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Hungry? Bank on new Exchange eateries

Red River College to begin work on historic building

By: Bartley Kives

Posted: 10/15/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

JEFF DE BOOY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS archives Three restaurants are slated to open in the Union Bank Tower building in late 2011.

People who live or work in the west side of the Exchange District will have not one but three new places to eat once Red River College's culinary and hospitality programs move into the Union Bank Tower.The $27-million renovation of the Main Street national historic site will begin later this month with heritage restoration work on part of the office tower's exterior, college and government officials plan to announce at a ceremony this morning.

In late 2011, the long-vacant structure is slated to reopen as the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, which will feature classrooms and training facilities on the bottom three levels, along with new annexes on the south and west sides of the building. The upper floors will be converted into student residences, while three new restaurants will open up at street level with the intention of enhancing the pedestrian-friendly character of Old Market Square. Most of the work will be conducted in 2010 and 2011, college spokesman Colin Fast said Wednesday.

As previously announced, Red River's existing Prairie Lights Restaurant, a fine-dining establishment staffed by college students, will be relocated to the downtown campus and will open under a new name. The two other eateries will be casual spots with outdoor seating areas, Fast said. A short-order restaurant called the Hard Drive Café will face the plaza south of the tower, while a take-out Grab & Go will face west into Old Market Square.

The conversion of the 104-year-old heritage building, which has been vacant since 1992, is being funded with the help of a $9.5-million federal grant, $4.5 million from the province and $2 million from Paterson GlobalFoods. Company chief executive officer Andrew Paterson, a college graduate, has agreed to spearhead a fundraising campaign to raise another $8 million.

The remaining $3 million in funding has yet to be announced.

'New" cash for bike-foot trail

ALL three levels of government plan to "announce" a $250,000 contribution to a new trail in South St. Vital today, but the cash is anything but new.

On Sept. 11, the city, province and federal government held a joint news conference to announce $20 million in new funding for bike and pedestrian trails in Winnipeg, among other new infrastructure-funding announcements.

This morning, Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge, Fort Garry MLA Kerri Irvin-Ross and St. Vital Coun. Gord Steeves will gather at a St. Vital retirement complex to announce $250,000 of the trail-building kitty will create a new bike-and-pedestrian path called the Seine River Greenway South Trail, which will run along the Seine River from Creek Bend Road to Southglen Shopping Centre.

The gravel trail will also connect to Bois-des-Esprit, the largely intact forest near the Royalwood neighbourhood.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 15, 2009 B2

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