Polo Park Expansion

[Glenn99]

Originally Posted by esquire

CF is a blue chip company, and in the local context, so is Shindico. They have the expertise, and more importantly, the means to get it done.

If it was Sandhu Developments or whatever then yeah, you would be right to be skeptical. But these developers are legit. A project like this is just another development for a company like CF. I suspect they have done their homework with regard to such things as sewer lines, etc.

Isn't CF doing similar developments in Vancouver and Toronto already?

[esquire]

^ Vancouver is the only one I'm specifically aware of, but I would imagine they must be doing this across the country, or at least they must have plans to that effect.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by Glenn99

Isn't CF doing similar developments in Vancouver and Toronto already?

They’re redeveloping Fairview with a bunch of high rises.

[Biff]

A mall in Montreal is getting the same treatment (can’t remember the name).

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by esquire

CF is a blue chip company, and in the local context, so is Shindico. They have the expertise, and more importantly, the means to get it done.

If it was Sandhu Developments or whatever then yeah, you would be right to be skeptical. But these developers are legit. A project like this is just another development for a company like CF. I suspect they have done their homework with regard to such things as sewer lines, etc.

That's reassuring.

I'm all for redevelopment and all things built, but I've been disappointed before on numerous occasions in the past. The optimist in me isn't what it used to be.

[WinCitySparky]

I remember when the Forks announced Railside like 10 years ago lulz

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

The BRT expansion plan calls for the Portage line to go all the way to the Red River Ex which is adjacent to Westport. The blue line of course stretches all the way to U of M so most transit needs are met.

Secondly, a Costco is planned as the main anchor tenant for the Westport Development. If not Costco then it’s going to be some other 100k sq ft grocery store. With all the commercial lots amenities and services will be plentiful. With the Iceplex, Downs, and Ex residents there will get more amenities within walking distance then most Winnipeggers.

Finally, there are plans for an AT path on the main road (race track rd). And let’s not be fooled the city can absolutely add cycling facilities on Perimeter interchanges. They’ve already done it with Pembina, and they plan to add bike lanes on the new St. Mary’s interchange. Being close to the interchange will have no effect on whether they can or can’t build an AT path on that stretch of Portage.

This is actually pretty laughable from your complete misunderstanding of the area.

1. The Costco plan is currently not proceeding. There was reportedly misinformation between the city and the developer on the type of pipes that site would need. The result is the pipe was put in as planned but is undersized for Costco. Costco will walk before picking up the cost and the developer is prepared to eat those costs either.

2. As is today the Portage Ave overpass has three lanes each direction. With the plan the change it from a coverleaf to a diverging diamond traffic on Portage Ave will get significantly worse and it was already a close second to the busiest spot on the Perimeter before. Keep in mind when this plan happens semis will need to exist the northbound flow and proceed under the Portage Ave underpass. This means any BRT from Charlewood to about Race Track Rd is going to have to be merged into the general traffic flow. That is without even getting into that the east/Transcona BRT is the second in the project and is heavily stalled in red tape. Further, for anyone dreaming of LRT, that diverging diamond on the roadway makes it a hard no.

3. Re AT to/from WestPort. Hard reality there is outside of any residential which may be built on the WestPort site there is near zero demand in destination or origin for AT to WestPort and what little there is would likely use transit if serviced the area. Talking with a former councilor for the area they pointed out that at one time transit had studied service to the Hockey For All (formerly named IcePlex) facility. They found not surprisingly the people attended the facility most arrived in private passenger vehicles with large bags of hockey equipment.

4. As for the fabled grocery store, Sobeys just renovated both their Safeway and Sobeys stores not far from the site. Weston operates a No Frills just south of the site on Roblin and a full line Superstore east of the site on Portage Ave. I guess it is possible Save-On-Foods or Co-Op might open at the site but I think both those are a long shot. Sort of too bad the planned Super Target didn't happen on the site.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by WinCitySparky

I remember when the Forks announced Railside like 10 years ago lulz

What happened to that project???

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by CoryB

This is actually pretty laughable from your complete misunderstanding of the area.

1. The Costco plan is currently not proceeding. There was reportedly misinformation between the city and the developer on the type of pipes that site would need. The result is the pipe was put in as planned but is undersized for Costco. Costco will walk before picking up the cost and the developer is prepared to eat those costs either.

2. As is today the Portage Ave overpass has three lanes each direction. With the plan the change it from a coverleaf to a diverging diamond traffic on Portage Ave will get significantly worse and it was already a close second to the busiest spot on the Perimeter before. Keep in mind when this plan happens semis will need to exist the northbound flow and proceed under the Portage Ave underpass. This means any BRT from Charlewood to about Race Track Rd is going to have to be merged into the general traffic flow. That is without even getting into that the east/Transcona BRT is the second in the project and is heavily stalled in red tape. Further, for anyone dreaming of LRT, that diverging diamond on the roadway makes it a hard no.

3. Re AT to/from WestPort. Hard reality there is outside of any residential which may be built on the WestPort site there is near zero demand in destination or origin for AT to WestPort and what little there is would likely use transit if serviced the area. Talking with a former councilor for the area they pointed out that at one time transit had studied service to the Hockey For All (formerly named IcePlex) facility. They found not surprisingly the people attended the facility most arrived in private passenger vehicles with large bags of hockey equipment.

4. As for the fabled grocery store, Sobeys just renovated both their Safeway and Sobeys stores not far from the site. Weston operates a No Frills just south of the site on Roblin and a full line Superstore east of the site on Portage Ave. I guess it is possible Save-On-Foods or Co-Op might open at the site but I think both those are a long shot. Sort of too bad the planned Super Target didn't happen on the site.

I had no idea that the Costco fiasco. My apologies I misspoke, but damn the city really dropped the ball on that.

Although, the Diverging Diamond planned for Portage is the “ultimate” design there is an intermediate upgrade on Portage/Perimeter that calls too add AT lanes on the existing cloverleaf which will probably look like the one on Pembina. As someone who has cycled on that route I surprisingly didn’t feel like my life was in imminent danger. Who knows when the final design will be built, but hopefully they can figure out a way to include AT facilities.

Finally, while I doubt that there would be separate transit infrastructure west of perimeter, it really just needs to be dedicated ROW starting in Unicity for people who will live in Westport to start benefitting from it. Of course with the clientile that will likely live in Westport transit won’t be a priority, but it’ll be nice to have those 5-10 minute headways during rush hour. And even though there isn’t much existing demand for transit in the area I believe that having transit out to the Ex during its season would be a nice amenity to have for the city.

[esquire]

Does anyone know whether there has been any movement on the Polo Park project lately?

[Jeff]

there seems to be a lot going on in the mall itself with stores shuffling and new openings at least.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Jeff

there seems to be a lot going on in the mall itself with stores shuffling and new openings at least.

Stores being shuffled around at Polo Park seems to be a fairly regular thing. I would guess that somewhere in the lease agreements they require store overhauls say every five years. When there is open space they seem to allow existing tenants to move to a new space rather than renovating their current space. Take HMV as an example, it had at least three different spots in the mall before in permanently closed. And it is just one example.

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by esquire

Does anyone know whether there has been any movement on the Polo Park project lately?

With the current construction cost climate my bets are on a big nothing burger for the next half decade.

[CoryB]

My guess would be that unless there is a major lead tenant the initial Polo Park developments will initially happen on the site that previously had the stadium but I would be wrong. I am guessing as development on the mall site could require construction of multi level parking structures in advance of other work.