Winnipeg Construction XI

[Wpg_Guy]

[Wpg_Guy]

This article features housing built under the Small Lots for Affordable Housing program which is a City of Winnipeg initiative under the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, delivered through the City’s Land Enhancement Office. It makes selected small or vacant City-owned residential lots available for $1 to approved developers (prioritizing non-profits and Indigenous groups) to build 1–4 units of “missing middle” affordable housing. The initiative aims to turn underused lots into new rental, homeownership, or supportive housing, revitalize neighbourhoods, and expand affordable options while encouraging innovative, energy-efficient construction methods.

These were the projects selected under the first EOI:

An eroding Winnipeg neighbourhood looks to new foundations
By: Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
Sunday, Jul. 26, 2026


Jesse Bettcher stands in front of his new home in Winnipeg's north end near Pritchard Avenue, on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Bettcher'shome was infill built on the site of a vacant lot. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Corneau

WINNIPEG – The lot Jesse Bettcher lives on in Winnipeg’s north end used to be a pile of burnt rubble. Same with the one next door. And the one across the street.

But he’s now the proud owner of a two-storey house with blue-grey siding and white trim, so new the orange construction fencing is still out front.

It’s a dream home for Bettcher, and the latest hope for a city seeking to knock down, clean up and revitalize neighbourhoods that have seen hundreds of homes left vacant, leading to safety hazards and worries about the future.

He bought the house as part of a pilot project aimed at creating affordable home ownership. It let him and his family move out of a rental that he said was falling apart.

“It’s surreal, it’s like an Airbnb almost,” said Bettcher, standing on the dirt of his front yard.

The head of a neighbourhood association in Winnipeg’s north end says a pilot project is aiming to help turn around a trend of rising vacant and abandoned houses. Darrell Warren, president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association, says the new house on what was a vacant lot is hopefully the first of many as part of an effort to show residents that change is possible.

He said that with a credit score below 500 he had a lot of help, including from a provincial credit union, to buy. What the family used to pay in rent, they now use for a mortgage, money effectively passed on to the next generation.

“It’s not for me,” he said. “It’s for the kids.”

The city sold the lot to Purpose Construction for a dollar. One of the first projects was Bettcher’s house. Another is the one across the street from him, which has been cleared and getting ready for construction.

There has also been money from the province, and advocacy from local leaders such as Warren.

“If people see new houses built on these lots, they’ll notice the change, and that gives people living here hope,” said Warren.

He has been pushing for the program to reverse the growing number of derelict properties that risk making more people leave.

“If you just keep seeing boarded-up derelict property, you’re going to think ‘Well, I don’t want to live there,'” said Warren.

People in William Whyte do see a lot of those properties. The neighbourhood has about 300 boarded-up buildings or empty lots. That is up from 60 when Warren began working on the issue in 2017.

That makes for a little over one in 10 properties in the neighbourhood that spans six by nine blocks, and accounts for a sizable proportion of the 800-plus vacant buildings in Winnipeg.

Vacant buildings have been a growing concern in the city as a combination of a flight to the suburbs, aging inner-city housing and challenges with poverty and substance abuse make the problem worse, creating concerns for local residents.

“Where my mind goes — a lot — is to the kids,” said Tracy McKenzie, standing at the corner of the Pritchard playground, which was bustling with children one recent evening.

She said she worries about the young people who are tempted to explore the vacant houses. A house across the street from her was deemed a drug den before it burned down.

“There’s so many things you have to be worried about happening within the houses, and all the fires that are happening,” she said.

Fires are not only dangerous, but costly. In 2024, the city says it spent $14.5 million fighting 232 fires in the William Whyte neighbourhood.

A few blocks from the park, past many manicured lawns, flower beds and a community garden in a vacant lot, stands what Warren calls his nightmare property. It’s a row of three houses, all owned by the same landlord, that have together seen 12 fires in the last three years. A few months ago, one of those fires also burned down the garage of a neighbouring house where a family lives, he said.

“There’s always a chance your house can go, right? What’s it gonna take, like maybe somebody’s life, before we actually act on this stuff?”

The growing issue has led the city to ramp up enforcement tools. It has hiked the tax on vacant properties, added more inspections and imposed stricter rules on boarding up homes.

Winnipeg has also begun seizing 48 properties without compensation from negligent landlords and has changed the rules to make the process faster.

Most recently, the city has begun taking applications for $35,000 grants to help renovate vacant buildings and turn them back into houses.

“We’re trying to … match the sticks with the carrots, or provide some incentives alongside enforcement,” said Emma Fineblit, the city’s co-ordinator for neighbourhood revitalization.

She said that while the city has been focusing on building new affordable housing, refurbishing old ones can add units at a lower cost. Reducing the number of vacant lots can also create broader social and safety benefits.

Warren is still holding out hope that the neighbourhood can be renewed. As someone who has spent all of his 65 years there, he remembers when people sat on their doorsteps, visited and watched out for one another.

“I remember how beautiful the neighbourhood was, and how viable the neighbourhood was and everything else,” he said.

“I believe we can get back there.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2026.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story that supersedes an earlier version. An earlier version said a house was built by Purpose Construction along with Step Up Construction and Build Inc. It was built only by Purpose Construction.

Winnipeg Free Press

[Wpg_Guy]

North End Women's Centre - 390 & 394 Selkirk Ave.

Cash injection will help women’s centre grow
Serves nearly twice as many people as it did five years ago
Malak Abas
Monday, Jul. 27, 2026


MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine announces new funding for the North End Women’s Centre on Monday.

Janice Lavellee grew up in a large family rife with substance abuse and domestic violence. She ran away from home at age 14.

When she found the North End Women’s Centre, it was a godsend.

“I never knew the North End Women’s Centre was there, because I never knew where to get help,” she said.

After having a child at 16, Lavellee said the centre gave her a job on the weekends. It was a stepping stone to finishing high school, and she later returned to the centre to work as a receptionist for 27 years before recently retiring.

She credits that time for helping her find her way.

Soon, new housing and expanded services at the Selkirk Avenue centre will give more women a chance to find their own paths.

“(This) was the place where I first began my healing, my healing journey,” Lavellee said. “The new building in this community will be a bigger and safer place for all women to start their healing journey, for them and their children.”

The centre just received $459,000 in additional funding from the provincial government for the planned expansion of its 5,940 square foot building into a 19,815 square foot space, creating eight new transitional housing units for women and doubling the size of its drop-in space.

The expansion, seven years in the making, comes at a time of great need, said Cynthia Drebot, the centre’s executive director. Five years ago, about 70 women and gender-diverse people walked through the doors at 394 Selkirk Avenue on any given day. Now, it serves about 120 people a day, from the North End and beyond, who are looking for shelter, resources and, at times, an escape from gender-based violence.

“This block is a block where missing and murdered Indigenous women are often last seen. Actually, the corner of Selkirk (Avenue) and Salter (Street), which is right where we are,” Drebot said after the funding was announced Monday.

“The more we can have safe spaces right around this area, people will have safe spaces to be, safe spaces to be leads to safe housing, safe housing leads to overall safety for women and families.”

The existing building will remain, but it will be attached to a new building constructed in the current parking lot area.

Drebot said the $20-million project is about 75 per cent funded and the centre will kick off its final round of fundraising in September. Preparation of the construction site will start later this year.

Last year, the project was named one of the recipients of the City of Winnipeg’s housing grant program, which distributes money from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

Monday’s announcement brings the province’s contribution to the project up to $1.34 million, through Mino’Ayaawag Ikwewag, a $20-million provincial strategy for projects that support Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the investment is part of a plan to refresh funding for long-standing non-profits that may be struggling to help the number of people they’re seeing.

“There are a lot of capital projects taking place in Manitoba because the infrastructure, as it exists right now, isn’t keeping up to the need, and so we’re doing all of that work to be able to build that infrastructure across the province,” she said.

The North End Women’s Centre was first established in 1984 — the inner city’s longest-running women’s resource organization. It operates a treatment and transitional housing program for women seeking recovery from addictions and the Up Shoppe, a thrift store that churns revenue back into programming.

Selkirk Avenue has long been a hub for housing supports, including Merchants Corner, two buildings of affordable housing on Selkirk and Pritchard Avenue that opened in 2018, but it has also been the site of unstable and unsafe housing.

In April, senior residents of the rent-geared-to-income suites at the Canadian Polish Manor on Selkirk Avenue told the Free Press they had been forced to barricade their suites due to rampant drug use and violent incidents in the building.

Brandon Thomas said he has witnessed more than one altercation on Selkirk Avenue while on his way to or from his job at a cannabis dispensary.

“I drive home around 7:30-ish every evening, and then just the amount of violence I see toward women, just driving home, is crazy,” he said Monday.

He said the North End Women’s Centre, just a few doors down from the dispensary, is a force for good in the neighbourhood.

“The women next door, they take care of everybody,” he said. “They’ll come out, they’ll bring water, food, they call the ambulance.”

Safe housing, especially for women, is not always easy to come by in the neighbourhood, said Selkirk Avenue resident Xavier Duncan.

He said more affordable housing means fewer people living on the street and a safer community overall.

“It’s just another piece in the puzzle that we all need. It will benefit everyone,” Duncan said.

“And I definitely do think it should be more women-focused too, because women are the more vulnerable people in this area, and usually I see women who need help more in this area, for sure.”
Free Press

North End Women’s Centre gets $459K to expand transitional housing program
'There's so many beautiful things that are going to happen': women's centre executive director
CBC News · Posted: Jul 27, 2026


The North End Women's Centre as it currently looks on Selkirk Avenue in Winnipeg. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Plans by the North End Women’s Centre to expand, modernize and add transitional housing are getting a $459,000 boost from the province.

The money will help will create eight new transitional housing units and expand counselling, parenting supports including skills programming, and "other wraparound supports that help women not only survive but thrive," Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said during a funding announcement Monday at the Selkirk Avenue women's centre.

The expansion plans will enlarge the existing 5,940-square-foot building into a 19,815-square-foot facility.

"For over 40 years, the North End Women's Centre has walked alongside women through some of the most difficult times," said Cynthia Drebot, the executive director for the women's centre.

"Every day we witness incredible resilience … but every day we also see the limits of what our current building can provide because we're outgrowing the space."

The planned Selkirk Avenue development will double the size of the agency’s existing drop-in and transitional housing space, "allowing them to welcome more women who deserve the opportunity to rebuild their lives," Fontaine said.

There's so many beautiful things that are going to happen," said Drebot.

"The voices, experiences, needs and hopes of women we will support through this building will go on for generations."

This funding brings the total support from the province of Manitoba to $1.34 million, funded through the province's Mino'Ayaawag Ikwewag — or "all women doing well" — strategy, which aims to create a network of support for Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

"Our Mino'Ayaawag Ikwewag strategy recognizes the empowerment and liberation of Indigenous women requires more than just responding perpetually to crisis," Fontaine said.

"It's about doing that work upstream and to prevent that crisis."
CBC News

[rkspec]

i recall reading a year or 2 ago that a new strip mall would be going up across the street from the shoppers on Concordia. Is this the final decision of whats going there?

I also see this week starts construction of a new multiuse pathway along the South boulevard of Concordia Ave.

What a construction traffic nightmare this will be for some time.

[bomberjet]

I haven't heard anything more on the strip mall. I assume that's still the plan.

They started the pathway work on London north of Concordia, next to the high school. I assume to get that portion done before back to school. The rest of the path along Concordia from Gateway to Moncton near Pizza Hotline will be much less of a disturbance. Access form the backlane and down the corridor where the future EB lanes would be.

I'm still waiting for the water main renewal on Munroe to get started. Likely will be fall time project. THAT will be a traffic nightmare as I assume they'll close to WB traffic from near Louelda through to Grey. The street is to be rehabed next year as well. So I'm assuming, again, they'll leave the surface rehab work usually done as part of the water main work until next year to be done at same time as the road renewal work.

Re: pathways. They've been working on the new pathway along Lag near Reenders as part of the overpass rehab project. There will also be new pathway connection on Condcoria from Molson to Peguis. A lot of pathway work in that Concordia area, sure is nice.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by rkspec

i recall reading a year or 2 ago that a new strip mall would be going up across the street from the shoppers on Concordia. Is this the final decision of whats going there?

I also see this week starts construction of a new multiuse pathway along the South boulevard of Concordia Ave.

What a construction traffic nightmare this will be for some time.

Back on April 26 2026 Ray Wan on behalf of the owners had requested from the local community committee, an extension in time of the zoning change to take effect for the lot until June 2027 to allow the registration of the required paperwork with the Winnipeg Land Titles Office.

I wonder if the work going on is part of the drainage upgrades for the overpass project and the Ray Wan lot is just being used as a lay down area by the drainage contractor?

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by rkspec

i recall reading a year or 2 ago that a new strip mall would be going up across the street from the shoppers on Concordia. Is this the final decision of whats going there?

I also see this week starts construction of a new multiuse pathway along the South boulevard of Concordia Ave.

What a construction traffic nightmare this will be for some time.

Is this the lot you're referring to?



Molson & Concordia Mixed-Use
Location: Southeast Corner of Molson Street and Concordia Avenue
Neighbourhood: Kildonan Drive - Elmwood-East Kildonan Ward (East Kildonan-Transcona Community Committee)
Developers:
Architect: Raymond S.C. Wan Architect
Status: Extension of Time-April 24, 2026

• On April 9, 2026, the Applicant, Raymond S.C. Wan Architect, applied for an Extension of Time application and requested that the time limit to satisfy the Coming into Force provisions of By-law No. 28/2023 be extended to June 22, 2027 in order to complete the required registrations.

Documents: Rezoning-February 14, 2023
Media: -
Description: The applicant proposes a six-storey mixed-use building on the subject property, featuring a 4,450 sq. ft. commercial unit on the ground floor along Concordia Avenue and 60 residential units across the upper five floors. The development includes 77 surface parking spaces located under, behind, and beside the building, with access provided via two approaches on Molson Street and Concordia Avenue. The design is well-executed, with a street-oriented commercial entrance, ample ground-floor windows, screened underbuilding parking with decorative fencing and landscaping, and articulated upper elevations through varied wall planes, rooflines, balconies, window placements, and facade materials. The west elevation facing Molson Street includes windows, balconies, and an exit door to enhance street engagement.

[bomberjet]

I guess its not much of a strip mall then lol

[Wpg_Guy]

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Having street-level businesses as part of our multi-family builds does something pretty magnificent for the community.⁠
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The bagel shop gets more customers. Residents have a go-to coffee spot. Maybe you finally meet the neighbour in 202 while you're both grabbing breakfast.⁠
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That's what turns a building into a community.⁠
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When we build multi-family projects, we want them to succeed for everyone—the developer, the businesses, and the people who call them home.

Pre Con Builders

[Wpg_Guy]

Great apartment buildings aren't just about the units—they're about the lifestyle.⁠
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These shared green spaces were designed to bring people together, giving residents a place to relax, connect, and enjoy the outdoors just steps from home.⁠
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It's a detail that benefits everyone. Residents get a better living experience, while developers and investors benefit from a property that stands out, attracts quality tenants, and supports long-term occupancy.⁠
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At Pre-Con Builders, we believe thoughtful construction goes beyond the building itself. We build places where people want to live.

Pre Con Builders

[cllew]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I guess its not much of a strip mall then lol

This was the original C2 zoning proposal that was approved in 2018.

https://dmis.winnipeg.ca/DownloadMeeting...Molson%20Street%20-%20DAZ%20222_2017.pdf

Apparently it lapsed because a strip mall (even with 3 proposed restaurant units) was not feasible to pay the site servicing costs.

The owners came back in early 2023 with the 6 story mixed use proposal which apparently could pay the costs.

[rkspec]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Re: pathways

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by cllew

This was the original C2 zoning proposal that was approved in 2018.

https://dmis.winnipeg.ca/DownloadMeeting...Molson%20Street%20-%20DAZ%20222_2017.pdf

Apparently it lapsed because a strip mall (even with 3 proposed restaurant units) was not feasible to pay the site servicing costs.

The owners came back in early 2023 with the 6 story mixed use proposal which apparently could pay the costs.

Ah, thanks. The new proposal is much better. Even the site layout of the previous proposal is questionable. Both have access from basically the right turn cut-off which is not the greatest. Have there be any plans released for the rest of the property in that corner?

Originally Posted by rkspec

[cllew]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Ah, thanks. The new proposal is much better. Even the site layout of the previous proposal is questionable. Both have access from basically the right turn cut-off which is not the greatest. Have there be any plans released for the rest of the property in that corner?

Not that I am aware of. I don't know if its the same owner for the rest of the property. This development I think is from the people behind Marwest Management.

[WayneShuster]

Is there any kind if SOP with regards to posting photos on this site? I have zero clue how to do that here, which seems like it's really complicated.

[wags_in_the_peg]

The Forge - my daughter dragged me their Easter weeken, was supper supper yummy, but my bill was $62 for 3 bagel sandwiches. They did have perogies & onlons on them, other had peamal bacon.

[neutroniks]

Forge Bagels are decent, but heelllaaa over priced.

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by cllew

Not that I am aware of. I don't know if its the same owner for the rest of the property. This development I think is from the people behind Marwest Management.

Its antiquated af. You have to upload to somewhere like imgur and imbed the url in a bb code.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by WayneShuster

Is there any kind if SOP with regards to posting photos on this site? I have zero clue how to do that here, which seems like it's really complicated.

pos the image URL with these codes:

[IMG]imageurl.jpeg[/IMG]

[Wpg_Guy]

Homes For Heroes Village - Renderings.

Sod turned on new housing development for veterans
Charles Lefebvre
Published: July 29, 2026 at 4:44PM EDT

A new housing development for veterans in Winnipeg took another step towards construction on Wednesday.

The Homes for Heroes Foundation officially held a sod turning at the site of the future Winnipeg Kinsmen Veterans Village.

“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re going to have shovels in the ground here officially, probably within the next two or three weeks,” said Brad Field, president and CEO of the foundation.

The housing development will be built on Transcona Boulevard, and will feature 25 small homes for veterans in Manitoba who are experiencing homelessness.

“It’s a supportive program where we have on-site caseworkers helping assist our veterans with mental health issues, addiction issues, job placement, everything they need to reintegrate back into society,” Field said.

The goal is to have the homes completed later this year, the foundation said.

Similar spaces have been built in Edmonton, Calgary and Kingston.

CTV News Winnipeg