Winnipeg | Wawanesa Insurance HQ | 92.2M | 23F

[Winnipeg Grump]

On a much more warm day for the workers:

[esquire]

Nice to see it starting to cast some shadows! Thanks for the pics, Grump

[Winnipegger]

It's so interesting seeing Class A office space going up in Winnipeg during a time when potential demand for current and future office space is so uncertain.

If I was a Wawanesa employee, seeing this go up would be bittersweet. On the one hand, I'd have a sick new office to work in with modern amenities, but on the other I know upper management would have even more reason to forgo future work-from-home or hybrid arrangements since they would want to get the best use of out of their new asset.

That is all complicated by the fact that no one knows the long term plans of other major office employers. What will Manulife, Sun Life, or Desjardins do with their employees? What about the big banks, or government offices?

It's going to be hard on morale to convince employees - many of whom gained 1 to 2 hours of their life back during the pandemic along with $70 to $300 a month in commute costs - to come back to the office for "culture and collaboration" where culture means cubicles and harsh fluorescents and collaboration means your manager stopped in once a day to see how things are going.

Going back to the office is going to be a tough sell and a few first movers who can adopt more flexible work arrangements will get their pick of talent when employees realize what they are losing by heading back to the cube farm. It will certainly be something to watch how large businesses like Wawanesa who invested in new office space will treat the upcoming trade-off between fully utilizing office space and declining worker morale and potential loss of talent.

[1ajs]

70-300 a month in savings hah prolly more then that could be 1000's when u include wear and tare

[Kinguni]

My nephew and his wife work for Wawanesa and are permanently working from home. There are no plans to have them back in the office, so they sold the condo they walked to work from and bought a house in Riverview.

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by Kinguni

My nephew and his wife work for Wawanesa and are permanently working from home. There are no plans to have them back in the office, so they sold the condo they walked to work from and bought a house in Riverview.

So what is the brand new 23 floor office building for?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Kinguni

My nephew and his wife work for Wawanesa and are permanently working from home. There are no plans to have them back in the office, so they sold the condo they walked to work from and bought a house in Riverview.

One of the moms on my kid's hockey team is in the same boat. She has also been told that she can basically expect to work from home for good.

Normally it wouldn't raise an eyebrow but it is peculiar given that Wawanesa is in the process of putting up such a big new building. What are they going to do with all that space if a good chunk of the company is working from home?! It's not like the office sublease market is red hot.

[drew]

^ sweet, sweet offices.

[esquire]

Just thinking about this some more, but I know some guys at Hydro who say they are starting to feel pressure to come back to the office... apparently there is some sensitivity to the fact they occupy this expensive flashy tower that is still largely empty last I heard.

I guess Wawanesa isn't concerned with the appearance of getting their money's worth from the new building?

It could be that this Wawanesa tower is the last significant office building we see going up downtown for a while. This could be like when 201 Portage was built and then we didn't see another big new office building until Hydro was built 20 years later.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by esquire

Just thinking about this some more, but I know some guys at Hydro who say they are starting to feel pressure to come back to the office... apparently there is some sensitivity to the fact they occupy this expensive flashy tower that is still largely empty last I heard.

I guess Wawanesa isn't concerned with the appearance of getting their money's worth from the new building?

It could be that this Wawanesa tower is the last significant office building we see going up downtown for a while. This could be like when 201 Portage was built and then we didn't see another big new office building until Hydro was built 20 years later.

“Permanently” until the new office opens.

Or they could be relying the flashiness of it all to draw the work force back.

[Winnipeg Grump]

Not wasting any time. If my failing memory serves, that concrete was poured yesterday morning.



Also, they're pouring concrete into these forms - any idea where they'd end up?

[plrh]

Originally Posted by Winnipeg Grump

Not wasting any time. If my failing memory serves, that concrete was poured yesterday morning.



Also, they're pouring concrete into these forms - any idea where they'd end up?

They look like stairs

[Winnipeg Grump]

Originally Posted by plrh

They look like stairs

Just needed to look closer. Thanks!

[bomberjet]

Ya that's the underside of the stairs, which is flat. The treads are facing down. You can kind of see them in the grey formwork through the rebar.

Interesting they're pouring on site vs getting from a supplier or pre-casting somewhere else. There will be a lot of stairs to cast. Looks like they're using the Sutton Place area for that. Maybe since they have some room, it makes sense.

[drew]

^ agree that its a bit strange. I wonder if this is a one-off stair somewhere.

Otherwise I don't see how they could work it that forming, casting and curing on site is more economical than just ordering from LaFarge.

PCL does love their CIP concrete tho.

[WinCitySparky]

Stairs are typically steel frame and then have the actual steps/landings poured in once they are installed between the floors.

[drew]

^ what you are referring to is "steel pan stairs" (concrete topped).

You can also get full concrete pre-cast stairs and landings. Which (IMO) are a better final product for a similar $$.

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by drew

^ what you are referring to is "steel pan stairs" (concrete topped).

You can also get full concrete pre-cast stairs and landings. Which (IMO) are a better final product for a similar $$.

Seems like that would be a lot heavier to manage in terms of installation, imagine it would be double the weight as a completed unit.

Guess it wouldn’t matter much though if there was crane access from above as in this case.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Winnipegger

So what is the brand new 23 floor office building for?

There are many office towers going up right now with leases signed before or at the start of the pandemic. I would guess many of those companies would love to reduce the amount of space in their leases or cancel their leases altogether in those urban centre that haven't written off the pandemic. Those places that take the pandemic seriously have had the majority of employees working from home upwards of two years. It's no longer a short term, stop gap solution. It's become accepted.

[Winnipeg Grump]

Welcome to 2022!
Not the best working conditions, unfortunately.