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Originally Posted by bomberjet
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.
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That is making a pretty big assumption that the St Regis parkade isn't needed to fully meet the parking needs of SkyCity itself. Could be my pessimism but it has long been a rule in Winnipeg that a business doesn't spend money unless there is a specific need it is trying to meet. Following that rule, having the St Regis parkade constructed to meet SkyCity requirements makes sense, having it built purely on speculation does not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
Yeah, it's crazy how Graham Avenue and not Portage or Main has become the focal point for all this development. It's almost as if walkability and access to transit matters!
What's really interesting is that Broadway is getting left behind in the dust with all this action... the RBCCC expansion and the two Assiniboine Ave residential towers are the only new projects that happened/are happening anywhere near Broadway. You'd think there would be more interest in that area...
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You are
heavily misreading the factors in why Graham is being developed over Portage or Main. Portage Ave from Main to Colony is almost all 4+ stories of occupied buildings. Graham over that same stretch has a number of significant surface lots. Even on Main St, the west side which has decent lot size unlike the tightly packed in east side, mostly has existing buildings. Granted Main St has some buildings that are heavily underused it still costs money to tear something down. It all comes down to opportunity costs first.
From memory Broadway has similar issues, sure there is one surface lot next to the Union Center but that is more securely held than the "never to be developed" lot behind WCB. The only other real opportunity short of demoing an existing building is the surface lot next to the Subway.
Just because you don't see projects on Portage, Main or Broadway does not mean there is not interest in those streets it just means the opportunities are not currently there. No developer is going to push their land acquisition costs through the roof just to locate one block north and be on Portage Ave.