Wawanesa opens new headquarters Expected to entice 1,300 people to become downtown regulars By: Martin Cash Posted: 11:00 AM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2024 Last Modified: 9:21 AM CDT Thursday, Mar. 14, 2024 Updates

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This article was published 13/03/2024 (900 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new office tower in downtown Winnipeg is always big news, but Wednesday’s official opening of the gleaming headquarters of Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Co. is especially important.

The 21-storey, 360,000-square-foot, purpose-built tower at the corner of Graham Avenue and Carlton Street is expected to entice some 1,300 people to become downtown regulars. With closed storefronts and reduced foot traffic, the area has yet to rebound fully from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This investment will bring people downtown and all the life and vitality that folks bring with them when they visit our city centre. That is only going to mean good things for Winnipeg and good things for Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said.

Jeff Goy, president and CEO of the 127-year-old Manitoba company, gushed about the symbolic nature of the new building relative to the firm’s history.

The company — which started in 1896, with 20 farmers in Wawanesa each putting in $20 to mutually insure their fire-prone wooden threshers— now has 1.6 million policyholders, about $4 billion in annual premiums and a total of about 5,000 employees across the country.

“When you look out the windows on the 21st floor, you can see The Forks, the human rights museum, the legislative building — and if you look down from this window over here in June, that’s where there will be a Stanley Cup party,” the CEO said.

Goy and others emphasized the design elements of the building, including a feature on the exterior cladding that represents the winding Souris River (on the banks of which the company was founded). There’s a diorama with important dates in Wawanesa Mutual history covering a wall in a space that will be used for training, historic artifacts under glass and rooms named after important figures in the company’s lengthy history.

Standing on the 21st floor, in the grand meeting room of the $136-million building, Goy said his 35-year career at Wawanesa has been spent entirely on the ninth floor of 191 Broadway, one of the property and casualty insurance company’s seven former locations in Winnipeg.

“It says a lot about the culture of Wawanesa when it gives up the top floor (of the new building) with the best view to all of its employees,” communications specialist Eva Kovacs said.

The Broadway building is now partially sublet. Wawanesa Mutual’s former Main Street location was recently sold to the Manitoba Métis Federation and leases on a few other locations are expiring.

Billed as environmentally sustainable, the new headquarters is connected to True North Square and downtown Winnipeg’s skywalk system.

It includes the sort of amenities human resource professionals say are integral in recruiting the best and brightest, including a sprawling cafeteria, child care centre (yet to be opened), underground lock-up with space for 80 bikes, and massive physical health and wellness centre.

The building represents the third tower in the True North Square development. (The fourth is still come in the form of a Sutton Place hotel.)

Owned by True North Real Estate Development, Wawanesa Mutual is a “committed” long-term tenant in the purpose-built building.

On Wednesday, Wawanesa Mutual announced a $450,000 contribution to the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone to support its environmental team, community clean-up events and the planting of seasonal flowers.

“We are incredibly grateful to Wawanesa,” Downtown BIZ CEO Kate Fenske said. “The thing I am really excited about is it’s really apparent that Wawanesa is so committed to being a part of the downtown community beyond those four walls.”

The company is also making a $50,000 contribution to the Downtown Community Safety Partnership.

Meantime, Wawanesa Mutual said its new headquarters was built to accommodate a growing workforce, which has doubled in size over the last decade.

While the company has a beautiful new HQ, its workers are not mandated to be at the office everyday.

“We still have a hybrid work program. We have seen a lot of momentum and now that we have welcomed people into the new building over the last few weeks. We expect that momentum to build and we will see more and more people downtown every day,” said Evan Johnston, executive vice-president, strategy and related businesses.

“We think people will want to come here without us asking them to come back.”

The president of True North Real Estate Development was among those also looking to the near future.

“We are thrilled to officially welcome Wawanesa to True North Square and see their vision of an innovative, inviting and purpose-built employee home come to life in opening their new national headquarters,” Jim Ludlow said.

“Wawanesa has long-held tremendous pride in their Manitoba roots, and their continued commitment to their employees and to being part of a dynamic downtown Winnipeg core speaks very loudly through this stunning space.”

Ludlow further hinted at another big downtown Winnipeg real estate development announcement in the coming months, regarding the redevelopments of Portage Place mall and the former Hudson’s Bay Co. building: “Stay tuned.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca