New life for arena site

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This article was published 19/10/2011 (5297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Construction crews were to begin digging a big hole today on the former Winnipeg Arena site as work gets underway on the long-awaited Polo North office and retail complex.

The developers behind the $36-million project — Winnipeg’s Shindico Realty Inc. and Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. — held an official ground-breaking ceremony at the Maroons Road property on Tuesday.

Shindico’s development manager, Bob Downs, said the real work would get underway first thing this morning, and the first order of business will be to dig the hole for the 200-stall underground parkade.

Downs said it’s expected to take about a year to build the three-storey, 210,000-square-foot complex, which will have office space on the top two floors and retail space on the main level.

It took about six years for the developers to complete a design and nail down an anchor tenant for the Polo North project. As previously reported, Western Financial Group will be the anchor tenant, leasing all of the second and third floors.

Downs said the 80,000 square feet on the main floor will likely be subdivided into three units. He said talks are ongoing with a number of interested parties and he hopes to have deals completed by the end of the year.

Western Financial said it plans to move all four of its Winnipeg operations — insurance brokerage, life insurance, pet insurance and banking — into its roughly 100,000 square feet of space. The space will service as its new Winnipeg regional office.

“This new building symbolizes the success that Western Financial Group has experienced in Manitoba in recent years,” said Grant Ostir, president of Western Financial Group Insurance Solutions.

“And it also represents our long-term commitment to this city and province,” Ostir said. “Because of our growth, we had run out of space in our existing buildings. Our new location gives us a central, modern, unified location and plenty of room to grow.”

Downs confirmed the building was designed so the third floor can easily be expanded if Western Financial needs more room.

Although the building is to be completed by the fall of next year, the Alberta-based financial services firm isn’t expected to move in until the spring of 2013, when it has finished developing its space.

Western Financial received 32 responses when it issued a request for proposals in June of last year. The list was whittled down to five sites — four in the downtown where it originally said it preferred to go, and the old arena site. A company official said it chose the Polo Park site because the rent and parking rates were cheaper, it provided room for future expansion, and because of concerns about downtown safety at night. He said some of the firm’s 370 employees work until 10 p.m., and were worried about having to catch a bus or walk to their cars that late at night.

Western Financial isn’t the only business that has expressed concerns about downtown safety. Air Canada also said in a recent internal memo it was relocating its flight crews from a downtown hotel to an airport-area hotel because of safety concerns. And the owner of Discreet Boutique closed his Donald Street shop at the end of September, saying he was fed up with panhandlers and intoxicated people harassing his staff and customers.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca