Winnipeg | St. Boniface | Water Tower District

[pegcity]

Re:Water Tower
I hope they clean it up a bit, maybe paint it and maybe add some lights or spotlights.

[Spocket]

Originally Posted by pegcity

Re:Water Tower
I hope they clean it up a bit, maybe paint it and maybe add some lights or spotlights.

If they're saving it, it's a feature. They'll definitely do something to highlight its prominence in the development.

[Mr Tall Forehead]

LED lights shaped as an arrow pointing at the rendering plant across the road?

<———-

[pegster]

I'm glad they are saving the water tower, though I wonder if in refurbishing it, they'll leave the "Union Stock Yards" lettering. I love it, but I'm not sure if everyone in their new suburban development is going to want to think about Upton Sinclair's The Jungle when they are moving in.

[Wpg_Guy]

A sense of identity’: Future plans unveiled for iconic St. Boniface water tower
Daniel Halmarson
May 06, 2026

A new housing project in St. Boniface will start taking shape in the next year, and an iconic landmark will remain at the centre of the development.

The Water Tower District is a mixed-use development with plans for up to 2,800 housing units, retail and restaurants, and green space sprinkled throughout 165 acres bordered by Marion Street, Archibald Street, and Dawson Road.

“In the next 12 months, you’ll start to see buildings starting to come out of the ground,” Robert Scaletta, a senior vice-president at Shindico Realty, told CTV News. “They’ve got a few groups ready to start construction at the end of this year, and by next year, you’ll probably have about 700 multi-family units start up.”


The development is being built on the former Union Stockyards, which initially opened in 1913 with enough room for 450 railcars of livestock. The yard closed in 1988, but the site’s 90-foot-tall water tower still stands in its spot as a looming reminder of Union Stockyard’s importance to the area’s history and growth.

“It was the largest meatpacking facility in the British Empire,” Cindy Tugwell, Heritage Winnipeg’s executive director, told CTV News. “That water tower was primarily for fire protection.”

A new report at City Hall indicates the tower will be dismantled and relocated, but Scaletta said the structure won’t be moving far.

“We’re going to put it on one of the parks,” Scaletta explained. “Light it up, restore it as much as we possibly can.”


Tugwell said saving the tower is worth celebrating, especially because it doesn’t have historic designation.

“This is a really positive milestone for the city to show that a private developer is doing this large new development but is respecting the history of the area,” Tugwell said.

She said the tower will continue to serve as a reminder of St. Boniface’s past and as a landmark for the people who will soon call the neighbourhood home.

“It gives you a sense of place, it gives you a sense of identity,” Tugwell said. “And I think, for this new development, it will give it character.”

CTV News Winnipeg

[WayneShuster]

Part of me is getting really excited about this project.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by WayneShuster

Part of me is getting really excited about this project.

Me too, until Sindico started advertising the retail, prioritizes walkability, what a joke.

Premier Retail Leasing Opportunity in Winnipeg's Newest Mixed-Use Development

Anchor your brand at the Water Tower District's 14.34-acre best-in-class retail hub, offering 150,000+ SF of on-site retail across two phases at the southeast corner of Marion Street and Archibald Street. The development features high-visibility pad sites, drive-thru opportunities, and CRU space purpose-built for flagship and service-oriented tenants, with a modern urban design that prioritizes walkability, tenant exposure, and customer convenience.

The retail hub sits at the heart of a 165-acre master-planned community transforming a former industrial site into a vibrant transit-oriented neighbourhood. Retailers will benefit from a substantial built-in customer base: 2,800+ new residential units are planned within the district, with construction on the first multifamily buildings scheduled to begin in Fall 2026. This on-site population — combined with a sophisticated surrounding trade area, a significant daytime workforce, and 22 acres of integrated parkland and public space — delivers a captive, walkable customer base layered on top of an established high-density catchment.

Ideally located on the east side of St. Boniface, Winnipeg's French cultural heart, the Water Tower District is approximately 4 kilometres from downtown Winnipeg and less than 3 kilometres from St. Boniface General Hospital — Manitoba's second-largest hospital. The site offers excellent connectivity via two points of signalized access and egress: a controlled intersection at Marion Street and Paulette Duguay Street, and direct access to Highway 59 (Lagimodiere Boulevard) through Speers Road. Eight transit stops are in development across the district, reinforcing its position as a true transit-oriented destination.
Shindico Realty Inc.

[WayneShuster]

Well, there goes much of my excitement.

[Mr Tall Forehead]

It’ll end up looking like the drek Shitico has been building along Taylor, except the apartment buildings won’t be as nice here.

With their involvement nobody should complain that the Stadium redevelopment and Polo Park residential isn’t happening fast enough.

[bomberjet]

They've added some sidewalks through the parking lot. Old Sandy is sweating bullets at the thought of it. The extra expense must be advertised.

The by prioritzing walkability, they've allowed for 6 drive thrus lmao.

[Biff]

So I think we all assumed that the retail portion of this development would look something like this. What I can't figure out is why Shindico couldn't look at what they have done in Sage Creek and Waverley West. I know many still bash those as car centric developments but I feel they have done a decent job of putting lipstick on a pig. Both developments have their commercial fronting the streets with the parking lots in the back. They definitely appear like high streets when you enter those neighbourhoods. I know they are not real, but it at least looks like they tried.

If Shindico would just put those building along Paulette Duguay St along the sidewalks instead of the middle of the parking lots it would visually make a better impact.

[EdwardTH]

^ Sage creek and WW are slight improvements, at least there are sidewalks on the "high street". Pisses me off so much that we're still building crap like Taylor & Seasons. Apartments right next door to amenities, but no actual way to walk to the businesses next door without cutting across lawns and curbs and walking on the street, wtf.

[bomberjet]

Sage Creek has the best retail node of all the new developments. It's just positioned right at the exit off the highway. So not the best walking environment and 'in the back' its just a big parking lot. The stretch along Burning Glass Road is decent though, now that the residential part is filled up.

Again it's the walkable label. Is it better than previous suburb developments, probably. But there's still shit loads of walking on the street. Ther's a least catwalks to connect some of the bays together. But we had things like thats in the 70's.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

They've added some sidewalks through the parking lot. Old Sandy is sweating bullets at the thought of it.

Can't imagine a time that man isn't sweating bullets.

Can imagine there'll be a traffic clusterfuck at Marion and Archibald with so much drive-in retail

[wags_in_the_peg]

do any of you spend time in this area? it's literally a cow's asshole right now and has been for many many decades. I've lived the St. B area (Southdale / Windsor Park / Norwood) for all of my 50+ years. having what is above will blow my mind up if it ends up looking 50% as good as that. if you want a utopian world where there's no cars and people jogging & cycling everywhere you are smoking some really low grade crack. crap on shindico or whatever developer you want, but this is great if it happens

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by Biff

So I think we all assumed that the retail portion of this development would look something like this. What I can't figure out is why Shindico couldn't look at what they have done in Sage Creek and Waverley West. I know many still bash those as car centric developments but I feel they have done a decent job of putting lipstick on a pig. Both developments have their commercial fronting the streets with the parking lots in the back. They definitely appear like high streets when you enter those neighbourhoods. I know they are not real, but it at least looks like they tried.

If Shindico would just put those building along Paulette Duguay St along the sidewalks instead of the middle of the parking lots it would visually make a better impact.

agreed. The retail could have been integrated into the neighbourhood. A development where 70% of the land is for parking cars sucks. We all knew it was coming...a community designed to be walkable....from your car.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

do any of you spend time in this area? it's literally a cow's asshole right now and has been for many many decades. I've lived the St. B area (Southdale / Windsor Park / Norwood) for all of my 50+ years. having what is above will blow my mind up if it ends up looking 50% as good as that. if you want a utopian world where there's no cars and people jogging & cycling everywhere you are smoking some really low grade crack. crap on shindico or whatever developer you want, but this is great if it happens

Maybe youre the one smoking the crack?

50% of the most basic strip mall developments will blow your mind?? Pretty low bar. That area will continue to be cow's asshole. Next to the rendering plant, asphalt plant, car depot. Shall I go on.

The point being this "walkable neighbourhood" is just more of the same old, lame ass shitbeing framed as progressive to make a buck. Same old story.

[WayneShuster]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Maybe youre the one smoking the crack?

50% of the most basic strip mall developments will blow your mind?? Pretty low bar. That area will continue to be cow's asshole. Next to the rendering plant, asphalt plant, car depot. Shall I go on.

The point being this "walkable neighbourhood" is just more of the same old, lame ass shitbeing framed as progressive to make a buck. Same old story.

That immediate are of Sainte Boniface in poor shape? Yes, but he has made out all of Sainte Boniface to be a cow's asshole, which it surely is not. The opposite in fact.

[ColdRain&Snow]

Originally Posted by EdwardTH

^ Sage creek and WW are slight improvements, at least there are sidewalks on the "high street". Pisses me off so much that we're still building crap like Taylor & Seasons. Apartments right next door to amenities, but no actual way to walk to the businesses next door without cutting across lawns and curbs and walking on the street, wtf.

Yeah I completely agree. Sage Creek and Bridgwater are very suburban, but at least a couple hundred people can live in an apartment building and walk to close-by businesses. The development on Taylor Ave and the Outlet Mall seem like they're from the 1970's.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by WayneShuster

That immediate are of Sainte Boniface in poor shape? Yes, but he has made out all of Sainte Boniface to be a cow's asshole, which it surely is not. The opposite in fact.

That stretch of Marion is a bleak, aged industrial area. Will this development improve that? Of course. But this isn't some utopian dream as wags mentioned. It's more of how things are framed, than what is actually being proposed. I do expect new developments to be more progressive than this run of the mill commercial zone.

Bockstaerl's new office is going up across the street, so that will help a bit as well. On that note, has the design there been downgraded significantly??