Winnipeg | 138 Portage Ave | East Block Lofts

[Wpg_Guy]

Update 02/23/2023:

East Block Lofts: residential redevelopment set for 114-year-old structure on Portage Avenue East


















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HOTEL DEVELOPMENT CANCELED

http://mydirectmortgage.com/dm-projects/hyatt-place/

138 portage avenue east

WINNIPEG HYATT PLACE
Promoter / Gen Partner

No. 16 HOSPITALITY LTD. (General Partner, GP) is a company based in Toronto that was formed to develop and operate a new concept of Select Service, Extended Stay and Lifestyle/Boutique Hotels. These hotels will be branded and managed by highly respected global hospitality companies.

The GP is in the process of arranging Executive Service Hotels in urban, airport and suburban areas of major markets across Canada.

The GP is proud to announce the acquisition of a site in the heart of Winnipeg, to open their first HYATT PLACE location in what promises to be an extensive portfolio.

[Wpg_Guy]

from the December 5, 2016 Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development, Heritage, and Downtown Development Regular Meeting Agenda

Architect: http://www.hca.ca/

[blueandgoldguy]

Nice edition to downtown. Refurbished medium highrise on the edge of the East Exchange District and The Forks and a hop, skip and a jump to the ballpark. Will this be a 3* or 4* hotel?

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Wow, stunning – absolutely love it. Will be a signature hotel for them, and the city. Knew 138 couldn't support it on its own, and this explains the excavation of the small parking space behind the building.

It will almost force Fairmont's hand to do something, because even though they in theory go after a different demographic – it's gonna be a tough sell to consistently get people into the hideous Fairmont with this across the street.

Only thing slightly scary, hopefully just a typo, is in the gallery, the Portage-facing side is listed as "rear view" and the lane-side is listed as "street view."

From construction thread earlier.

Unless there's something of major historic value inside, seems like a good candidate to not list as historic, based on the fantastic treatment and use of the original building in this plan. Can't think of a single private development in the city that properly mixed new + old to this effect. RRC buildings did great, but with lots of public funding. Mitchell-Copp/Centrepoint was executed horribly and Ryan block is just facade as well.

[buzzg]

FWIW the investement document states Hyatt Places always have "fresh food prepared around the clock and a full service bar with premium beer and wine."

[Andy6]

It's pretty surprising that someone would go to this much trouble to redevelop a fairly uninteresting historic building as a smallish modern hotel. But it's great that they apparently are. It's another unanticipated bonus to the cause of historic preservation (along with the Fortune Block).

I wonder how many pre-1939 buildings downtown are still un-redeveloped at this point. It can't be all that many. Winnipeg should be proud of its record of achievement in this area.

[Ando]

I don’t really consider encasing an existing building in glass as historical preservation. It’s not like the chacracter the building is really being maintained.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Ando

I don’t really consider encasing an existing building in glass as historical preservation. It’s not like the chacracter the building is really being maintained.

Oh come on, look how well it worked with the Alt! Actually Franken buildings are horrific!

[Kris22]

The Alt is an extreme example because they basically left the portage bank entrance disconnected and floating on its own, away from the main building which was a...strange choice. It's like an old Hollywood movie set.

I have to say I'm surprised and impressed over the choice of location for this hotel...it is basically in a wasteland of parking lots. But hey, one building at a time. In the future that area could be a critical connection between the forks, exchange and downtown. I'd love to see a couple more of those lots eaten up in the next 5 years.

[Urban recluse]

Is this really happening in Winnipeg? Wow! This is amazing!

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Kris22

The Alt is an extreme example because they basically left the portage bank entrance disconnected and floating on its own, away from the main building which was a...strange choice. It's like an old Hollywood movie set.

I have to say I'm surprised and impressed over the choice of location for this hotel...it is basically in a wasteland of parking lots. But hey, one building at a time. In the future that area could be a critical connection between the forks, exchange and downtown. I'd love to see a couple more of those lots eaten up in the next 5 years.

To be fair what happened with Centrepoint is partially to blame on the city. They should have either been more strict with the Mitchell-Copp facade being better integrated/building maintained, or just given up and let them tear it down. It would have been a bigger cost with little functional benefit to integrate the facade more, and the city didn’t make them – so they didn’t.

I think the Hyatt location is pretty brilliant. The building has been long underutilizes and right now because of demand in that area, the land isn’t all that expensive compared to rest of downtown. In 5 years that area could see a lot a development and more activity, so with it’s prime central location it makes a lot of sense – they’re set up immaculately for the future, especially since they bought the land.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Love it, looks like hotels I’ve seen in Chicago or NYC. It’ll be a 5*, won’t it?

[dennis]

This will be great! I wish that they would build the addition only to one side of the building instead ov enveloping it on the side and over the top. But beggars can’t be choosers.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

Love it, looks like hotels I’ve seen in Chicago or NYC. It’ll be a 5*, won’t it?

I'd peg it at about 3.5, 4 max. Star rating is based on amenities, and not really now "nice" or new a hotel is. Hyatt Place is only one step up from their lowest-end flag (Hyatt House, extended-stay going in at Seasons), but they are all still nicely finished and modern. Hyatt doesn't really have any budget brands. If you've stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn or even some nicer Hampton Inns before, this is probably about there. Medium-level amenities, with a focus on families and tourists.

[kalabaw]

Love it! There's been a steady flow of good developments in the city and I am looking forward to see more.

[BigG]

This is excellent news, although we've heard rumours of this for a while now. I wish we'd get more of these since we have a lot of underutilized and empty old buildings. Great for the area and hopefully the start of better things to come.

[Gm0ney]

I stayed at the Hyatt Place in downtown Minneapolis last summer. It's a nice 3-star hotel in an okay spot. The building it was in was kind of strange. You had to take an elevator up from the parkade (or ground floor if you were on foot) to the hotel lobby on the 8th and then take another set of elevators in the lobby to get to your room. The whole thing is built on top of a huge parkade - 2 or 3 levels underground and 7 above? Then the hotel (5 storeys I think). Then two condo towers at each end (another 10 floors above that - think of a smaller scale 360-300 Main with the hotel in the middle as was originally envisioned).

The rooms were modern, large and quiet. Indoor pool and exercise room. Free breakfast. Was full of Vikings fans there for a preseason game when I was there.

[Arts]

Hmm, not a fan of the exterior design at all, to me the glass and aluminum treatments (which are inconsistent in and of themselves) shown in the renderings doesn't complement the historic elements at all, particularly the cornices. Would prefer to see more matching stone/brick elements on the additions - I realize they aren't going for a seamless transition at all, just the opposite. I'm not suggesting to make the new look old, but there are no elements that tie it together. But then I'm just an uneducated observer and not a stakeholder

[wardlow]

This one has been in the works for a while now (circa 2017), and around that time they wanted to close the building's main entrance and have the new hotel entrance be set back from the street, closer to the surface parking lot on the east side of the building (and isn't going anywhere). So, not very appropriate for the urban environment based on what we know about urbanism this side of, say, 1975. And it goes without saying anyone proposing this kind of car-oriented site design would be laughed out of the permits office in New York or Chicago, or even Minneapolis.

I really hope they are planning to at least keep the street-oriented entrance, though it doesn't look like it from the renderings.

Of course this project's architect will point to the lack of pedestrians and good precedents nearby as a reason why they should re-orient the building to cars. Like existing bad conditions are an excuse for new bad conditions.

[buzzg]

To be fair, even if they keep the main entrance (which they should) they still need to have an accessible entrance that doesn't have the feel of a back door. No room on the sidewalk for an appropriate ramp.