Quote:
Originally Posted by WildCake
My thoughts exactly. Good plan except it seems like 1/3 of the space is commercial. For an area sandwiched by seasons of tuxedo/kenaston and polo park in an age of reduce brick and mortar retail, it seems a bit heavy.
I guess zoning could always be modified as demand presents itself.
|
Taking a guess but the commercial areas will likely feature a lot of indigenous focused businesses in sectors with high value add taxes like petroleum, tobacco, cannabis and alcohol (should that become available). I would also expect some sort of hotel to house out of town members from the bands participating in the development that would include a bar/lounge with a sizable VLT installation. Not trying to be racist or stereotype this culture, the reality is those are the exact pieces that are already generating revenue for them in Winnipeg and doing "one more" isn't going to have the same competitive impact as say trying to open a new enclosed shopping mall. Judging by the amount of traffic the treaty PetroCan on St Matthews gets a large gas station on an otherwise busy corner would be a significant pull for the area and bring in a steady revenue source. Hopefully they develop it with a plan to convert it to electric vehicle charging down the line.
The one I hope gets included in the development is a high profile and higher quality food retailer focused on indigenous foods. Picture something similar to Denardi but along the lines of what Neeche Commons tried to establish in terms of products/offerings. Also having a butcher that say offerings traditional meats like bison and elk which are commercially produced would get attention beyond just the indigenous community as people travel to Friggs to get that now. They could even potentially spin that into a farm to table model using their lands outside the city to commercially produce the livestock and employee people in those communities, then have a processing facility they own and eventually sell the end product at a store their own and serve it in a restaurant their own.
I also like the idea of them developing an indoor space to hold events. The round house model shown in the pictures makes cultural sense. I hope they engage some skilled designers to work with them on the space though so that it keeps the round house model but is designed in a way to be efficiently a mixed use facility with sports activities that are more based around a rectangle (basketball, volleyball, rack sports, etc).
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unknown Poster
Has the land been put aside for the Kenaston widening?
|
In terms of the possible widening of Kenaston, as the land is (or will be) status land the City of Winnipeg would need to negotiate a deal for this that would likely need to include land of equal value and equal or greater size being given in trade for space the widen Kenaston, ie something similar to the Parker Lands site. For that reason alone it means that land needed to widen Kenaston from just north of grant to the underpass is almost exclusively going to come from the east side. And if you are savvy you will not the east side if heavily developed with midrise buildings close to the street, aka that kind that are unlikely to be expropriated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny D Oh
The issue that will arise is that a leased land mortgage is less of an investment than Canadians view real estate as, it is likely to not gain a whole lot in value. They might have more value as rental properties.
I guess I expected a lot more "mid-density" housing.
I think this plan is firmly rooted in the pre-Covid world and could really be this region's first example of a big development post-Covid. There will be no need for all of the retail space aside from basics fuel, food, grocery IMO.
|
Considering there are already cases with in Canada with lease land is reclaimed by the band I expect the residential component will heavily focus on urban homes for band members and low to mid rise apartment rentals. If you are on a one year lease the overall ownership of the property is less of a concern for you than if you are building a new single family home.
In terms of the development, I don't think it will be affected much by the pandemic either way. Most of the commercial space was also going to be focus on indigenous owned businesses in sectors with high value added taxes or ones that basically sell services to on reserve members when they need to come to Winnipeg for medical and other appointments (ie hotels and food services). Those are the exact same sectors that are not being too negatively impacted by the pandemic and are actually showing some gains
when the customer is from an indigenous community. Specifically the hotel/food services has seen some of the best business in the pandemic from people in the indigenous community as they take over entire properties to setup isolation camps for their people that need to travel to/through Winnipeg.