City sells North End building to longtime daycare tenant at hefty discount

The City of Winnipeg will sell a Salter Street property for $200,000 to a daycare that has used the space for decades.

On Wednesday, council’s property and development committee cast a final vote to sell the building at 491 Salter St. to Machray Day Nursery.

“This is a big deal for parents. Parents are desperately looking for child-care spots. Now they can be reassured that the Machray daycare on Salter is not going anywhere. In fact, they are invested even more… now in that location,” said Coun. Evan Duncan, the committee’s chairman.

The sale price is well below the city’s appraised value for the site, which it pegs at $615,000.

“The city wants to promote daycare spaces…. Supporting them with essentially a $400,000 cut to that cost, at $200,000, is a good signal to people that we’re on board to make these daycares successful,” said Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood).

The sale includes a condition that the buyer continue to operate a daycare at the site for the next 15 years. If they don’t, the land and building would revert back to city ownership.

The move is part of a broader municipal effort to determine if some non-profit tenants working in city buildings could buy their respective properties.

In 2024, the city announced tenants at 12 civic buildings had expressed interest in doing so. Council approved a plan to let staff negotiate potential deals.

At the time, a staff report estimated the buildings were worth a combined $5 million to $10 million, though it also noted some could be sold for as little as $1 each.

In December 2025, Alhijra Islamic Foundation bought its building at 410 Desalaberry Ave. for $150,000, the first and only other sale so far among the group. It continues to operate an Islamic school at the site.

Duncan expects the property and development committee will receive an update on whether any additional deals are in the works.

“I look for other opportunities throughout the City of Winnipeg that, if some of these not-for-profit organizations operating as daycares want to become owners of their building space (and) they’re long-term, good tenants of the City of Winnipeg, we’re open to those discussions,” he said.

The property at 491 Salter was acquired by the city through a tax sale in 1982. The daycare has leased it since 1985 and spent $600,000 to replace its roof, heating and cooling system and flooring, while also updating its kitchen and removing asbestos and mould, according to a city staff report.

“These are the good tenants that we’re looking for, the people that are going to be good stewards of City of Winnipeg buildings,” said Duncan.

In the report, staff say the sale offers multiple benefits for the city.

“Offering the property below market value helps ensure affordability for the purchaser while providing a modest financial return to taxpayers. This sale represents the best value for the city by eliminating the current $1-per-year lease for the building, relieving the city of potential future maintenance costs, and avoiding any subsequent lease renewals under the same conditions,” it notes.

The sale is expected to close in October.

The city began to review the use of all its buildings in 2020, through a strategic facility master plan. That led staff to ask 40 of the city’s 86 non-profit tenants if they would buy the buildings they occupy, excluding others that can’t be sold, such as community centres.

About 12 groups expressed interest in buying their buildings at that time, with most saying a $1 price would be needed for them to do so, a report noted.

The groups interested in 2024 included a variety of sports, daycare and religious organizations.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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