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  #1681  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 8:55 PM
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With BMO moving out of their grand banking hall and now Bell (let's give up on the MTS part already), I think this building may be next in line for a grand re-imagining. Might take awhile as Artis is embroiled in their massive project across the street, but the SE corner is defintely the laggard of Portage and Main right now.
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  #1682  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 9:02 PM
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With BMO moving out of their grand banking hall and now Bell (let's give up on the MTS part already), I think this building may be next in line for a grand re-imagining. Might take awhile as Artis is embroiled in their massive project across the street, but the SE corner is defintely the laggard of Portage and Main right now.
It has been for some time. BMO moved out of the tower sometime in the mid/late 90s and it was fairly empty for quite some time before MTS moved its HQ there from Polo Park in 2000. When MTS bought the building in 2003 I think there was some optimism about what might happen next. In the end they didn't do much, but now with BMO putting the banking hall up for sale and 333 Main no longer the MTS beehive it once was, it sort of feels like that corner has gone back to 1998 again... it just hasn't been able to live up to its potential yet.
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  #1683  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 9:06 PM
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The loss of Vitera, Canwest and BellMTS downsizing was really hitting downtown hard in terms of finding tenants. Now add in the TDS reduced their square footage to move into True North, MNP kicked another hole into 201 Portage and when it was down TD has significantly scaled back its operations there too.

It isn't such much the size of True North Square that is the issue but rather there was a large amount of premium (for Winnipeg) office space already on the market with basically no takers. The upcoming Wawanesa building it just going to further twist that dagger.
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  #1684  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 9:15 PM
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The conversion of some noteworthy buildings to residential shold mitigate this office shake-up hopefully. The hold-out buildings that seem to be prime candidates for conversion next: Western Canada Lottery, Wawanesa on Broadway, the CRA building on Broadway... pretty much all of Broadway should be refocused to residential.
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  #1685  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 9:21 PM
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^ In hindsight, turning Broadway into an office district in the 60s was the wrong move. It spread the office market out way too thinly over downtown. It would have been way smarter for the city to have focused office growth along the Portage and Main spines except maybe for a small provincial government office hub near Memorial, but I guess there was too much money to be made. The fact that there really hasn't been any substantial office construction on that strip since the 80s tells you about its viability in that market.

But with many of those Broadway office buildings getting long in the tooth now (like Wawanesa), residential conversion would be a great idea... it could reinforce the existing strength of Bro-Ass as a residential neighbourhood.
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  #1686  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 10:45 PM
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^ In hindsight, turning Broadway into an office district in the 60s was the wrong move. It spread the office market out way too thinly over downtown. It would have been way smarter for the city to have focused office growth along the Portage and Main spines except maybe for a small provincial government office hub near Memorial, but I guess there was too much money to be made. The fact that there really hasn't been any substantial office construction on that strip since the 80s tells you about its viability in that market.

But with many of those Broadway office buildings getting long in the tooth now (like Wawanesa), residential conversion would be a great idea... it could reinforce the existing strength of Bro-Ass as a residential neighbourhood.
I suppose Winnipeg's downtown as an office district fared better than other cities in North America in the postwar years on the whole -- new office construction moved a few blocks south and west instead of to new suburban areas.

The draw of Broadway for builders, I would imagine, was larger parcels that were relatively inexpensive. Easier in 1960 or so to buy up an old mansion or vacant land on Broadway (with a lot width of 65 feet or more), than to cobble together costly parcels around Portage or Main.

The public and planning expectation of all this would have been that 1950s-era economic and population growth would keep chugging along through the rest of the 20th century, and that eventually the unattractive and underbuilt gulf between Portage and Broadway would fill up with modern development (see Metro government's 1969 Downtown Plan). Of course anyone who's walked down Donald Street from Broadway to Graham recently will tell you it hasn't happened yet.
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  #1687  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 10:48 PM
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^^ See, people are starting to turn. esquire now agrees that True North Square was the wrong move for Winnipeg.
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  #1688  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 10:55 PM
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Well nobody knows what the futures has on its list.
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  #1689  
Old Posted Dec 9, 2019, 11:31 PM
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Originally Posted by CoryB View Post
The loss of Vitera, Canwest and BellMTS downsizing was really hitting downtown hard in terms of finding tenants. Now add in the TDS reduced their square footage to move into True North, MNP kicked another hole into 201 Portage and when it was down TD has significantly scaled back its operations there too.

It isn't such much the size of True North Square that is the issue but rather there was a large amount of premium (for Winnipeg) office space already on the market with basically no takers. The upcoming Wawanesa building it just going to further twist that dagger.
If Calgary’s economy doesn’t fully recover, some of the back office operations that might have looked at Winnipeg in the past might just snap up cheap office space there instead.
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  #1690  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2019, 12:09 AM
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As has been mentioned here – and started & abandoned a few times by city agencies – we really need a plan for what different areas/streets of downtown are known for and seen as. You know, some sort of planning document....

IMO:

"South Portage/SHED" (from Memorial to Main)
Medium-large scale developments. Commercial leaning, mixed-use where possible of course.

Portage – larger scale commercial and entertainment (prices/prominence would mean likely national brands/retailers)
Graham – continue the organic renaissance that has been happening at the west end to the east, using TNS & 300 Main as catalysts and ensuring future developments offer small-footprint storefronts. Re-open the corners of cityplace (if not all of it – LC is closing in January).
Garry – use this as the "connector" street bridging Downtown & Exchange, along with The Forks. Focus on smaller-scale retail/commercial like the rest of Graham and Exchange.

Broadway – A residential high street. Start with Wawanesa, converting some of the existing office buildings to residential. Ground level retail would naturally serve the (fairly dense) residential to the south of Broadway. Many of the existing office buildings have big setbacks that would be great for patios or even CRU/atrium additions. Broadway is flagged for new streetscaping in the near future, would be great to take a high-level look at the street as a whole, not just landscaping.
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  #1691  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2019, 2:51 AM
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Fun fact: Bold just opened a new office in downtown Austin, TX.
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  #1692  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2019, 4:44 AM
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^^ See, people are starting to turn. esquire now agrees that True North Square was the wrong move for Winnipeg.
Couldn't disagree more, actually
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  #1693  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 5:06 AM
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Won't they need that space for the Bell Western Canada Head Office though???
Exactly..whatever happened to that guaranteed promise from BELL? Liars!
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  #1694  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 6:26 AM
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Exactly..whatever happened to that guaranteed promise from BELL? Liars!
You know that Gary Filmon was the chair of MTS when it was sold to Bell right?

And the airflight thing? Yeah, so virtuous, the lot of them.

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewt...25331&start=25

Someone ask Pallister how many shares he had in MTS when he got that sweetheart deal between Bell and Gary Filmon (MTS)?

How's your BellMTS bill lately?

Nothing but greed.
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  #1695  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 8:36 AM
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Fun fact: Bold just opened a new office in downtown Austin, TX.

Really? Cottage Life used to be called Bold (a CBC cable channel).



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage_Life_(TV_channel)
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  #1696  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 2:10 PM
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You know that Gary Filmon was the chair of MTS when it was sold to Bell right?

And the airflight thing? Yeah, so virtuous, the lot of them.

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewt...25331&start=25

Someone ask Pallister how many shares he had in MTS when he got that sweetheart deal between Bell and Gary Filmon (MTS)?

How's your BellMTS bill lately?

Nothing but greed.
My BellMTS Internet is significantly cheaper today than it was 5-7 years ago even with a significant bump in internet speed.
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  #1697  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 5:14 PM
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^^It's going up 5 or 6 dollars, depending on your plan, January 1. Cell phone rates have climbed to match the rest of the country. Except of course in Quebec and Saskatchewan where there are still four providers. A club we once belonged to until, well, you know, Gary and Brian.
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  #1698  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 5:19 PM
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My BellMTS Internet is significantly cheaper today than it was 5-7 years ago even with a significant bump in internet speed.

they seem to be ignoreing the north though
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  #1699  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 5:25 PM
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Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg View Post
^^It's going up 5 or 6 dollars, depending on your plan, January 1. Cell phone rates have climbed to match the rest of the country. Except of course in Quebec and Saskatchewan where there are still four providers. A club we once belonged to until, well, you know, Gary and Brian.
Plans currently offered by Rogers and Telus are identically priced in SK, MB and QC. Cheaper than ON, AB, BC.
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  #1700  
Old Posted Dec 11, 2019, 5:59 PM
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^^Yeah, next cycle I'll be switching providers.
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