SkyCity Centre Winnipeg | 45F | 575 Ft | 175.26 M | Cancelled

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by WinCitySparky

Yeah I worked the phones at Pizza Hotline back in ‘04 and the company wouldn’t deliver there because it was too dangerous. It’s been a hole for at least 20 years.

i worked at the call centre 11 years ago on weekends part time. We would not deliver to the West side apartments of Central Park Kennedy st, etc). Interesting job. I had girls (likely a bit drunk), inviting me to house parties after placing their order at least twice a month. Never took an order for the St.Regis, but had a man who would call from a hotel on north Main, just to ramble on as long as he could, up to 30 minutes a call.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by DirtWednesday

Yup. It was my out of town grand parents' favourite watering hole when they came to town 25-30 years ago... I guess beyond 30 years, but they were going there up until the late 90's until gramps passed.

I remember some friends coming to Winnipeg from Calgary for the 1998 Grey Cup and they stayed there... I was a little surprised because I was under the impression it was a dump and they certainly had the means to stay somewhere nicer, but they told me it was very comfortable and they always liked the feel of the place.

I remember going to the conference rooms there for some meetings in the 2000s too and it wasn't bad. Pretty standard hotel stuff. I think just the bar had a bit of a reputation starting around Y2K but I never went in there to see for myself.

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

i worked at the call centre 11 years ago on weekends part time. We would not deliver to the West side apartments of Central Park Kennedy st, etc). Interesting job. I had girls (likely a bit drunk), inviting me to house parties after placing their order at least twice a month. Never took an order for the St.Regis, but had a man who would call from a hotel on north Main, just to ramble on as long as he could, up to 30 minutes a call.

That’ll wreck your average handle time all right lol

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ For most of its existence the St. Regis was a decent little hotel that served its clientele well. Even though it declined in its last decade or so, I certainly wouldn't call it rotten... it doesn't belong in the same category as some of the more notorious dive hotels in and around downtown.

But that said, architecturally I don't think it's a huge loss for downtown Winnipeg. Unfortunately the building was stripped of its charm many years ago when the original facade was removed.

Acquaintances old man owned the St. Regis for awhile, said he loved having the rooms paid for by social services directly to him, was very lucrative for a short time!

[Alexander 90]

Maybe Centre Venture will re-sell the St Regis to criminals Fortress again and lose another $5M. FAIL

"After investing $7.7 million in the St. Regis, CentreVenture announced in May of 2015 that it had sold the hotel to the Ontario based Fortress Real Developments for $4 million"

I laughed when these clowns came to Winnipeg and I knew nothing would ever happen. They sure conned many people in Winnipeg.

Centre Venture should be shut down already. 20 years is enough.

SkyCity was a real scam from before that start. They had it all planned out.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by Alexander 90

Maybe Centre Venture will re-sell the St Regis to criminals Fortress again and lose another $5M. FAIL

"After investing $7.7 million in the St. Regis, CentreVenture announced in May of 2015 that it had sold the hotel to the Ontario based Fortress Real Developments for $4 million"

I laughed when these clowns came to Winnipeg and I knew nothing would ever happen. They sure conned many people in Winnipeg.

Centre Venture should be shut down already. 20 years is enough.

SkyCity was a real scam from before that start. They had it all planned out.

What are you going on about. How did centreventure lose $5m exactly. You realize they took back control of the property and the sale to fortress was never finalized.

[buzzg]

CV makes money on some deals and loses money on others – that's the point. Sometimes they take a loss to get a great project for the city off the ground, and they make it up on some other deals that are for more lucrative plots.

[Julien31]

There is an article from CTVNews about St.Regis hôtel demolition and a new development on this site coming up ( construction starting in 2021 ). Does anyone have more details about this project? Pictures?

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/st-regis...rway-1.5204193

[bomberjet]

I thought CV is already shutdown. I guess not.

Remembers Jawad stood in the lot on Graham and proclaimed "This tower will get built!" Whatever happened to Big Ben. He used to come on here.

[NewIreland]

Originally Posted by Julien31

There is an article from CTVNews about St.Regis hôtel demolition and a new development on this site coming up ( construction starting in 2021 ). Does anyone have more details about this project? Pictures?

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/st-regis...rway-1.5204193

I thought it was going to be a parking lot?

[Julien31]

“Rockport Investment Group, which plans to build a mixed-use development project on the site. The project will include retail, structured parking, offices, and residential, and construction is scheduled to begin in 2021.“

Impatient to see what the project will look like! Maybe an other +100m high rise

[bomberjet]

I thought it was something like 10 stories from what the SSP'ers have said. a few stories of commercial or whatever and the rest on the top is a parkade.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I thought it was something like 10 stories from what the SSP'ers have said. a few stories of commercial or whatever and the rest on the top is a parkade.

It's not great, but it's actually not bad, so long as the building doesnt look too much like a parkade.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by Alexander 90

Maybe Centre Venture will re-sell the St Regis to criminals Fortress again and lose another $5M. FAIL

"After investing $7.7 million in the St. Regis, CentreVenture announced in May of 2015 that it had sold the hotel to the Ontario based Fortress Real Developments for $4 million"

I laughed when these clowns came to Winnipeg and I knew nothing would ever happen. They sure conned many people in Winnipeg.

Centre Venture should be shut down already. 20 years is enough.

SkyCity was a real scam from before that start. They had it all planned out.

Centre Venture did not lose money selling it to Fortress.
The City told CV to purchase the property to alleviate significant crime issues it was having. We can definitely debate the logic of that move but it was not a choice CV had. It was not intended to be a profitable solution, but something for the greater good of downtown to attract investment in the area. The Fortress transaction, like all CV deals, came with a development agreement, deadlines and penalties to cover any costs if they failed. There was always a high level of skepticism but there were few options and they offered a high reward if they could make it work. A framework was put in place to protect against losing money.

The agreement with this developer comes with a similar agreement. CV is doing its best to make the most of a difficult situation. Maybe they should have told the city they wouldn’t buy it, but at the time the city saw that as an important step for downtown.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I thought it was something like 10 stories from what the SSP'ers have said. a few stories of commercial or whatever and the rest on the top is a parkade.

That would be an improvement over the old hotel. Looking forward to the renders!

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by trueviking

Centre Venture did not lose money selling it to Fortress.
The City told CV to purchase the property to alleviate significant crime issues it was having. We can definitely debate the logic of that move but it was not a choice CV had. It was not intended to be a profitable solution, but something for the greater good of downtown to attract investment in the area. The Fortress transaction, like all CV deals, came with a development agreement, deadlines and penalties to cover any costs if they failed. There was always a high level of skepticism but there were few options and they offered a high reward if they could make it work. A framework was put in place to protect against losing money.

The agreement with this developer comes with a similar agreement. CV is doing its best to make the most of a difficult situation. Maybe they should have told the city they wouldn’t buy it, but at the time the city saw that as an important step for downtown.

Excellent points, thanks for reminding us! I also remember reading that CV had a number of protections in place in case the Fortress development failed, including Fortress needing to prove the had the money before any demolition or excavation. It saved the city a headache similar to what Regina had to deal with. CV should get credit for the work they have done.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by pspeid

Excellent points, thanks for reminding us! I also remember reading that CV had a number of protections in place in case the Fortress development failed, including Fortress needing to prove the had the money before any demolition or excavation. It saved the city a headache similar to what Regina had to deal with. CV should get credit for the work they have done.

Well... in fairness there was nothing on the site to demolish except the St. Regis. And now it's being demolished anyway.

[Biff]

The are planning something that is taller than what the site is zoned for.

[bomberjet]

I'm trying to parse through downtown zoning. But as expected it's a bit confusing. Seems it's higher than 8 storeys. Not sure if it is past the 12 storey limit. Zoning for the site appears to be other, with hotel as the current use.

I seem to recall it being 10 storeys in height.

Also note the site was assessed value in 2018 of $1.837 million.

[bomberjet]

Brought over this cam from 300 Main thread. The hotel is gone.

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

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