CITY councillors played Solomon on Thursday by dividing a piece of surplus land, allowing both an apartment building and a heritage park to co-exist at the site of Winnipeg's modern birthplace.
Council's downtown development committee voted to sell Crystal Developers land at the corner of Assiniboine Avenue and Fort Street, immediately southwest of where Upper Fort Garry stood from 1834 to 1882.
A highrise apartment building is to share the site of the birthplace of Winnipeg with a heritage park and interpretive centre. The gate (inset) is all that remains of Upper Fort Garry, near Main Street, south of Broadway.
However, the committee also asked city administrators to work with the non-profit group Friends of Upper Fort Garry to transform the rest of the surplus land -- a strip of Main Street south of Broadway -- into a historical park and interpretive centre.
That strip includes a former civic public works building at 100 Main St., as well as Upper Fort Garry's north gate, the sole surviving structure from the fur trade-era fort.
"I think this could easily be explained as a win-win," said Coun. Russ Wyatt, chairman of the downtown development committee. "The integrity of the historic gate has been preserved."
The surplus land has been up for grabs since 2006, when the city put out a call for developers to revitalize the land on and around 100 Main St.
Crystal Developers proposed a $13.3-million, 15-storey apartment building in the southwest corner, while Friends of Upper Fort Garry planned a $12-million, history-themed tourist attraction on the entire site. A third applicant wanted to build a 35-storey skyscraper, also in the southwest corner.
1 Governor's Garden, location of existing gate
2 Merchant's Promenade
3 Merchant's Plaza
4 Gateview Estates
5 South Gate
City planners recommended the Crystal proposal as the best means of providing a balance between generating revenue and preserving heritage. The deal approved Thursday will see Winnipeg sell the southwest parcel of the surplus land to Crystal for $1.8 million and then recoup $153,000 a year in property taxes.
That money could be used to help fund a park and interpretive centre next door, said Brian Tokar, principal owner of architectural firm Friesen Tokar, which designed the apartment building and also designed a plan for the park.
"We look at it as a very significant park. It has a story to tell," said Tokar, whose park design calls for a garden at the north end of the fort's old footprint, a farmer's market along the west side, a green space at the south and an interpretive centre on the main floor of the existing city building at 100 Main St.
It also calls for the reconstruction of the old fort's southwestern and southeastern bastions on either side of Main Street.
The apartment building, dubbed Gateview Estates, will be geared to a middle-class clientele, with 10 to 12 units on each floor, Tokar said.
The eastern wall of the parking area will be comprised of timber and Tyndall stone so the project will conform to the historical nature of the site, he added.
"We want to bring people downtown. We're hoping to do it in a sensitive and respectful, yet practical way," he said.
The Friends of Upper Fort Garry, however, are disappointed by the councillors' decision, as they wanted to transform all the surplus city land into a park. They also wanted to demolish the building at 100 Main St., and build an interpretive centre where the apartment building will be built.
"A 15-storey building will tower over our park," said former Manitoba lieutenant-governor Peter Liba, who leads the Friends' steering committee.
Liba said his group is willing to sit down with the city to discuss developing the park, but he isn't sure his group can achieve its goals on a smaller parcel of land.
"What we're proposing here isn't a little community park. It was supposed to be a world-class centre," he said.
It's unclear whether the city will simply offer to give the rest of the surplus land to Friends of Upper Fort Garry, attempt to sell it, or offer some form of financial support.
The future course of action depends on negotiations, Wyatt said.
The Transcona councillor, who has been critical of city staff in the past, praised city planners for the way they handled the Upper Fort Garry file.
"They had at the front of their mind the need to preserve the site and at the same time try to achieve some revenues from the sale of the site, which would not compromise in any way the historical nature," Wyatt said. "The administration has done a very good job."
 | bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca |
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