Wild for Wildewood

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This article was published 24/02/2016 (3512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CONSTRUCTION is expected to begin this spring on a new $25-million, 55 unit condominium/townhouse development on the site of the former Wildewood Club in East Fort Garry.

Called Wildewood Village, the development at 761 North Dr. will include a five-storey building with 41 apartment-style condos and eight adjoining townhouses. The condo building and the eight townhomes will back onto the Red River. There will also be a second group of six townhouses, but they won’t be riverside units.

Wildewood Village will be only the second multi-family development ever built in the Wildewood Park area, which dates back to the 1930s and ’40s, said Ken Clark, the local real estate agent working on the project. The first was a 31-unit apartment-style condo complex built about eight years ago at 703 Riverwood Ave.

The developers are Winnipeg businessman Larry Calen, owner of Two Amigos & Company, and Freedom Developments, which is owned by Ross McGowan — the former president and CEO of CentreVenture Development Corporation — and Winnipeg businessman/developer Marshall Freed.

Freedom Developments was also the developer of the condo complex at 703 Riverwood Ave., and Freed said it was the success of that project that convinced him and McGowan to partner with Calen to purchase and redevelop the two-acre Wildewood Club property.

“There is a real desire in the community to have some condo development in the area so they (area homeowners) don’t have to move away,” he explained in an interview Tuesday.

Clark, who is owner/broker of Act Realty, said they expect up to 60 per cent of the units will be purchased by people who currently own houses on North and South Drive and want to switch to a condo.

McGowan said about half of the units were “prereserved,” and Clark is now in the process of converting those reservations into sales. While he doesn’t expect everyone who reserved a unit will end up buying, Mc-Gowan thinks most of them will.

The ones that aren’t pre-sold will go on sale to the public in April, Clark added.

McGowan and Freed think one of the big selling features of their new development is the location. In addition to being in an older, well-established neighbourhood that’s a 10-minute drive from downtown, the front of the condo complex and the first eight townhomes faces the Wildewood Golf Course, and the backs look out on the river.

That’s why they opted to go with higher-end units made from concrete and steel that are bigger than usual, have enclosed heated parking on the main floor, and feature high ceilings, big windows and high-end finishes — things such as hardwood floors, granite or quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances.

“We’re not going with the norm. The site is so spectacular, so let’s do something that does it justice,” McGowan added.

He said the fact half of the units have already been spoken for tells them it was the right decision.

“I think we’re proving there is a demand for larger units. People don’t want to spend $400 per square foot for an 800-square-foot condo.”

The apartment-style condos will range in size from 1,050 to 2,100 square feet and are priced at between $400,000 and $900,000. The eight multi-level townhouses range in size from 2,000 to 2,400 square feet and are priced at between $850,000 and $1 million. The size and price of the other six townhomes have not been finalized.

McGowan said the high cost of redeveloping the property also factored into the price of the units.

“These (infill developments) are very, very expensive sites to develop. The costs are two to three times that of suburban developments.”

He also noted the property is also on a flood plain, so it had to be diked. And the clubhouse was filled with asbestos insulation, which had to be removed at a cost of nearly a half a million dollars before the building could be demolished. That process has now been completed, and demolition will proceed within the next week or two, he added.

He said the project will be developed in three phases, with the condo complex being built first, followed by the eight riverside townhouses and then the other six townhomes. The goal is to have everything completed by the winter of 2017 or the spring of 2018.

Further information about the project is available at www.wildewoodvillage.com.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca