Winnipeg | Downtown Developments & Discussions

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Maybe MMF can pry one of the lots along Main St away from their current owners. Maybe the land next at 416 Main or near the former Earls.

My personal first choice is that lot on main street. Right next to P & M, adjacent to the east Exchange, walking distance to Blue Cross Park (and a slightly longer walk to The Forks). I would think it's a natural, but then again I don't have a few $million lying around to invest in it.

[Mr Tall Forehead]

Originally Posted by neutroniks

Hopefully near the Sutton so they can show them what a real hotel is supposed to look like. Maybe the lot across from the RBC Convention Centre

I hate that parking lot. Unfortunately the brass and union for Workers Comp will never give up access to their precious, heavily subsidized surface parking.

[bomberjet]

There's 2 ways that workers comp lots gets developed.

1. They move.
2. The property is developed with a parkade for comp people, at no cost to comp.

[FactaNV]

Or - the government ignores them as they have no leverage beyond noise?

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by neutroniks

Former Earls would make sense with it being right across from one of their buildings.

a hotel would most likely be built on property they already own So the lot behind 200 Main Street, along Fort street, or along Pioneer St.

[bomberjet]

Pioneer would be a pretty sweet location.

[Biff]

Agreed, Pioneer would be a great location.

[Wpg_Guy]

• Video Link

[Wpg_Guy]

Winnipeg, police and downtown crime
By: Editorial
Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2026


MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESs fileS

Winnipeg Police Chief Gene Bowers

A safer downtown is not much use if people are still afraid to walk there.

That is the uncomfortable message from Winnipeg’s latest police citizen survey, and one city council should take seriously.

Downtown crime has fallen this year, according to the most recent police statistics. Violent crime is down even more. But for most Winnipeggers, the downtown still feels like a place to avoid, particularly after dark.

Only 44 per cent of survey respondents said they feel very or reasonably safe walking alone downtown during the day. At night, that number plunges to just eight per cent. Among women, it is an appalling three per cent, compared with 14 per cent of men.

Police Chief Gene Bowers says overall downtown crime has decreased 10 per cent year-to-date and violent crime has fallen 19 per cent.

Those are real improvements. But they are improvements from a troubling baseline, not evidence that Winnipeg has solved its downtown safety problem.

The city’s violent crime severity index was 170.06 in 2025, according to Statistics Canada. It was lower than in 2024 and 2023, but still far above the 125.98 recorded a decade earlier.

Crime can be falling and still be far too high.

Meanwhile, the survey also showed most people — 57 per cent — said Winnipeg has too few police officers. Just four per cent said there are too many.

The police service’s own staffing numbers bear out that concern.

Winnipeg had 166.8 police officers per 100,000 residents in 2025. That was slightly higher than the 164.8 recorded in 2024, but was the second-lowest ratio in the past 20 years. The peak was 210.4 officers per 100,000 in 2013.

Bowers has asked the city for more officers, including 36 additional members to staff two more cruiser cars. But so far, council has not approved that new funding (pay attention, mayoral and council candidates!).

Public safety is one of the most basic responsibilities of municipal government. That does not mean more police will solve every problem downtown. Police cannot arrest their way out of homelessness, addiction, mental illness or poverty.

The province must do more on health care, housing and social services, and Winnipeg needs to continue supporting non-police responses to people in crisis.

But those realities are not an excuse for understaffing the police service.

In fact, the survey provides another reason to strengthen it. Ninety-three per cent of respondents said a quick response to calls for service is very or extremely important. Yet only 44 per cent rated WPS excellent or good on its response time.

When officers are stretched thin, they spend more time answering calls and less time doing proactive policing.

Response queues grow, foot patrols become harder to maintain and investigations compete with emergency calls. The public sees fewer officers and wonders where they are.

City hall continues to talk about revitalizing downtown. But there is little point in approving plans to attract more people to the core if those people don’t feel safe being there.

The Downtown Community Safety Partnership and Downtown Winnipeg BIZ are doing important work. The increase in police foot patrols are crucial.

But none of it changes the central message from the survey: Winnipeggers remain deeply uneasy about downtown safety.

The objective should not be merely to produce better crime statistics. It should be to create a downtown where people actually feel safe enough to live, work, shop, visit and walk around after dark.

A safer downtown cannot remain a promise, a strategy or a statistic.

It has to be something Winnipeggers can actually feel.

Winnipeg Free Press

[pspeid]

The editorial reprinted here is, of course, one person's opinion. Aside from the usual "more must be done" vagary one often reads in editorials, plus the misleading suggestion that the police are somehow saying that Winnipeg has "solved" it's downtown crime problem, I think there's something here that deserves a closer look.

The writer claims to speak for Winnipeggers "feelings" towards downtown, and in a broad sense they probably do. What I would like to see is a "dissection", if you will, of those feelings.

What has caused those feelings of a lack of safety? Are they based on personal experience, the experiences of friends or associates, or on general perceptions?

If based upon experiences, what were they? Did just the the sight of a dishevelled person cause the anxiety, or was there some personal interaction? Did the person ask for money? Were they aggressive or passive? Was your personal safety directly threatened?

I'm sure a broad survey of people would show some "yes" answers to all these questions, but the actual proportions would be interesting to see.

My point is that many people seem to trust their "feelings", despite the fact that our feelings are often incorrect. I'm sure we can all look back on circumstances where our feelings told us someone "loved" or "hated" us, and they turned out to be completely off-base.

We can't dismiss our feelings; they tend to guide our actions, for good or ill, throughout our lives. What we can do, however, is take a moment to see if our feelings jibe with the reality around us. As it applies to the downtown, are the "feelings" the editorialist cites based on reality or perception, and what has formed those perceptions? It would be an interesting study.

[Wpg_Guy]

• Video Link

[Wpg_Guy]

The reimagined Air Canada “Window” Park integrates green infrastructure as a fundamental part of the park's environmental performance, social function, and long-term resilience.

These elements support the project's broader vision of creating an inclusive urban gathering space while responding to climate, stormwater, and ecological challenges in our urban condition.

scatliffmillermurray

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by Unbending

At first I was disappointed with the MMF walking away, because they done a great job with so many downtown buildings. But the silver lining for me in the article is that the Fort Garry hotel still has value. So many historic buildings are not worth anything and in horrible shape. Owners struggle to sell them, give them away (like the Bay), or repurpose them. Goods news is that the Fort Garry hotel continues to be desirable both locally and internationally.

I’m very happy they were outbid. Fort Garry needs a hotel specialist with deep pockets and an international flag. MMF building a new hotel would be great. I wish they would buy the Marlborough and make it a hotel again. They often used the beautiful banquet rooms for their meetings before it closed.

[Mr Tall Forehead]

I wonder if MMF considers buying the IG building and converting it to a hotel?

[Jeff]

or even that former manitoba lotteries stop sign shaped building.. ain't much going on there

[Wpg_Guy]

Winnipeg, Manitoba
Reclaiming a downtown corridor for walking, gathering, and play



Neighborhood: Downtown

Number of Interventions: 4 blocks

Installation Dates: June 30 – July 14, 2025

City-Designated Partners:
Cool Streets
Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone
CentreVenture Development Corporation
City of Winnipeg
City-Designated Artists

Artistic Director: Stéphane Dorge

Lead Artist: Takashi Iwasaki

Mural Artists: Architects at Play (Joseph Orobia, Karen Umandal), Marc Kuegle, Alex Plante, Kal Barteski, Kale Sheppard, Laura Lee Harasym, Mike Zastre, James Culleton

Square Footage of Artwork: 24,000

Cost
Design: $12,250

Labor: $77,750

Materials: $25,000

The Project
Re-imagining Graham Avenue involved a fast-paced street mural project that transformed a bus corridor into a pedestrian area, with park-like features and festival space. Eight murals, tied together by the work of a lead artist. The street murals were installed on four city blocks over a two-week period in July 2025. Colourful murals (with a palette reflecting many different partner organizations and businesses) brought to life approximately 24,000 square feet of road space, and helped temporarily transform the road into animated pedestrian space where people can walk, bike, eat and play on Graham.

Best Practice Highlight: Partnering for Success
The Re-imagining Graham project was led with partnerships in mind. It brought key stakeholders and their connections to the table to find creative ways to animate the street. This included lighting, seating, placemaking competition, street furniture, games and of course, street paint. For the street paint portion of this project, the artists worked collaboratively with a project manager, Stéphane Dorge, to guide the process, as well as and a lead artist, Takashi Iwasaki,. For such a large site, collaboration, teamwork and partnerships were crucial to doing the best with what we had.

Before:

After:


"It’s great to see a Graham Avenue that is more colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly. This funding helped us make some quick changes and take the first steps toward a long-term vision of making Graham one of downtown’s signature streets."
Mayor Scott Gillingham

"I hope that people see this project and say, ‘Yes, this makes sense, this street should be a place for people, both now and in the future.’ Downtown is worth the investment, and this project is helping people see that."
Karin Kliewer, Senior Planner, City of Winnipeg




















Bloomberg

[Mr Tall Forehead]

The guy in the plaid shirt at the picnic table in two of the pics is just desperately waiting for something to happen.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by Mr Tall Forehead

The guy in the plaid shirt at the picnic table in two of the pics is just desperately waiting for something to happen.

He's waiting to be told where to move to for the next staged shot.

[Wpg_Guy]

Winnipeg chamber chair seeks to get creative
Among goals of one-year term is to connect local businesses with arts industry, prioritize ‘high-quality public space’
Gabrielle Piché
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026


MIKE SUDOMA

Bob Somers is a principal landscape architect at Scatliff + Miller + Murray.

Could Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre tickets be the next company-wide perk?

It’s a question Bob Somers is posing. He’s slated to take the reins as Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce board chair on Oct. 1.

“There’s just such a barrier to engagement with the creative sector,” said Somers, a principal landscape architect at Scatliff + Miller + Murray.

He’s attended chamber events over the past 20 years. Many videos shown at luncheons come without local music or a credit to the filmmaker, Somers said.

He’s paying attention: he spent the late 1990s and early 2000s touring with rock bands as a bass player.

Somers is looking to boost wages in Winnipeg’s creative sector. His goal, he said, is also to connect local businesses with the arts industry.

“I anticipate it’s not going to be a one-year thing,” said Somers, whose term lasts one year. “It is, ‘How do we make it easier for the business community to … engage in the creative sector?’”

Promoting theatre tickets like season sports passes is one avenue. Recognizing artists as businesses and pulling them into the 2,000-member chamber could be another, Somers said. “Maybe this is the bassist in me — I want to just bring more instrumentation.”

Somers is also prioritizing “high-quality public space” downtown and throughout the city, in his day job and for upcoming Winnipeg chamber meetings.

Businesses named downtown and community safety as their top concern in the most recent chamber survey, said the organization’s president, Loren Remillard.

He called Somers “the perfect person in the perfect role at the perfect time.”

Somers has worked on some of Winnipeg’s most prominent landscapes, including Waterfront Drive in the Exchange District and Plaza at The Forks.

Bylaws and policies must be considered during projects, Somers said.

He got his first lesson in the back of a police car — caught skateboarding, illegally, on a St. Vital street as a youth. He’s since helped create dozens of skate parks, not all in Winnipeg.

“Skate parks are an evolution of the fact that we have a municipal bylaw that says you can’t do it anywhere else,” Somers said. “Where can public investment and public bylaws and policy shape what we want?”

There’s an “infrastructure deficit” downtown, or a lack of parks and open space, Somers added. He emphasized the importance of downtown schools.

“Bob’s practice is in creating space for people, for connection that’s inviting,” Remillard said. “That’s what we need for Winnipeg overall, but in particular, downtown.”

Somers has been president of the Manitoba Association of Landscape Architects and a director of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. He founded the Skateboard Coalition of Manitoba.

He’s wound down other board commitments to make way for his role as the Winnipeg chamber’s 133rd chair, he said.

Somers replaces Amanda Buhse, founder of candle company Coal and Canary. Buhse called her term “one of the greatest honours of my professional career.”

During her tenure, she paused her company’s candle sales to the United States. The southern country removed the de minimis exemption in July 2025, which had allowed items under US$800 to cross the border without duties.

U.S. shipments had accounted for roughly one-fifth of Coal & Canary sales, Buhse said. She’s since doubled down on the Canadian market.

Her experience helped direct the chamber’s advocacy, Remillard said. “I believe (it) shaped it to the success and benefit of the Winnipeg business community.”

Somers said he’s viewing his time as chair in the current trade landscape “nervously.”

“We’re all trying to figure out what’s happening at any one time,” Somers, 52, said. “I feel like I have a very good voice to be used … but I feel like my target might be a little bit more local.”

It seems the city and province are working together “really well,” he added.

Somers brings an intersection of business, creativity and civic thinking, Buhse said.

Sandy Chahal, chief operating officer of Lawton Partners Wealth Management, is set to become board chair for the 2027-28 term.

Winnipeg Free Press

[borkborkbork]

Best Practice Highlight: Partnering for Success
The Re-imagining Graham project was led with partnerships in mind. It brought key stakeholders and their connections to the table to find creative ways to animate the street. This included lighting, seating, placemaking competition, street furniture, games and of course, street paint. For the street paint portion of this project, the artists worked collaboratively with a project manager, Stéphane Dorge, to guide the process, as well as and a lead artist, Takashi Iwasaki,. For such a large site, collaboration, teamwork and partnerships were crucial to doing the best with what we had.

maybe the best practice highlight should be "degrease and chemically clean pavement before trying to paint a mural on it, and don't paint the mural on the hottest day of a heatwave so the paint skins".

hilariously even their repaint/touchup job was done without any surface prep and was also done on another heatwave week.

this city is the epitome of penny wise, pound foolish