Winnipeg - Of Interest

[esquire]

Downtown doldrums
Winnipeg core’s empty-office problem not likely to change for a while

The state of Winnipeg’s downtown office vacancies will continue to remain in limbo for the time being, despite the city drawing another string of encouraging numbers in the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to a recent national report from CBRE, 15.7 per cent of office spaces in the city’s epicentre are searching for tenants. Winnipeg is one of three examined regions in the country to stabilize or see a drop in availability this quarter (Waterloo Region, Halifax).

While the 0.4 per cent drop from the third quarter is notable in that it’s the second-consecutive quarter that vacancy rates have dropped slightly, it remains much higher than the 10.8 per cent of barren office space the city had prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Yes, the numbers are going in the right direction, but it’s still a big problem,” said Paul Kornelson, Manitoba vice-president and managing director at CBRE, the global real estate services organization. “We’re still in this zone of being historically high.”

Kornelson added a looming project that could dog pile the problem is the Wawanesa building at 372 Graham St., a 350,000-square-foot tower that is expected to be completed later this year.

“So when that happens and (Wawanesa) pulls out of the other buildings that they’re in — and there’s a few really key buildings that will be affected on Main Street and Broadway — there’s not the demand to backfill that,” Kornelson explained. “In Winnipeg, we don’t have the leasing velocity to withstand a bunch of new supply coming on.”

“My feeling about (the state of downtown office vacancies) is, let’s not be optimistic. There are some signs that the office market won’t go away, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Full article here: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...ntown-doldrums

[dmacc]

Though I'm not sure how the Wawanesa building on Main recovers, the one on Broadway looks prime from a residential conversion. I'm sure a bunch of office space downtown could do this to lower the office space while increasing the amount of people living downtown.

[pspeid]

Some street/park work in front of the Burt:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ment-1.6734106

[esquire]

Originally Posted by pspeid

Some street/park work in front of the Burt:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ment-1.6734106

True North is calling the shots on planning decisions now?

[WinCitySparky]

Yeah dude. We are firmly in the era of corporate democracy. Everything old is new again! *sob

[WinCitySparky]

But in all seriousness it’s not a bad plan.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Kate Fenske from Downtown Biz was on radio and she was heavily promoting this. Having a mini-park just outside the theatre / concert venue opens up so many possibilites for events. The street renewal is happening anyway, so why not think a little bigger and change the weird intersection that it is now.

[WinCitySparky]

^ Yeah it’s a good plan and Winnipeg needs more of these kinds of “radical” overhauls of the road network. This creates a more pedestrian-friendly situation there.

[wags_in_the_peg]

from FreePress
Smith Street’s current layout between Ellice and Notre Dame avenues includes four traffic lanes split by the existing Odeon Park. Two traffic lanes next to the Burton Cummings Theatre approach the Donald Street intersection, where traffic heads westbound onto Notre Dame Avenue. The two other traffic lanes travel north onto King Street and allow a left turn onto Notre Dame Avenue.

In the new design, the street space immediately in front of the theatre would be closed. Three traffic lanes, including a transit lane, would connect to westbound Notre Dame, and two lanes on the east side of the island would continue north to King Street.

The changes would allow Odeon Park to grow to 970 square metres from about 335 square metres, replacing some former road space.

[esquire]

I don't mind the realignment and the relocation of the small park space, but it is funny that in a world where people have to wait decades for curb repairs, TNSE basically picks up the phone and gets an intersection reconfigured.

It would be nice to see that triangle lot NW of the theatre to get filled in with a building, that would do more to enhance the area's surroundings than this street project.

[Biff]

Originally Posted by esquire

True North is calling the shots on planning decisions now?

I think it is more along the lines of the work on Smith was planned for 2023 (there basically is no more road left there - mostly just crushed and rutted asphalt). The City engages with the related stakeholders relating to any issues. True North asks if they can reconfigure the turning lanes to change the ridiculous and non-useful "Island Park" to be a part of the boulevard.

The plan makes perfect sense, works way better and is actually functional. I see nothing sinister in True North's request. Makes the city better.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

Kate Fenske from Downtown Biz was on radio and she was heavily promoting this. Having a mini-park just outside the theatre / concert venue opens up so many possibilites for events. The street renewal is happening anyway, so why not think a little bigger and change the weird intersection that it is now.

Yes this looks like a real positive for the area!

[bomberjet]

I always liked the island park..

It is bad framing in the article. Re: TNSE directing the City on how it should be done. The plan does make sense. It will also make the turn onto King cleaner. It's always a guessing game on where the lane is, how many lanes are there. It's been better since the intersection was redone for the bike lanes.

I wonder if the rest of the Odeon theatre would ever get built to fill in that street front.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Originally Posted by Biff

I think it is more along the lines of the work on Smith was planned for 2023 (there basically is no more road left there - mostly just crushed and rutted asphalt). The City engages with the related stakeholders relating to any issues. True North asks if they can reconfigure the turning lanes to change the ridiculous and non-useful "Island Park" to be a part of the boulevard.

The plan makes perfect sense, works way better and is actually functional. I see nothing sinister in True North's request. Makes the city better.

as always, the naysayers will be up in arms that big corporate True North is running the City & Province. anti-business naysayers

in other news, has anyone ever seen all the great things True North has done for the community. The True North Foundation does unbeleivable things for the community. Camp Manitou, Project 11, Hockey camps for underpriviledged children, etc etc

[esquire]

Who's being a naysayer? There's a golden opportunity right here! Can someone convince Mark Chipman to pick up the phone and tell the City to open up Portage and Main to pedestrians?

[thurmas]

Portage and Main is the least of the city's problems. In all seriousness true north might be the only player who could get Portage place redeveloped as I don't see anyone else who has a reason and capital that will do so.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by thurmas

Portage and Main is the least of the city's problems. In all seriousness true north might be the only player who could get Portage place redeveloped as I don't see anyone else who has a reason and capital that will do so.

Manitoba Hydro Place and Canada Life Centre are two relatively recent projects that were intended to help rejuvenate Portage Avenue. Close to half a billion for those two projects alone and Portage is worse than ever. I think it's clear that public investment on Portage Ave (and before that on Main Street) has not yielded benefits... you can look back at decades of projects for proof of that.

That's why whatever happens to Portage Place should be private sector driven and funded.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by esquire

Manitoba Hydro Place and Canada Life Centre are two relatively recent projects that were intended to help rejuvenate Portage Avenue. Close to half a billion for those two projects alone and Portage is worse than ever. I think it's clear that public investment on Portage Ave (and before that on Main Street) has not yielded benefits... you can look back at decades of projects for proof of that.

That's why whatever happens to Portage Place should be private sector driven and funded.

The unobserved counterfactual here is, what if those hadn't been built? That parallel universe Winnipeg might be considerably worse off than ours. There's no way to know, but it's hard to imagine a suburban arena being better for the city.

Projects like those don't have to immediately cure all ills. Staunching the bleeding can be worth it on its own to buy time for other improvements.

[trueviking]

^ exactly.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by zalf

The unobserved counterfactual here is, what if those hadn't been built? That parallel universe Winnipeg might be considerably worse off than ours. There's no way to know, but it's hard to imagine a suburban arena being better for the city.

Projects like those don't have to immediately cure all ills. Staunching the bleeding can be worth it on its own to buy time for other improvements.

It's also easy to imagine scenarios where things had worked out just as well, or possibly even better had those projects not been built.

What if the block that Manitoba Hydro Place sits on had been left intact with various shops and businesses on it? Eventually Hydro could have taken over an underutilized office building the same way MTS did when it took over a nearly empty 333 Main Street some 20-odd years ago.

What if Eaton's had been redeveloped along the lines of what the Save Eaton's folks wanted, with housing and a variety of uses? Might have made a bigger difference in the long run than the arena.

But even if that didn't turn out to be the case... how would things have ended up any worse than what we've got now? Retail has disappeared either way... it's not like all that investment kept downtown stores afloat. A lot of people are afraid to walk around there at night. What exactly did all that money buy?