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Terminal demolition underway

By: Geoff Kirbyson

Posted: 07/26/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press The debris from demolishing the south end of the old terminal is removed by heavy equipment Wednesday.

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A couple of years after being given a terminal diagnosis, the former hub of Winnipeg's airline passenger industry is in the process of being turned into a parking lot.

The old air terminal building, dormant since being mothballed and replaced with a state-of-the-art facility last fall, has become a shell of its former self. The south end has already been "deconstructed" and the north end is set to follow in the coming weeks.

Christine Alongi, spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Airports Authority, said once the building has been completely taken down, the space will be used -- in the short term, anyway -- as a parking pad for aircraft.

What will rise in the long term remains to be seen. One project, a new home for the Western Canada Aviation Museum, has been confirmed, but the airports authority hasn't decided anything beyond that.

"We're open for business and certainly there are a lot of ideas about what it could be and what people would like to see, but nothing is signed, sealed and delivered. Certainly something will stick," Alongi said.

The airports authority's business development group continues to meet with people in the community to discuss possibilities. One idea being bandied about is a health-care facility that could serve people from northern First Nations.

Shirley Render, executive director of the aviation museum, said she hopes to break ground on a new 105,000-square-foot location in 2015 and open for business two years later, the same year the lease on its current location on Ferry Road -- which is about 15,000 square feet smaller -- is up.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to be extremely visible. Anybody going to the airport will have to drive right by our front door," she said. "We're tucked away (on Ferry Road). People aren't usually walking down the service road that leads to our front door."

The extra visibility should result in a significant boost to the number of annual visitors to the museum, which was about 35,000 last year.

The museum already has a head start on what is expected to be $25 million in construction costs courtesy of a $2.5-million donation from the Exchange Income Corp. earlier this year.

A capital campaign, earmarked to cover construction costs, an endowment and new exhibits, is expected to be launched in the near future. Render said the campaign's goal will be to raise $35 million.

The museum's current building was built in the late 1930s and was the operational headquarters of Trans-Canada Air Lines, the forerunner of Air Canada. Queen Elizabeth officially opened the museum in 1984.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 26, 2012 A3

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