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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Downtown development on right track, says HGTV star

By: Murray McNeill

Posted: 05/11/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press Brad Lamb likes the �vibrant� Exchange District.

Winnipeg's Exchange District has a new fan -- HGTV star and condo pitchman Brad Lamb.

The Toronto real estate broker/developer blew into Winnipeg on Tuesday -- his first visit to the city -- to give a luncheon address on the Canadian condominium market and how condo developments can be a catalyst for downtown revitalization.

Before the luncheon, his host -- Winnipeg real estate investment firm The Blueprint Group -- took him on a 15-minute driving tour through downtown Winnipeg. And the man whose companies have sold more than 15,000 condos and have six condo projects under construction at the moment in Canada, said he liked what he saw.

"This is a much bigger city and it seems to be more cosmopolitan than I initially anticipated," he told about 300 luncheon guests at the Delta Winnipeg hotel. "And I found this area I really like called the Exchange District."

Lamb said it reminded him of the King West area in downtown Toronto, which he described as "the epicentre of cool in Toronto."

"The Exchange right now is vibrant," he said. "Lots of bars and restaurants and condo conversions going on."

He said government and economic development officials are on the right track in encouraging more residential development in the Exchange. They just need to do it in a bigger way, with more incentives and tax breaks for developers to help offset the high cost of warehouse conversions.

And quit nickel and diming them to death with "stupid, one-time (cash) grabs," he said.

"You need to make this a positive place for developers to be and to invest."

Developers also need to focus on providing "cool" condos that will appeal to young people, he said. That means things like high ceilings, large balconies, natural gas stoves, and hardwood or polished concrete floors.

He also advised them to keep the units at 600 to 900 square feet in size. That way, young people -- the ones most willing to live downtown -- can afford to buy them.

Another piece of advice? Advertise the heck out of the projects -- print, radio, TV, the Internet, the whole nine yards.

"It's all based on marketing them and making people feel like they're going to miss out on something if they don't buy one."

He said if Winnipeg can find a way to build 500 to 600 new downtown residential units a year, "you'll find that in five or six years everything will have changed. Everybody will want to be downtown."

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 11, 2011 B8

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