Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
Given the continued population growth of the city and the resulting demand for new housing, what are the odds that we see some new highrises out of the situation?
The post-covid downtown is not really the most desirable or marketable place, so it's quite understandable that we may not see any more 300 Main-type towers for quite some time until the situation stabilizes. But what about in other areas of the city? Even parts of town that are downtown-adjacent but not exactly downtown. How likely are we to see some towers go up with some skyline impact? Let's say, 20 storeys or higher. There is a lot of development around town but most of it is lower-slung suburban construction. Osborne Village would seem like a natural location for new towers but they just don't get built there anymore for whatever reason.
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I think we'll continue to see a slow trickle of highrise buildings being built in/around downtown, but no big surge anytime soon. Right now, we have 109 Mayfair Ave (15 stories), 308 Colony Street (21 stories), 634 Portage Ave (20 stories), and 300 Main Street (42 stories). To be honest, 4 highrises at once is pretty good for Winnipeg.
As other people have mentioned, downtown is still not the most desirable place to live, however it is the place that is easiest to build highrises due to the large lot sizes and different set of zoning laws. We are unlikely to see any new highrises in Osborne Village in the near future due to the fact that Osborne Village tends to have smaller lots sizes, a different set of zoning regulations that do not favour highrise developments (the Osborne Village Local Area Plan from 2006), and a lack of large surface parking lots. If we do see new highrises in that area, they will probably be between Pembina and the rail tracks, close to Osborne Station. There's lots of large lots there that are being taken up by low value commercial businesses, especially the car dealerships. However, the zoning needs to change first to allow highrise development there. Hopefully City Council gets on that soon.
I think over the next 10 years, we'll see most of the new infill development taking place along arterial roads such as Pembina Hwy, St. Mary's Road, Main Street, Henderson Hwy, McPhillips St, etc. We are already seeing this to some extent with the new buildings along Pembina, St. Mary's, and St. Anne's. There are lots of single family houses and large surface parking lots along these roads. These roads already have decent bus service (by Winnipeg standards) and new housing will likely face less opposition from neighbours.
Also worth noting is that Hazel Borys will be taking over as the head of the Planning, Property, and Development department soon. She's huge on form-based codes, actually she wrote a lot of the literature on them. I could see her pushing city council to upzone properties along arterial roads and possibly even creating some sort of Secondary Plan for properties abutting arterial roads.
Due to all these reasons, I think there will be continue to be a slow trickle of highrise development in Winnipeg over the next 10 years, with most of the new infill construction being 3-7 story buildings along arterial roads.
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