WINNIPEG | Portage Place Redevelopment

[GORDBO]

I don't see 300 Assiniboine on that list.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by GORDBO

I don't see 300 Assiniboine on that list.

Also

West Broadway Commons
Location: 175 Colony Street
Architect: Number TEN
Developers: UWCRC 2.0 Inc. and All Saints Anglican Church (Joint Venture Owners)
Construction Manager: Bockstael Construction
Size: 62,000 sq. ft.
Completion: 2020 (targeted)
Status: U/C
110-unit, mixed-income apartments, with over 3,000ft2 of street-level commercial space

And all of Waterfront

[Wpg_Guy]

I only included the past couple years of completed, 300 Assinboine fell out of that criteria as did all of Waterfront.

[Flavelle103]

Reading some of the comments from community advocates in the freep today I had two thoughts. 1) I appreciate their heart for the vulnerable in the area that say they shouldn’t be displaced from PP. That said, downtown needs both private investment and action on social problems. It’s unreasonable to expect private developers to deal with the latter. And there should be no problem finding other spaces for Service CAnada and income assistance offices. 2)They described PP as a defacto community centre. Which made me wonder: if the West End doesn’t have something like that, why doesn’t the city build one for them?

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

comments like this Seriously what would make it look like "exciting downtown" instead of "suburban"? Is it missing neon lights? faux historic look? I'm really really confused by yours and many others that want new downtown development to look more like "downtown". I'm sorry but glass skywalk going all along Portage looks great to me, two new residential towers look great to me. What doesn't look great is pawn shops, loan sharks and rundown convenience stores like what we see on parts of North Main, Sargent, Ellice, etc. Is that what you want?

Woah so much rage... hahahaha. Jesus. It’s bland, it’s ugly, it’s unoriginal, it’s like someone cut and pasted a bunch of boring beige and brown shit together. Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, and almost every other city in the world have some version of that exact same style of tower, There was literally zero thought put into that design. How about giving PTE some fucking street presence by putting an entrance and box office right on portage with a marquee. Get the imax and the cinema back up and running by turning the third floor and part of the second into a rec room. So many things could be done to get this place going, but it’ll all be government offices, YAY WHAT A GREAT PLACE!

[wags_in_the_peg]

Originally Posted by Hecate

Woah so much rage... hahahaha. Jesus. It’s bland, it’s ugly, it’s unoriginal, it’s like someone cut and pasted a bunch of boring beige and brown shit together. Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, and almost every other city in the world have some version of that exact same style of tower, There was literally zero thought put into that design. How about giving PTE some fucking street presence by putting an entrance and box office right on portage with a marquee. Get the imax and the cinema back up and running by turning the third floor and part of the second into a rec room. So many things could be done to get this place going, but it’ll all be government offices, YAY WHAT A GREAT PLACE!

There’s been ZERO details of what is happening with PTE and ZERO details if govt offices are staying or more being added. And if you want an imax or movie theatre, lease the space and start one up! You can’t expect others to put money upfront to satisfy your needs, take initiative and do it yourself since you know everything.

[Biff]

re social issues in the area.....there is a part of this that was reported back in Sept, but missed this time. In conjunction with PP being redeveloped, Mark Chipman is putting donors together for a new addictions, drop-in community centre type facility somewhere north of PP. $40M

[Hecate]

ask yourself... what’s been going on in there over the past decade... what do you think they are planning to do with it? Even the renders allude to its lameness. Office inc... portage executive centre. WTF is that. It’s across the street from our arena and this is the best they can do. I’d rather Manitoba lotteries take control of it and turn it into a fucking casino. Every city in Canada has a proper downtown mall that works. Montreal is full of them. We can’t have one? We can’t have a proper cinema downtown? We can’t have an imax that shows films other than shitty marvel movies? If public money can go to fund the richest man in canadas fucking hockey team and his offices for billion dollar earning banks. We can use it to fund a proper fucking cinema.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Biff

re social issues in the area.....there is a part of this that was reported back in Sept, but missed this time. In conjunction with PP being redeveloped, Mark Chipman is putting donors together for a new addictions, drop-in community centre type facility somewhere north of PP. $40M

Wasn't that facility slated to go into the North Main area? I seem to recall that a warehouse on the Disraeli Freeway was mentioned in connection with this.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by Hecate

ask yourself... what’s been going on in there over the past decade... what do you think they are planning to do with it? Even the renders allude to its lameness. Office inc... portage executive centre. WTF is that. It’s across the street from our arena and this is the best they can do. I’d rather Manitoba lotteries take control of it and turn it into a fucking casino. Every city in Canada has a proper downtown mall that works. Montreal is full of them. We can’t have one? We can’t have a proper cinema downtown? We can’t have an imax that shows films other than shitty marvel movies? If public money can go to fund the richest man in canadas fucking hockey team and his offices for billion dollar earning banks. We can use it to fund a proper fucking cinema.

I agree for the most part. Seems like every city in our size class can make some sort of downtown mall work. Rideau center is a perfect example

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by esquire

Wasn't that facility slated to go into the North Main area? I seem to recall that a warehouse on the Disraeli Freeway was mentioned in connection with this.

I had heard something about a location in Point Douglas, but I haven't seen anything about a specific location yet.

This was a great piece of news at the time. I remember thinking that if anyone could get this going, it's Chipman. I imagine, however, that there are a HUGE number of moving parts involved in creating something that benefits the patients and the community long-term. I'd love to hear an update on this, though I am guessing it will take a while to pull together.

As for feedback on the project, I am encouraged by the response from community activists so far, cautious as it is.

In the same vein, I have to feel grimly amused at some of the furious and indignant rants posted here by the usual flock of pigeons. IMO the better the project, the angrier some people get. It's as if anything that smacks of success or positivity downtown threatens to ruin their "we're so lame" narrative they seem to embrace with such passion. this In that light, Portage Place redevelopment must be a fantastic project!

Other observation: this project was no even mentioned on the CTV Winnipeg and CBC Winnipeg websites until today, two days after the initial announcement. Sure there are always other stories, but this one is pretty big for the city. Not trying to start a conspiracy or anything, I just wonder what their thinking was?

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by pspeid

I had heard something about a location in Point Douglas, but I haven't seen anything about a specific location yet.

This was a great piece of news at the time. I remember thinking that if anyone could get this going, it's Chipman. I imagine, however, that there are a HUGE number of moving parts involved in creating something that benefits the patients and the community long-term. I'd love to hear an update on this, though I am guessing it will take a while to pull together.

As for feedback on the project, I am encouraged by the response from community activists so far, cautious as it is.

In the same vein, I have to feel grimly amused at some of the furious and indignant rants posted here by the usual flock of pigeons. IMO the better the project, the angrier some people get. It's as if anything that smacks of success or positivity downtown threatens to ruin their "we're so lame" narrative they seem to embrace with such passion. this In that light, Portage Place redevelopment must be a fantastic project!

Other observation: this project was no even mentioned on the CTV Winnipeg and CBC Winnipeg websites until today, two days after the initial announcement. Sure there are always other stories, but this one is pretty big for the city. Not trying to start a conspiracy or anything, I just wonder what their thinking was?

Global somehow got the exclusive interview/info, and no details were released publicly – so any other news site reporting would be either stealing or directly sourcing and regurgitating Global.

[Jeff]

I wonder if they plan on re-branding the new and improved PP with a different moniker as well.. i had heard that the name falls with the building

[robertocarlos]

It's PP forever. I still visit Eaton's Place regularly.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Global somehow got the exclusive interview/info, and no details were released publicly – so any other news site reporting would be either stealing or directly sourcing and regurgitating Global.

I was wondering about that myself. I found it a little odd that only one media outlet had access to the story... It was certainly a front page news calibre announcement, yet Starlight gave it all to CJOB/Global.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Jeff

I wonder if they plan on re-branding the new and improved PP with a different moniker as well.. i had heard that the name falls with the building

I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't give it a new name... Why saddle yourself with a tainted brand?

[GarryEllice]

I think the plans look promising. The big positives, to me, are (1) reorienting retail to the sidewalk, (2) making the building less of a monolith, and (3) reconnecting the street grid.

A lot depends on the execution, though. Say what you will about Portage Place, but it was built pretty well. Style aside, the brick and granite on the exterior still look great 30 years later. I'm a bit nervous about getting something cheap and tacky in its place. I saw plenty of Starlight properties when I lived in Toronto and they always struck me as being on par with Timbercreek, which doesn't necessarily inspire confidence. But I hope they can pull this off.

[BAKGUY]

Originally Posted by esquire

I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't give it a new name... Why saddle yourself with a tainted brand?

I've been saying this all along. Probably something like Mid-Towne Plaza?

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by Biff

re social issues in the area.....there is a part of this that was reported back in Sept, but missed this time. In conjunction with PP being redeveloped, Mark Chipman is putting donors together for a new addictions, drop-in community centre type facility somewhere north of PP. $40M

interesting should put that into building that african cultural center

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by Biff

re social issues in the area.....there is a part of this that was reported back in Sept, but missed this time. In conjunction with PP being redeveloped, Mark Chipman is putting donors together for a new addictions, drop-in community centre type facility somewhere north of PP. $40M

The donor being the provincial government. What they want is basically another version of the Main Street Project without professional staff. It's called "non-medical" detox and it's all the rage now that governments decided they do not want to fund services.