Garry/Graham lot!

Edit: Oops, I meant Fort/Garry/Graham lot.

I think the issue is Place Promenade was heavily built on speculation that it could create a market for higher end rental units in downtown Winnipeg. As it failed to catch hold they started expanded the type of tenant they were willing to accept rather than having units sit vacant. This is turn effectively killed any up market hopes they had and started their slide down market. As they slide down market they had less money to spend on maintenance which in turn kept pushing them further down.

First, the location of the purposed Artis tower is south enough from Portage and Main that there would effectively be an easy east-west crossing of Main St effectively out the front door. This would leave the main driver being easier north-south crossings of Portage Ave. Having walked that intersection for years the difference between Main and Fort to cross Portage is minimal. Going from this new tower to Concert Hall? Cross Portage at Fort, go to Main on the north side of Portage and cross at McDermot or Bannatyne. Opening Portage and Main to pedestrians almost exclusives benefits the very few properties on Portage Ave east of Main St. A block or two in either direction you have lots of other points to cross.

Instead of just focusing the bars on one street I think you would need to leverage aspects of what is available on both Fort and Garry between Portage and Graham to make it work. Sort of sad that this strip has actually lost suitable properties over that last 15 years but considering they were on the dive bar end of the spectrum it might not be the biggest loss.

My understanding is that approvals in Winnipeg are normally conditional on a traffic plan for the building which includes a specific minimum number of parking units. Based on the original design of the 360 Main St project it is likely the current parking structure has some additional space beyond what is required. It is also possible due to being a pad site in an existing development the normal rules won't be as strictly applied. That said, it is possible they will look at the average usage of the existing parking to determine what the available capacity is and map that against the projected requirements of the new development. I would also guess that the tenants of 360 Main St want there to be a certain availability of short term (aka daily) parking for their clients, such as the law office, accountants, etc. You don't just meet their demand with monthly parking.

In terms of what SkyCity is building for parking, I think it is being done to heavily meet the needs and approvals of that specific project and not what a potentially competing project will need. I would also guess that if SkyCity has any excess parking available WPS will move quickly to secure long term monthly contracts for their staff.

^That's true Cory, and I am also unsure how the minimum parking requirements would be enforced here.

That's also true re: SkyCity. But they are also developing another large parkade at the St. Regis site. Which would do the same thing as placing a parkade on the Smith/Graham site.

In terms of having spaces available for clients, that is the nature of doing business in a downtown. Nice to have convenient parking for a client, but not a necessity. If a law firm wants to have a few spots, they're going to pay for them regardless of what parkade they're in.