Winnipeg poised to waive almost $7M in fees to stimulate downtown housing

The City of Winnipeg is poised to waive up to $6.75 million worth of building fees over the next three years to stimulate the construction of more housing in downtown Winnipeg.

A new report to city council's property and development committee calls for fees to be waived in recognition of the extra costs for developers to build new condos or apartments downtown, or renovate existing buildings.

"Although development downtown is desirable, it is also more costly and more difficult than elsewhere in the city," Winnipeg's acting urban development manager, James Veitch, writes in the report.

"This is due to fees associated with the loss of on-street parking due to construction staging, parking fees for tradespeople and other circumstances not experienced elsewhere."

His report recommends council approve up to $2.25 million worth of fee waivers in each of 2025, 2026 and 2027. 

Fees that could be reimbursed include those associated with building permits, design reviews, heritage permits and the loss of paid parking during construction, the report states.

Kurtis Kowalke, the city's principal planner for downtown, said the stimulus for downtown housing has never been more important.

"There's been a bit of a lull, obviously, since COVID. The pace of development downtown has really slowed right down," he said in an interview.

The Forks, which is working with several developers to build housing on its Railside project, on the west side of the site, praised the city plan.

"Anything the city can do to reduce the cost and risk of developing downtown is helpful," said communications manager Larissa Peck.

True North Real Estate and Development, which built 194 residential units at True North Square, also welcomes the incentives, president Jim Ludlow said in a statement.

The city has stimulated downtown residential construction in the past using a funding mechanism called tax-increment financing, where the city and province provide property tax rebates to developers who generate more tax revenue through the improvement of their properties — or divert this new revenue into downtown amenities such as lighting and streetscaping.

The report accompanies a new, 136-page downtown planning framework called CentrePlan 2050. That framework, which has been years in the making, envisions a series of improvements that would be phased in over the next 25 years.

Other short-term recommendations in the report include spending $1.5 million on a new design for Graham Avenue after Winnipeg Transit routes are removed from the downtown corridor and $250,000 to develop a new plan to maintain Thunderbird House on Main Street.

The report is set to be discussed by the property and development committee at its July 4 meeting.