Winnipeg forced to tweak deal to sell Pantages Playhouse Theatre

Winnipeg has been forced to renegotiate the sale of Pantages Playhouse Theatre because of a snafu involving the protection of a monument to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

City council's property committee voted Tuesday to work out an amended deal to sell the 107-year-old theatre to Alex Boersma and Lars Nicholson for $530,000. They've pledged to keep the heritage building operating as a performing arts venue.

The original deal called for the city to gain an easement alongside Main Street to ensure the public art installation Bloody Saturday — a streetcar sculpture that commemorates the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike — would remain at the corner of Main Street and Market Avenue.

That proved impossible at the provincial land titles office. The amended deal calls for the land to be subdivided so the city can retain ownership of Bloody Saturday.

Boersma and Nicholson have pledged to continue operating Pantages as a theatre. They also intend to build housing on the plaza along Main Street, south of the public art installation.

Two former CentreVenture officials — former president Ross McGowan and former chair Curt Vossen — appeared before the committee to request the city enter into a formal development agreement to hold Boersma and Nicholson to their word. MacGowan told the committee he represented an unsuccessful application to purchase the venue.

The theatre is a designated heritage structure and may not be demolished.

Nonetheless, councillors Brian Mayes (St. Vital), Matt Allard (St. Boniface), Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) and Janice Lukes (Waverley West) voted to lay over the amended sale for a month.

Lukes and Allard said they did so on the basis of private conversations they had during the meeting with Point Douglas Coun. Vivian Santos, who did not appear before the committee.