Hudsons Bay Building (Winnipeg) Redevelopment

[Wpgstvsouth94]

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/huds...pment-proposal

[Jeff]

bay days

https://globalnews.ca/news/8656484/w...ding-downtown/

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by Jeff

bay days

https://globalnews.ca/news/8656484/w...ding-downtown/

Interesting little tease about The Bay building , as well as about future surface lot construction. While I think it's probably SOP for CentreVenture to put a positive spin on their projects, Matheson seemed very hopeful about the city's incentives for future surface lot development.

[esquire]

Colour me skeptical.

[Tbone04]

Would there be a use for another casino, which could gear people to spend time downtown.

What I hate most about our downtown is there isn't a ton of things to go downtown for. So we need different things to go and do downtown. Then you can revitalize the Portage place mall. Shopping won't work downtown until you have a viable amount of people and traffic doing things downtown, including residential, hotels etc.

I'm not sure our city needs another big casino but it would seem to be a good option. You could have a couple floors, with the exterior footprint a hotel option. Plenty of space to include a good restaurant, and another event center (could struggle with the surrounding venues but could also attract smaller shows and comedy etc). Rooftop patio/bar.

And because it's so big, you probably could include a big swimming pool and water slides for the hotel and possibly other activities such as something like Activate, escape rooms and such.

It's a huge building, and if we could fill it up with as much "attractions/activities etc, it will give people another reason to go downtown to do something. Plus, people from out of town it becomes a great spot to check out especially if they are staying in the downtown region.

In the end, I hope it's not offices. We've got plenty of towel office spaces available, and more towers can be built. Strictly residential probably can't work. And stores isn't going to draw people downtown without other stuff first.

[thurmas]

I have been pushing to have it made a casino for a while now. It can be a larger version of casino regina with a hotel for the higher floors. Downtown should be a entertainment and business district not shopping as that will never work there ever again.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by Tbone04

What I hate most about our downtown is there isn't a ton of things to go downtown for.

Uhmm this is not true Downtown has by far the most entertainment options within the city. The Forks, Exchange District, Canada life, Human rights museum, lots of restaurants, post-secondary education, convention Center etc… I guess the reason this perception exists because the entertainment is too spread out.

Casino I have mixed feelings about because it will generate quite a lot of revenue at that location but I’d rather if people lived there instead and then have commercial in the first floor. Make it the most gorgeous 5 over 1 in town.

Or let’s say screw it and finally build that indoor water park we’ve been dreaming of!

[peg]

Originally Posted by Tbone04

...could include a big swimming pool and water slides...

The fabled world-class Winnipeg waterpark we have all been waiting for?

For real though, Portage place would be a great location for a water park or something like that. It could be tied into a broader reimagined complex with a community centre, residential, hotel and commercial.

[thurmas]

I think portage place would be a better place for the water park

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by peg

The fabled world-class Winnipeg waterpark we have all been waiting for?

For real though, that would be a great location for a water park or something like that. It could be tied into a broader reimagined complex with a community centre, residential, hotel and commercial.

For sure!

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by thurmas

I think portage place would be a better place for the water park

Make a joint proposal with the Bay as a casino and PP as a waterpark and hotel. The rest of downtown will flourish after that.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by WildCake

Make a joint proposal with the Bay as a casino and PP as a waterpark and hotel. The rest of downtown will flourish after that.

Would be the best option for the area in my mind as those would attract people and economic activities unlike another mall no one goes to

[peg]

Originally Posted by thurmas

I think portage place would be a better place for the water park

I agree, I thought the original post was referring to portage place.

[pspeid]

I would suspect The Bay will be a mixture of ground floor retail, office, hotel and residential, maybe with an entertainment/hospitality attraction of some kind. IMO this would be an appropriate use for the building.

In her CJOB interview Matheson commented that The Bay building had roughly the same amount of square footage as the Richardson Building. DK if that's true, but if it's close it's an eye opener. I knew the place was big, but that's a huge job to fill that amount of space. I'm looking forward to seeing the proposal.

[Biff]

Just for shits and giggles, here are some of the larger buildings downtown:

360 Main – 761,789
Hydro – 695,000
The Bay – 655,755
201 Portage – 506,413
Richardson – 476,399
CityPlace – 451,892
Air Canada – 368,571
True North Square – 357,000 (Tower 1)

**Info from the BOMA 2021 Commercial Building Directory

[esquire]

^ A good illustration of the sheer scale of the problem.

If we were in this situation in 2003 when the economy was in decent shape, we had a mayor with vision and we had a provincial government that took urban issues to heart, I'd have been much more optimistic.

Now with all of those factors gone plus the impact of covid on the downtown population, it is a much more daunting prospect. In some respects the best thing we can do is to come up with something, anything, that keeps the lights and heat on in the building until a long-term use can be found during better times. This approach has worked for other important buildings... the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg has basically used a bare-bones budget to keep the old CPR station standing and filling an important need in the process.

I will be curious to see what this plan consists of. I would be very surprised if it included commercial elements like private sector office space, major retail or market-rate housing. I am expecting a hodgepodge of government-backed functions, e.g. the 4th floor which used to do millions of dollars in retail sales a year will now become a children's art space or some such. But again, if it keeps the lights on that may be enough.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by Biff

Just for shits and giggles, here are some of the larger buildings downtown:

360 Main – 761,789
Hydro – 695,000
The Bay – 655,755
201 Portage – 506,413
Richardson – 476,399
CityPlace – 451,892
Air Canada – 368,571
True North Square – 357,000 (Tower 1)

**Info from the BOMA 2021 Commercial Building Directory

...and Eaton's was almost 900,000 sf!

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ A good illustration of the sheer scale of the problem.

If we were in this situation in 2003 when the economy was in decent shape, we had a mayor with vision and we had a provincial government that took urban issues to heart, I'd have been much more optimistic.

Now with all of those factors gone plus the impact of covid on the downtown population, it is a much more daunting prospect. In some respects the best thing we can do is to come up with something, anything, that keeps the lights and heat on in the building until a long-term use can be found during better times. This approach has worked for other important buildings... the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg has basically used a bare-bones budget to keep the old CPR station standing and filling an important need in the process.

I will be curious to see what this plan consists of. I would be very surprised if it included commercial elements like private sector office space, major retail or market-rate housing. I am expecting a hodgepodge of government-backed functions, e.g. the 4th floor which used to do millions of dollars in retail sales a year will now become a children's art space or some such. But again, if it keeps the lights on that may be enough.

its good.

[Biff]

^^^as I ask for all projects - are they building this on top?

[trueviking]

phase 2.