Winnipeg Construction VIII

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.htm...ve=&item=19670

The Government of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg are partnering to build a 14-storey apartment complex in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, giving students, families and individuals a range of living options, Housing and Community Development Minister Peter Bjornson, Education and Advanced Learning Minister James Allum, and Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, president and vice-chancellor of UWinnipeg, said today.

“This new building will be perfectly situated to provide a home for students from a variety of backgrounds and will add new richness to the growing downtown community,” said Minister Bjornson. “It will create jobs, provide an economic boost for services in the area and build upon our partnership with UWinnipeg, which has changed the landscape of downtown Winnipeg.”

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

General public as far as I know. The announcement is going on right now. Look for more details after 1 pm.

Thx for the info, it appears like mixed use with students and thier parents as well as other low-income families and individuals. 106 in total

Forty-six apartments will have affordable rents for lower-income Manitobans, with 32 being offered on a rent-geared-to-income basis. The remaining 56 will be offered at market rents, 16 of which will be considered premium units.

Thier appears to be a link with the site for the render at Resource Space, maybe someone can login/or has an account.

LM Architectural Group will design the building, which is expected to cost $27 million.

I guess they may release a render at the news conference.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

I heard a completely unsubstantiated rumour (from a guy I overheard talking at another table in a restaurant) that Target has cancelled its plans to move into the stadium site because of its poor entry into the Canadian market, and the building will be leased to someone else or sold.
But I don't even know the guy. So take it for what it's worth.

Thanks, just quoting the JOC report, which was just updated, but you usually can take them with a grain of salt as we've learned from past reports, just passing along info.
I do agree that targets entry into the Canadian market was poor, they've said this themselves.

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I've heard from a lot of people, including myself, that Target plain sucks. Just a cleaned up version of Zellers with higher prices.

I have not set foot into a Canadain Target as of yet but from the die hard shoppers and bargain hunters in my family the've been truly dissapointed for what it's worth. I will eventually head to GP's target as it opened last week and check out what the've done with the Zellers I dropped in on occasion. Not holding my breath for being wowed.

[DancingDuck]

Originally Posted by Cyrodill

Thx for the info, it appears like mixed use with students and thier parents as well as other low-income families and individuals. 106 in total.

I think it's more for students and their kids:

"We recognize that many students are also parents with unique housing needs and, with an extremely low vacancy rate, downtown Winnipeg needs more residential options," said Dr. Axworthy.

[Biff]

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

I heard a completely unsubstantiated rumour (from a guy I overheard talking at another table in a restaurant) that Target has cancelled its plans to move into the stadium site because of its poor entry into the Canadian market, and the building will be leased to someone else or sold.
But I don't even know the guy. So take it for what it's worth.

...I'm, not sure about this at all. I just spoke to the builder (ironically over the weekend) as as far as they are concerned it hasn't missed a beat construction wise and is still going strong. I don't think I have heard of a company spending $25 to $30 million on a new building and walking away half built - not in Winnipeg anyways. I think a lot of the doom and gloom surrounding Target is entirely overblown by the media. Sure they didn't meet their expectations in entering the market, but they do have a business plan for the expansion and I can guarantee you it wasn't 6 months in duration.

Target will be fine. They will re-tool their approach and perform much better in the coming years when they roll out more SuperTarget format stores to compete with Wal-Mart SuperCentres.

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I've heard from a lot of people, including myself, that Target plain sucks. Just a cleaned up version of Zellers with higher prices.

Target doesn't suck.

People just have unrealistic expectations thinking that the prices and product lines should be identical to Target locations in the US.

People were saying the same thing about Walmart when they took over the Woolco leases and eventually the hatred went away.

[1ajs]

they did a shit job in the cdn market and killed the brand here.

on another note anyone seen the crane on edmonton....

[esquire]

Originally Posted by h0twired

Target doesn't suck.

People just have unrealistic expectations thinking that the prices and product lines should be identical to Target locations in the US.

People were saying the same thing about Walmart when they took over the Woolco leases and eventually the hatred went away.

+1

Did people seriously expect US pricing to appear all of a sudden in Canada?

Besides, the merch is more or less the same as in the US stores... I can now get my favourite Archer Farms products and inexpensive C9 gear to run around the gym in. I'm a happy camper... I wonder what others were expecting?

I agree that they did a bad job stocking the shelves at the outset, but they've been doing better. Still, at the end of the day it's only a discount department store, but it's far better than Zellers was. I highly doubt they're backing out of the Canadian market on the basis of a shaky first year.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by DancingDuck

I think it's more for students and their kids:

"We recognize that many students are also parents with unique housing needs and, with an extremely low vacancy rate, downtown Winnipeg needs more residential options," said Dr. Axworthy.

I think the complex would be open to anyone (low income, or higher), but the expectation is that many students will live here. However, the building will not be operated by the UW apparently, so it will not be a UW residence per se.

I wonder who they imagine will live in the 16 "premium" units?

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

I think the complex would be open to anyone (low income, or higher), but the expectation is that many students will live here. However, the building will not be operated by the UW apparently, so it will not be a UW residence per se.

I wonder who they imagine will live in the 16 "premium" units?

I could see the U of W keeping a few for themselves to house guest professors and lecturers.

[Authentic_City]

From UW webpage:

[Biff]

Originally Posted by esquire

I highly doubt they're backing out of the Canadian market on the basis of a shaky first year.

This is the funny part - they are not even a year in, the first stores opened in May (not even 7 months ago). I would bet they have a minimum 5 year business plan to effectively evaluate their progress. The thought that any company would consider backing out of anything after only 7 months is laughable and likely shouldn't be in business to begin with - let alone one of the heavy weights in the retail landscape in North America.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by DancingDuck

I think it's more for students and their kids:

"We recognize that many students are also parents with unique housing needs and, with an extremely low vacancy rate, downtown Winnipeg needs more residential options," said Dr. Axworthy.

Yes this looks like the case, Students(with kids), aka: Parents, would be looked at 1st and foremost for affordable housing as they would most likely need assistance from the gov't.

We're re-wording the quotes and are talkin about the same thing..

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

From UW webpage:

Nice. I'm not surprised that it doesn't look terribly fancy, but it should be a nice addition by adding more people to the area and filling in one of the only surface parking lots in the immediate area.

It's always good to see a little more height along Portage Avenue.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

From UW webpage:

Hard to tell from the render,(thx. for posting it), but doesn't it seem similiar to the Buhler Centre, in the sense of the little wings, exterior cladding, color? Not trying to be negative and I'm happy to see this go ahead and realize they do want to meld the 2 buildings into a cohesive unit, and look, but I was never to enamored with the look of the buhler centre?

Oh well, It is what it is. Good news though.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by BubberMiley

I heard a completely unsubstantiated rumour (from a guy I overheard talking at another table in a restaurant) that Target has cancelled its plans to move into the stadium site...

Target would be looking at a huge penalty to walk away from that store. Their lease acquisitions from Zeller's included the Polo Park mall location which had a really dollar value for revenue attached. The company that owns the building and leases it out is the same one developing the old stadium site. Target struck some deal that ended the lease in the mall on mutually agreeable terms, with the landlord likely receiving a longer lease term for the newly built store.

This "rumor" lacks all substance as the Polo Park store is shaping up to be the a) the first newly built Target store in Canada, b) the first urban-format store in Canada and c) the first Super Target to open in Canada. The Polo Park location has all the markings of being the earliest of Target's flagship stores in Canada.

Originally Posted by h0twired

Target doesn't suck.

People just have unrealistic expectations thinking that the prices and product lines should be identical to Target locations in the US.

Exactly this. I know some people I talked with thought that Target opening in Canada meant that all the groceries you can only buy in the states would show up here too. The reality that the inventory, at least initially, is not vastly different from Zeller's is not shocking. Just because the stores were renovated doesn't mean the whole supply chain changed overnight too.

[1ajs]

can we move the target talk to the retail thread

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

+1

Did people seriously expect US pricing to appear all of a sudden in Canada?

Besides, the merch is more or less the same as in the US stores... I can now get my favourite Archer Farms products and inexpensive C9 gear to run around the gym in. I'm a happy camper... I wonder what others were expecting?

I agree that they did a bad job stocking the shelves at the outset, but they've been doing better. Still, at the end of the day it's only a discount department store, but it's far better than Zellers was. I highly doubt they're backing out of the Canadian market on the basis of a shaky first year.

I've seen a lot items priced the same in Canada and at the US stores, layout of the stores is almost identical and the items carried is almost identical, really don't know what the problem is, if you don't like the store don't shop there as you said.

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by esquire

Great news! That will be right behind the Buhler Centre on Portage.
I wonder if it will be designed by the same architects (DIN, iirc) and built in the same style?

I guess it would be put where that parkade is right now?

Edit: Just saw the pic on another post. Yes it is.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

I guess it would be put where that parkade is right now?

No parkade, just a surface parking lot. Between Buhler and the WAG.

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

No parkade, just a surface parking lot. Between Buhler and the WAG.

yep, i meant surface parking lot.