Quote:
Originally Posted by newflyer
As far as Calgary goes I'd love to see the old Grain Exchange building across from Encana Place on 1st SW, near the Palliser Hotel. Its a fabulous building, but its age is showing, with wiring running outside the walls and such. It is full of lowend tenants, but it would be great if it recieved some much needed attention inside and out.
Winnipeg does have a large pool of heritage buildings in the exchange. The fact that the exchange was not just commercial office buildings, but also very large warehouses, industrial and manufacturing buildings were a part of the makeup of the area. Today's reality, many of these buildings are finding new life as condos, lofts and office space. It must be remembered it takes a significant investment to bring a 100 year old building up to modern codes for residence. Old lead pipes, cancer causing insolation and murcury switches are all commonly found in old builings such as these. They need to be gutted and then introduced to modern utilities, wiring as well as digital technology. Its not just a simple process of buying are leasing them out.
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The reason I asked if downtown winnipeg could use some more class A office space, is here in Calgary Neil Richardson and his company have restored several properties (Lorraine apts, Lougheed building) into office space, his general modus operandi is to gut most of the building and bring up to the highest spec, while restoring the outside and maybe the lobby and first couple floors back to original. He's recently been buying properties in smaller town outside calgary as he's sorta run out of projects in town, I wonder if Winnipeg could use his touch.