Winnipeg | Osborne Village & Corydon area

[Ando]

Interesting article on development or lack thereof in the Village. If you read between the lines, it is really being held back by certain owners. All this when it should be thriving due to population increase with all the infill developments.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...479836223.html

[Tacheguy]

Originally Posted by Ando

Interesting article on development or lack thereof in the Village. If you read between the lines, it is really being held back by certain owners. All this when it should be thriving due to population increase with all the infill developments.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...479836223.html

A lot of similarity with Provencher it would seem. People sitting on underdeveloped properties. Maybe they think the values are higher than they really are?

[esquire]

^ I don't know if the guys in Osborne Village were expecting Apple to come in and sign 30 year leases for top dollar or what, but at the rate things are going around there they'd be lucky to attract anything at all... it's a ghost town. It's pretty sad to see how far that strip has declined over the last 10 or 15 years.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I don't know if the guys in Osborne Village were expecting Apple to come in and sign 30 year leases for top dollar or what, but at the rate things are going around there they'd be lucky to attract anything at all... it's a ghost town. It's pretty sad to see how far that strip has declined over the last 10 or 15 years.

land value taxes would be a real help to OV and other areas in town plagued by shitty "wait for my payday" land owners

[Kris22]

It also has to do with changing demographics. The village used to have that grunge factor and be cool with a younger crowd but that seems to have shifted to Sherbrooke and other areas. The people moving into these new condos that are popping up every second block are not the same people who lived in the village 10-15 years ago. There also used to be lots of cheap apartments but that isn't the case anymore. Down the road I could see the village filling up with chains and basic establishments like Tim Hortons, Boston pizza in the basils spot (or Brown's social house, original joes, etc) and honestly that would be better than nothing.

[Authentic_City]

^There's also an article in the CBC this morning about it. The quote from Basil Lagopoulos give us some insight into his thinking:

"There are a lot of wishful thinkers, and I think a lot of people have been burned as a result of wannabe billionaires of the future," he said.

"The landlords are not going to be taking a hit from people that have some dreams and aspirations … when they're not capitalized and don't have more than one month's rent of funds available to them in case things don't go their way."

So, yeah, waiting for Apple to come along with a big payday I guess.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...yths-1.4619155

[borkborkbork]

Interesting -- 257 Osborne (the white office building at Confusion Corner) is now describing itself as having a "new state of the art heated automated 150-stall parking garage with a car wash."

https://www.collierscanada.com/23665#.WtSx6NPwbVo

The Colliers page has a video describing an automated system.

Would they not need a zoning change to allow for 10x the number of parking spaces in their original plan (even if they're in an automated parking facility instead of a regular parkade)?

And what on earth are the economics of this in a place where people refuse to pay for parking? (The giant lot on Gertrude is always empty because it's not free). These systems tend to be used in places like NYC where parking is scarce and expensive.

Does Imperial know what it's doing?

[buzzg]

What streetscaping improvements is Gerbasi talking about? Is she blind? They redid some sidewalks, plunked down a few weird concrete seats, and some heinous bike racks. That's like basic city maintenance. The lighting is in horrible shape, big upgrades to the clock tower plaza never happened, and those weird lightboxes don't fit in with anything else in the area.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by buzzg

What streetscaping improvements is Gerbasi talking about? Is she blind? They redid some sidewalks, plunked down a few weird concrete seats, and some heinous bike racks. That's like basic city maintenance. The lighting is in horrible shape, big upgrades to the clock tower plaza never happened, and those weird lightboxes don't fit in with anything else in the area.

The streetscaping in Osborne Village is horrendous. It's mostly just dated and broken down remnants of the stuff that went in back in the 90s.

[borkborkbork]

Interesting article.

BIZ claims there are tenants lined up for the Second Cup and the Zoo.

Second Cup I can sort of believe (they've started to demo the interior). The Zoo, there's been zero activity and there's still a for lease sign up... and it's still listed on the Cushman & Wakefield site (asking $37 psf).

I hadn't heard that the TD was going to be a cannabis dispensary. Better than a vacant storefront I suppose but probably not great news in terms of the village bouncing back.

Not mentioned in the article are the vacancies at the former Smitten (empty since the summer), nor at the former Western Diamond + Gold (empty since the new year?).

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

Interesting -- 257 Osborne (the white office building at Confusion Corner) is now describing itself as having a "new state of the art heated automated 150-stall parking garage with a car wash."

https://www.collierscanada.com/23665#.WtSx6NPwbVo

The Colliers page has a video describing an automated system.

Would they not need a zoning change to allow for 10x the number of parking spaces in their original plan (even if they're in an automated parking facility instead of a regular parkade)?

And what on earth are the economics of this in a place where people refuse to pay for parking? (The giant lot on Gertrude is always empty because it's not free). These systems tend to be used in places like NYC where parking is scarce and expensive.

Does Imperial know what it's doing?

The building has 14 parking spots inside main floor and 4 outside. Where the 150 automated spots would be is anyone's guess. In the new high-rise apartment building that's supposed to go up next door?

[esquire]

^ I chortled when I read about tenants for the OVI. I'll believe it when I see it.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

The building has 14 parking spots inside main floor and 4 outside. Where the 150 automated spots would be is anyone's guess. In the new high-rise apartment building that's supposed to go up next door?

This is what I mean by the economics of this plan -- they'd be using one to two of their office floors to store cars. With the automated systems, the cars aren't on, so there's no ventilation concerns, and you can stack them all quite close to one another... but still. I can't imagine how this plan is going to make any money (even if it's allowable without a variance...)

[Wpg_Guy]

They are probably having a hard time finding tenants because there is no parking.

[windypeg]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

Interesting article.
I hadn't heard that the TD was going to be a cannabis dispensary. Better than a vacant storefront I suppose but probably not great news in terms of the village bouncing back.

Why not? It would likely be the busiest retail space on the whole strip. Better than Desart selling a bunch of tacky kitschy novelty crap.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by windypeg

Why not? It would likely be the busiest retail space on the whole strip. Better than Desart selling a bunch of tacky kitschy novelty crap.

because whether or not you liked what desart sold, it was conducive to people out wandering and browsing from shop to shop.

a cannabis dispensary doesn't do that. it's much more like the tanning salon a few doors down. it's a place for people to go for a single purpose and then go home. it would have very few spillovers to other shops nearby.

[windypeg]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

because whether or not you liked what desart sold, it was conducive to people out wandering and browsing from shop to shop.

a cannabis dispensary doesn't do that. it's much more like the tanning salon a few doors down. it's a place for people to go for a single purpose and then go home. it would have very few spillovers to other shops nearby.

Well that's just it - people go there with purpose, it would draw people out. I'm pretty sure 90% of Desart traffic was just people killing time while they waited for a bus or a table. I doubt many people made the trip down to the village just so they could go in there and look at novelty keychains and Jesus action figures. But point taken, it would be good to have some more "browse-able" stores in the mix too.

[buzzg]

Cannabis dispensary is a fantastic use for that space. It'll be a neighbourhood destination and yes, people will actually go just for that – then they might grab a bite, some groceries, a beer. The exact type of business that should be going there.

I find it hilarious (and disheartening) how many people in the city are treating dispensaries like some sort of crack dens. A lot of people eat, smoke, vape, cook cannabis. These dispensaries are no different than a wine store opening.

I haven't heard about what is going here but if it's a Tokyo Smoke (they are 1 of the consortiums that won), they are a fantastic lifestyle brand with gorgeous storefronts all over the country. Many of them have wicked coffee shops, do education and art sessions, yoga classes, you name it. We should be embracing innovative brands like these.

https://ca.tokyosmoke.com/pages/coffee-shops

[Ando]

Apparently there’s a potato chip and pizza store opening up right next to it.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Ando

Apparently there’s a potato chip and pizza store opening up right next to it.

You mean Little Pizza Heaven that's already there?