Long-delayed development on site of former Winnipeg police HQ moving forward
Construction on Market Lands development set to start in January 2024
Construction is set to begin on a new mixed-use commercial and residential project on the property that once housed Winnipeg's police headquarters.
Jean Linklater, who lives in the neighbourhood, has walked by an empty parking lot across the street from Winnipeg City Hall every day since the demolition of the old Public Safety Building and Civic Parkade in 2020.
Now, the developer behind the project has submitted building permits to the City of Winnipeg, with groundbreaking set for January 2024.
"It's about time," said Linklater, who lives at the nearby McLaren Hotel. "It looks lonely, the ground. I would definitely like to see that being done here."
Winnipeg's downtown development agency, CentreVenture, has partnered with the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. to build a new nine-storey, 95-unit residential building, along with an open market and 20,000-square-feet of commercial space, on the southern end of the property between King Street and Princess Street.
That space, a gravel lot surrounded by a chainlink fence, has occasionally served as parking for film crews or special events.
The city has agreed to give CentreVenture $2.5-million worth of tax breaks to redevelop the property.
Jeremy Read is CEO for the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. and president of Market Lands Inc., the lead developer on the project.
"This building sat for many years vacant and boarded up," Read said. "It means neither a boarded-up building or a big vacant space in the middle of our downtown, next to our city hall, right?"
Plans delayed
Construction of the market lands project was supposed to start in early 2022, but plans had to be redesigned in order to make sure the building's energy-efficient features did not put the project over-budget.
"Part of our initial design package for this building was for it to be more passive technology," he said, "and it ended up being cost prohibitive, so we actually had to do some redesign work to get to where we are today, but still achieving that net-carbon-zero designation."
Those redesigns pushed back the start of construction by nearly two years. The project is expected to be finished by 2026.
"We are now beyond the planning stages," Read said.
Read estimates the project will cost about $55 million.
Affordable housing, arts space
A third of the units in the residential tower will be barrier-free, and will have rents set at 59 per cent of median market rents, "which is a greater depth of affordability in terms of the units," Read said.
Arts organizations such as Mentoring Artists for Women's Arts, Urban Shaman Gallery, Creative Manitoba and Manitoba Music will have space in a "creative cube" next to the residential building, Read said.
Linklater, who enjoys painting, looks forward to having the arts organizations in the neighbourhood.
"I love going and doing artwork, that would be great. I definitely would volunteer there and help out to do painting," she said.
Jonny Kountsevich likes the idea of the project, although he worries what it might do to traffic.
"It's probably going to be pretty busy during rush hour if they're going to do construction, so it's going to be a little frustrating, but I think in the end it's going to be worth it," he said.
The south end of the site is reserved for some form of public use, thanks to a caveat applied to the property when its former owner transferred the land to the city in 1875.
The city still owns the northern two-thirds of the property that includes the Market Lands development, which CentreVenture has an option to build on, said Brad Zander, chair of CentreVenture's board.
"We're working with partners on that. At this stage we have nothing to announce," Zander said.
"The southern portion is the priority right now and … as that's developed and built up, it'll be exciting to see what opportunities present themselves for the northern parcel."
A report to the executive policy committee in June 2022 estimated the Market Lands development will generate about $100,000 in annual property taxes.
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