Winnipeg Construction X

[esquire]

^ Sinking the parkade isn't the issue, though... it could sink the project that the parkade is attached to.

Imagine a scenario where the City told Edison that the Smith Street Lofts had to have a retail level in the parkade. Edison decides it won't work out, so they walk away from the project and go out to suburbia where it's not an issue. Then what? You're stuck with an empty building. Not a great outcome.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Sinking the parkade isn't the issue, though... it could sink the project that the parkade is attached to.

Imagine a scenario where the City told Edison that the Smith Street Lofts had to have a retail level in the parkade. Edison decides it won't work out, so they walk away from the project and go out to suburbia where it's not an issue. Then what? You're stuck with an empty building. Not a great outcome.

Simple: create disincentives for suburban projects and incentives for downtown projects! Heck! We could even make CRUs a requirement and to ensure that it doesn’t financially tank projects we could create subsidy programs. If we make downtown liveability a priority and a policy, then we should be okay with spending money on getting these things done.

[T'Cona]

Not every building on every street needs ground level retail.

The goal needs to be to make them aesthetically pleasing.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Sinking the parkade isn't the issue, though... it could sink the project that the parkade is attached to.

Imagine a scenario where the City told Edison that the Smith Street Lofts had to have a retail level in the parkade. Edison decides it won't work out, so they walk away from the project and go out to suburbia where it's not an issue. Then what? You're stuck with an empty building. Not a great outcome.

short term pain, long term gain. That Edison Project was a $50 million project....adding $200k to the ground floor of the parkade would not have affected the proforma....but I can guarantee they said it would.

It's a very small cost that will not cause anyone to walk away from anything....parkades cost many millions of dollars......we need to stop accepting street killing projects...developers need to understand that by doing it, they will be helping to create the very thing that they will be marketing....an urban lifestyle....any added cost contributes to what they will be trying to sell for the next 50 years....without active streets, they will always struggle to attract people to live downtown.

Doesn't have to be a CRU. The designers can get creative to ensure it is active. The parkade for the new project on Donald will be a covered patio for a restaurant.

Originally Posted by esquire

Making ground level CRU space a must in parkades would certainly improve the quality of projects that do get built and by extension the surrounding streetscape, but how many projects would it sink?

the answer is zero....i can tell you that with 100% confidence.....developers don't do it becasue they dont want the hassle, not because of economics....especially when any parkade built in downtown is going to be connected with a large project worth tens of millions of dollars.

[esquire]

Fair enough. In that case, it sounds like there is potential for a policy change.

[Wpg_Guy]

Originally Posted by trueviking

It's a very small cost that will not cause anyone to walk away from anything....parkades cost many millions of dollars......we need to stop accepting street killing projects...developers need to understand that by doing it, they will be helping to create the very thing that they will be marketing....an urban lifestyle....any added cost contributes to what they will be trying to sell for the next 50 years....without active streets, they will always struggle to attract people to live downtown.

This.

Very valid point!

[rivercity]

The biggest street killing projects in my opinion downtown are the re-construction of streets with no street trees and narrow sidewalks. A few weekends when I was in Minneapolis i couldnt help notice how many tree wells and trees there were. There were also a ton of dead street level buildings/parkades/lobbys and stuff but wider sidewalks and trees certainly helped break up that feeling of desolation.

[Winnipeg Grump]

Originally Posted by rivercity

The biggest street killing projects in my opinion downtown are the re-construction of streets with no street trees and narrow sidewalks. A few weekends when I was in Minneapolis i couldnt help notice how many tree wells and trees there were. There were also a ton of dead street level buildings/parkades/lobbys and stuff but wider sidewalks and trees certainly helped break up that feeling of desolation.

No practical reason that something like this can't be done here, other than the people who run the civic departments.

https://twitter.com/todd_irvine/stat...T0h9I48LbpJeWw

[rivercity]

Thats a great thread. It also goes to show what taking care of plantings does. The volume of dead saplings around the city from presumably last years drought is pathetic.

[1ajs]

Has anyone seen the insane tax increases commercial and industrial properties have been getting witch includes apartments

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by rivercity

The biggest street killing projects in my opinion downtown are the re-construction of streets with no street trees and narrow sidewalks. A few weekends when I was in Minneapolis i couldnt help notice how many tree wells and trees there were. There were also a ton of dead street level buildings/parkades/lobbys and stuff but wider sidewalks and trees certainly helped break up that feeling of desolation.

Narrowing the sidewalks in Downtown out of all places just seems to be an unbelievably shortsighted move. What’s even worse is that these road rehabs/renewals in Downtown don’t even have any sort of public engagement. It’s almost like public works is strong arming these road renewals to make them as car-friendly as possible. But god forbid for some reason a bike lane is in the books then there’s 2 to 3 phases of public engagement before it begrudgingly gets built by public works. That whole department needs to clean house.

In the talks of the Smith parkade, I refuse to believe a project in Downtown needs a parkade. I mean we already have a vast surplus of parking that needs to be removed why are we building more parking? Instead we get another street-level building with no street activation whatsoever. This seems to be a worrying trend in Winnipeg and needs to be corrected ASAP.

Hell why are people even owning cars in Downtown in the first place? In most cities living in Downtown means giving up the automobile but we’ve made it so goddamn convenient to have one in Downtown (at the dismay of pedestrians, public transit users, and cyclists) it’s like we’re living in the fucking sun belt. People can shit on Winnipeg transit all they want but Graham Ave and the service provided on it is one of the best things this city offers. It’s two blocks away from this building. Also, for the people on the Smith Lofts they just have to cross a back lane and can reach the Garry bike lane quite easily. Even if you need to drive a car there’s a few car share spots nearby.

https://www.walkscore.com/score/185-smith-st-winnipeg-mb-canada yet we need to build a 8 storey parkade?

I call bs, the only thing that would’ve changed if the parkade hadn’t been built is the total cost of the conversion would have been cheaper and rents would be lower. The only reason this has a parkade usually stems from the financer’s outdated methodology of requiring parking for every new build.

The final and hidden detriment of this parkade is that now there’s all this parking available the residents themselves won’t go on the street nearly as much compared to if there was no parking reducing street level activity and vibrancy on both a micro and macro scale in Downtown.

I think it’s time the city seriously started looking at parking MAXIMUMS.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by rivercity

Thats a great thread. It also goes to show what taking care of plantings does. The volume of dead saplings around the city from presumably last years drought is pathetic.

Imagine trees and plants needing water, no one that works for the city seemed to know this!

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

Narrowing the sidewalks in Downtown out of all places just seems to be an unbelievably shortsighted move. What’s even worse is that these road rehabs/renewals in Downtown don’t even have any sort of public engagement. It’s almost like public works is strong arming these road renewals to make them as car-friendly as possible. But god forbid for some reason a bike lane is in the books then there’s 2 to 3 phases of public engagement before it begrudgingly gets built by public works. That whole department needs to clean house.

In the talks of the Smith parkade, I refuse to believe a project in Downtown needs a parkade. I mean we already have a vast surplus of parking that needs to be removed why are we building more parking? Instead we get another street-level building with no street activation whatsoever. This seems to be a worrying trend in Winnipeg and needs to be corrected ASAP.

Hell why are people even owning cars in Downtown in the first place? In most cities living in Downtown means giving up the automobile but we’ve made it so goddamn convenient to have one in Downtown (at the dismay of pedestrians, public transit users, and cyclists) it’s like we’re living in the fucking sun belt. People can shit on Winnipeg transit all they want but Graham Ave and the service provided on it is one of the best things this city offers. It’s two blocks away from this building. Also, for the people on the Smith Lofts they just have to cross a back lane and can reach the Garry bike lane quite easily. Even if you need to drive a car there’s a few car share spots nearby.

https://www.walkscore.com/score/185-smith-st-winnipeg-mb-canada yet we need to build a 8 storey parkade?

I call bs, the only thing that would’ve changed if the parkade hadn’t been built is the total cost of the conversion would have been cheaper and rents would be lower. The only reason this has a parkade usually stems from the financer’s outdated methodology of requiring parking for every new build.

The final and hidden detriment of this parkade is that now there’s all this parking available the residents themselves won’t go on the street nearly as much compared to if there was no parking reducing street level activity and vibrancy on both a micro and macro scale in Downtown.

I think it’s time the city seriously started looking at parking MAXIMUMS.

Do you own a car? Complaining about parkades now are we? Because there isn’t enough street interaction? How much street level interaction does downtown need? Why does every building have to have street front retail. I can see on Main Street or portage or broadway yes there should be some CRU’s but it’s smith street who cares. And allowing parking makes your building more accessible and creates a larger drawing pool to attract tenants.

I remember my exs condo in Venezuela. Parking stalls were based on how big your condo was. One bedroom had two spots. One for you, one for your spouse or a guest. Two bedroom had three. One for you one for your spouse one for your kid or a guest. A three bedroom had four spots. Nobody bitched there was no parking and nobody bitched there was too much parking. Apparently this was pretty standard for condo buildings in Venezuela and why wouldn’t it be here? You want people to live downtown, people have cottages, they go to lakes, they buy things. It’s just easier to have a car. They are fantastic tools that allow for freedom.

[trueviking]

^the exact opposite of everything you just said. Not really worth even responding to be honest.

I especially love the bit about downtown Winnipeg being awash with storefronts. How many do we need? Ha ha.

[1ajs]

what is this what apears to be abandoned forgoten building

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

what is this what apears to be abandoned forgoten building

Dunno I noticed it the other day as well while out scoping out Vike’s apartment building’s progress. Looks like a nice place for something new.

[1ajs]

300 main







vikes project



smith st apartments





wanaweasa

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

what is this what apears to be abandoned forgoten building

I think it used to be a Legion Hall.

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^the exact opposite of everything you just said. Not really worth even responding to be honest.

I especially love the bit about downtown Winnipeg being awash with storefronts. How many do we need? Ha ha.

Lol then why respond??? Seriously you think downtown Winnipeg is lacking CRU’s, there’s a dead mall across the street from a dead department store… down the street from another dead mall and a dying concourse. Lol. Portage and many surrounding streets are full of dead storefronts. Ohh and there’s that dead mall at Fort Garry place too. One parkade on smith street ain’t gonna make it or break it. Just look at the monstrosity that is the convention centre… entire building could have been ringed with shops… but you have two square blocks of dead zone.

And if you want people especially families to abandon suburban living… maybe… just maybe, you might want try providing them with some of the amenities of living in a suburb. Like not having to move your car at two in the morning because it’s snowing. Or having to walk your friend back to their car because they’re scared at night. Yeah having appropriate parking… that’s clearly to much to ask of a place where you fucking live.

Do you own a car? Lol.

[1ajs]

TV owns cars and bikes. chill out a bit