I have often fantasized about placing that exact building from Michigan Ave somewhere along Main or in the Exchange. In person the building seems to be in perfect scale to its surroundings and works wonderfully.
I also dig the recent Fortune Block work. Now I'm just waiting patiently to learn of these other mysterious downtown developments we've been teased with, ha. It's a pretty exciting time to be in Winnipeg.
So SkipTheDishes has now passed 2,000 office employees in Winnipeg. For those not keeping track, they were just over 900 last November... and are expecting to be over 2,500 by the end of 2018. They've almost maxed out their recently acquired space in the G3 building, and are now spread out over 4 different buildings in the Exchange.
The reason for their fast growth is that now their IP is the engine driving many food delivery platforms all over the world that Just Eat has acquired – any of them that offer in-house delivery... This includes the biggest apps in Brazil, Chile, Australia, the UK...adding more all the time.
All that said... I've heard from the top that The Bay is still on the table. Not sure if they're connected to the group making rumblings over the last month.
So SkipTheDishes has now passed 2,000 office employees in Winnipeg. For those not keeping track, they were just over 900 last November... and are expecting to be over 2,500 by the end of 2018. They've almost maxed out their recently acquired space in the G3 building, and are now spread out over 4 different buildings in the Exchange.
The reason for their fast growth is that now their IP is the engine driving many food delivery platforms all over the world that Just Eat has acquired – any of them that offer in-house delivery... This includes the biggest apps in Brazil, Chile, Australia, the UK...adding more all the time.
All that said... I've heard from the top that The Bay is still on the table. Not sure if they're connected to the group making rumblings over the last month.
that is great news. helps to understand that Skip will likely remain a strong company even though they may lose market share to Uber, which is something I have been worrying about. I hope they continue to grow and diversify.
I've heard Uber hasn't really made a dent yet. But yeah, essentially any time these international services have a client or customer call, it comes here. They're bringing in more people that speak other languages to handle this now as well. It's honestly not hard to imagine them being 4-5k people in 2 years which is insane. I have a friend who started there just over 3 years ago, he was employee 35.
I know someone doing hiring for Investors Group IG Wealth Management Call Centre. Says like 50% of applicants are Skip the Dishes employees. Skip call centre there is 24 hours so many find the hours difficult.
Speaking of which IG Call centre staff are moving out of the portage place offices and back to the main building. Layoffs has opened up space and Staff working til 8 in the evening don't feel safe at the mall.
With the upcoming off tenant shifts to True North Square there is not a chance anyone like Skip moves into the Bay building. There is going to be too much office space available on the relatively cheap that aren't going to require the massive renovation the Bay would. It is why the Bay building keeps coming up as a possible office site but noting ever comes from it.
My understanding is, at a basic level, the Bay building would require complete gut of the existing floor(s) for the renovation than essentially net new construction but with the additional constraints of having to work within an old building with heritage status attached. Even once you get past all that the floor plates mean the majority of the space will be far away from any windows which is not the most ideal office setup.
The large volume of space away from windows would seemingly be a great fit for a large data centre. The elevation of the higher floors also make physical access more challenging which is desirable in terms of data centres. Add in the relatively cheap electrical rates here.
The challenge there though is the move away from fixed building data centres of old to the newer style that look like connected shipping container farms.
I think the bay could be a very attractive development site so long as they allowed them free reign on the inside portion of the building. As far as I know there's nothing to preserve except the facade anyway.
Moreover the parkade site could be a very nice site for an attached mixed use structure in the 20 floor range. If they carved out a courtyard on the original building and domed it in with glass the floor plate could be divided more easily. With a development next door it could be enough to justify the overall investment.
With the upcoming off tenant shifts to True North Square there is not a chance anyone like Skip moves into the Bay building. There is going to be too much office space available on the relatively cheap that aren't going to require the massive renovation the Bay would. It is why the Bay building keeps coming up as a possible office site but noting ever comes from it.
My understanding is, at a basic level, the Bay building would require complete gut of the existing floor(s) for the renovation than essentially net new construction but with the additional constraints of having to work within an old building with heritage status attached. Even once you get past all that the floor plates mean the majority of the space will be far away from any windows which is not the most ideal office setup.
The large volume of space away from windows would seemingly be a great fit for a large data centre. The elevation of the higher floors also make physical access more challenging which is desirable in terms of data centres. Add in the relatively cheap electrical rates here.
The challenge there though is the move away from fixed building data centres of old to the newer style that look like connected shipping container farms.
They're very much all about giving back to the city, the founders are doing a lot of local investing now. I have no doubt that they're taking this idea seriously. At the end of 2017 Just Eat was valued at over 5 billion pounds. They have money to spend if they want to.
They're very much all about giving back to the city, the founders are doing a lot of local investing now. I have no doubt that they're taking this idea seriously. At the end of 2017 Just Eat was valued at over 5 billion pounds. They have money to spend if they want to.
The challenge is you could develop any number of sites/buildings as a world class HQ for a fraction of the cost of what the Bay reno would cost. For example the SkyCity Centre location comes to mind quickly as do the tower pads over Portage Place. It is more when you put together a business plan for the Bay site it comes back as go someplace else. it doesn't matter who the tenant is. To get that site cleared we basically need True North to build a new arena.
I don't think it sounds that out of whack. It's a pretty big site. My guess is that the two buildings will have gigantic floorplates and look rather suburban. With any luck they may be more tasteful than gabled shingled roofs but I'm not holding my breath.
^ I was expecting something a little more substantial for that site, but 199 units is OK. I'd be curious to see what the complex will look like.
Looks like all of the other 4 storey Seymour Pacific complexes around the city.
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"But a city can be smothered by too much reverence for its past. The skyline must keep acquiring new peaks, because the day we consider it complete and untouchable is the day the city begins to die." - Justin Davidson - May 2010 Issue of New York
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