Winnipeg Construction X

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by cheswick

He means springing development of the Bay. Not a spring development.

Yes I know, poorly worded as ‘the spring’ sounds like it’s referencing the season, spur would have been better.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by cheswick

He means springing development of the Bay. Not a spring development.

That's what I was assuming.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Spocket

Skip could have a million employees but I seriously doubt that a food delivery company would have so many people manning computers or phones or whatever it is that they use to do what they do. They may have a few dozen people doing the office work but I expect that the overwhelming majority of those 4,000 people are the people actually going out and delivering food.

Skip has 2,400 office workers in Winnipeg, not including drivers. A big chunk of that is live and support, aka call/chat centre. They have about 100 employees in Saskatoon and less than 50 in both Calgary and Toronto. In terms of drivers, there's 10s of thousands in Canada.

Originally Posted by ediger

I'm kind of surprised they haven't rebranded and made Skip the Dishes a division of the main company instead of continuing to refer to the entire company as Skip the Dishes. The name makes you think all they're doing is handling that one app when in reality, they've sort of grown into a larger development company with Skip as their flagship app.

Umm Skip is precisely a branded division of Just Eat and is nowhere near their flagship, they are just using a lot of Skip's IP for Just Eat and its other subsidiaries (most much larger). Skip's "rebrand" was pulling out of USA entirely (selling to Grubhub, Just Eat had no presence there). Skip is and will only be in Canada – the employees that work on global ops for Just Eat are fully Just Eat employees now, even though they appear to work for Skip on the outside.

Originally Posted by lilwayne

JUST EAT owns skip the dishes

Just eat is a hugeee company that provides food deliveries in europe usa and canada

This company has to be worth closer to a billion dollars...

Just eat is the parent company and skipthedishes still keeps its independent brand

Just Eat was valued at 5.5 billion pounds in 2017. They're probably worth closer to $10 billion now.

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

I think that is a misquote...

Yeah, thing they flipped "the" and "spring" – I work closely with The Bay, there is no looming development by any means. However, while 5–10 years ago they were considering selling the building for $1, they now consider it a hugely valuable asset for the company, and any developments at Portage Place will only help that.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Yeah, thing they flipped "the" and "spring" – I work closely with The Bay, there is no looming development by any means. However, while 5–10 years ago they were considering selling the building for $1, they now consider it a hugely valuable asset for the company, and any developments at Portage Place will only help that.

Interesting change in perspective. I guess the development activity downtown probably doesn't hurt in that regard... it has a little potential now that the government isn't the only developer in town which was sort of the case in the 2000s when nearly every downtown project involved government in one way or another.

[esquire]

Walking up Hargrave this morning, I noticed some white cladding panels went up on the south face of the Newport Centre, replacing the black ones that we're used to. It looks pretty polished, as though that is supposed to be the finished product. Kind of interesting since I don't think any of the renderings showed a new look for the tower apart from the renovations to the base.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Hmm... can't be too far west without running into those pesky airport height restrictions. My money's either on that random development pitched near Portage and Broadway a few years back, or more likely, the old McNaught car dealership site.

Betting that 20-25 story building is not on the McNaught site. Something is actively happening there and from the tease post it sounded like the tower was still in the approvals stage. Normally you don't dig a giant hole before you have approvals...

Originally Posted by Spocket

Skip could have a million employees but I seriously doubt that a food delivery company would have so many people manning computers or phones or whatever it is that they use to do what they do. They may have a few dozen people doing the office work but I expect that the overwhelming majority of those 4,000 people are the people actually going out and delivering food.

Keep in mind Skip has a massive global contact centre run out of Winnipeg. They are getting permission to bring in Portuguese speaking foreign workers in large volumes.

Also Skip is a prime example of what I talked about when city hall was blowing cash trying to land Amazon. Instead of trying to net the big fish take that same pile of funds and land a bunch of minnows. Feed those minnows like you are feeding the True North empire with their SHED credits. If we create an environment where small start up tech companies can flourish we can start being a place for them to come when they are small. Not everyone will explode like Skip but if even 1 of 20 go that big it would be a massive game changer. But it takes a real mind shift of attracting business and is a heavy risk position as you are going to blast funds into a number of companies that are going to implode.

Originally Posted by buzzg

Skip is and will only be in Canada

Pretty certain I saw the Skip brand being used in Italy last fall.

[pegcityfan]

Originally Posted by esquire

Walking up Hargrave this morning, I noticed some white cladding panels went up on the south face of the Newport Centre, replacing the black ones that we're used to. It looks pretty polished, as though that is supposed to be the finished product. Kind of interesting since I don't think any of the renderings showed a new look for the tower apart from the renovations to the base.

The glossy white panels will make building look way better.

Saw 4 panels up in the back. Two with a very slight blue-green tint, two with a very slight pinkish tint. Wonder if that's the desired effect or they are still selecting panels.

Last few renders had the panels on them:

[esquire]

^ Thanks, I forgot about that... I guess the white didn't really pop out at me in the rendering, but it sure jumped out when I saw it on the building. It could make for a nice new look.

For quite a few years Newport was looking a little down at the heels, but with all the action in the area it is starting to get treated as a desirable office building once again.

[Spocket]

Why is everything ever announced "the hinge/catalyst/savior" of downtown?
Just a minor quibble but if that were ever true then I'd expect downtown to have become a bustling and cosmopolitan hub of activity with people breaking down the figurative door to get in about 30 years ago.

[esquire]

^ I doubt anyone thinks a refreshed Portage Place will be the "saviour" of anything... it will just be an improvement.

[Ando]

Originally Posted by Spocket

Why is everything ever announced "the hinge/catalyst/savior" of downtown?
Just a minor quibble but if that were ever true then I'd expect downtown to have become a bustling and cosmopolitan hub of activity with people breaking down the figurative door to get in about 30 years ago.

Not sure what you are talking about. He was quoted as saying “hinge”, not saviour, that’s your word. He also used the qualifier “could”. Seems like a reasonable statement as he put it.

[esquire]

For what it's worth, if Portage Place couldn't succeed as the nexus between two of the largest department stores in Canada as Eaton's and The Bay were in those days, then I don't hold out much hope for its prospects of being a "hinge" between the SHED and a dessicated Bay store.

It can still succeed, but it will do so on its own terms as a standalone destination.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by Spocket

Why is everything ever announced "the hinge/catalyst/savior" of downtown?
Just a minor quibble but if that were ever true then I'd expect downtown to have become a bustling and cosmopolitan hub of activity with people breaking down the figurative door to get in about 30 years ago.

I don't think anything announced now a days is touted as a savior to the downtown, every new development has it's piece to play in transforming and renewing the core. Hydro Place and it's 2000 employees was supposed to save Portage Place while that didn't happen there has been positive albeit slow momentum in the area over the years. Only today are we really seeing unparalleled investment with a steady stream of mega projects.
It is hard to deny the impact of the following developments have had in spurring new developments over the past twenty years around Hydro:
BellMTS Place (and return of NHL)->The Met->Centre Point->True North Square->Wawanessa HQ->Portage Place redevelopment->The Bay(future potential).

I think the real impact of downtown renewal will be realized when all the new residential (and hotel) comes on stream, 225 Carlton, 300 Main, 233 Kennedy, 185 Smith, Sutton Place & Residence. Hopefully the downtown residential renaissance continues well into the future, that's when shops and services will follow.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I doubt anyone thinks a refreshed Portage Place will be the "saviour" of anything... it will just be an improvement.

Agreed. From what I read no-one is talking about a re-imagined Portage Place (or any other single project) as being a downtown "saviour", and realistically, no-one ever has to my knowledge. This creaky fallacy is usually trotted out by critics as a way to try to discredit the notion of downtown redevelopment.

HOWEVER, there comes a point where there is a "critical mass" of combined development that creates a turning point for downtown redevelopment, and perhaps it is suggested that a revitalized Portage Place could approach that point?

[armorand93]

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

I don't think anything announced now a days is touted as a savior to the downtown, every new development has it's piece to play in transforming and renewing the core. Hydro Place and it's 2000 employees was supposed to save Portage Place while that didn't happen there has been positive albeit slow momentum in the area over the years.

MB Hydro did manage to stem the bleeding, and maybe provide an extra few shoppers at the stores, but the most it did was probably just keep Portage Place on life support for the past decade. Then came the retail losses, the dollar stores going out of business because they decided to pass up on security on one of the worst malls in the city to do business in, the lack of catering to U of W students (thousands within a 10 minute walk of Portage Place), plus crime issues, plus the open air drug market out the back...

The scary thing is too: there's a smaller mini-mall inside the Promenade right next door to Portage Place, and those places appeared to be in business since the whole place was built! No signs of crime inside, although no visible entrances (I once found out how to even get in, just by accident...) and not many customers... but they managed to survive pretty well.

I guess my next question is: after Portage Place gets razed to the ground and replaced with nothing but highrise residential, would the smaller mini-mall renovate itself to take advantage of being the only commercial entity within that block of Downtown Winnipeg (even with just a small handful of ma & pa shops), or would it keep the status quo, in order to avoid the fate of Portage Place, right across the "Promenade"?

[Wpg_Guy]

The mall will not be razed towers will be added on the pads and the retail will still exist in some sort of component. They’ve expressed interest in ‘street level retail’ of course this is all so preliminary, the sale still has to be approved by 3 levels of government and due diligence completed we will just have to wait and see what they have in store for the complex.

Also Esquire was inquiring about the buildings behind Portage Place, FNP will retain ownership of that land so they are not shedding all their NP assets with this sale, yet.

[joshlemer]

Which mini mall are you talking about, this thing? https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8930...7i13312!8i6656

[armorand93]

Originally Posted by joshlemer

Which mini mall are you talking about, this thing? https://www.google.com/maps/@49.8930...7i13312!8i6656

Yes, particularly the mini-mall inside the residential portion of the Promenade. Without Portage Place, and with a reno, suddenly it would look very attractive to nee investment and particularly restaurants and student-oriented commerce.

[buzzg]

The Promenade mall is almost at full occupancy (might even be 100%) now. May not be sexy stores but there's quite a few independent shops, some offices and services, and U of M has some stuff in there. I agree, it's well designed though.

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Anyone know what's going on with the Jumbotron at 201 Portage? It was removed last week and still all fenced off.

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Reclad at NewPort is going FAST. They're working like 7-7 with a crew on all 4 sides. Wonder if they're rushing to finish that before starting the podium.

I really hope they call it something other than Rogers Place... Or any of their arenas. Rogers Tower, Building, etc would be good. I do like the renaming to Rogers ____ in general, gives it a higher profile.

[Wpg_Guy]

crosierkilgour: Over the next two years 330 Portage Avenue is getting a facelift. Our Building Envelope team designed a complete remediation of the existing curtain wall system to improve thermal performance and eliminate the existing air/water leaks. During construction our staff will perform weekly reviews of the installation over the course of the project.



https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz0eR-HglcY/