City poised to purchase landmark business

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This article was published 19/11/2009 (6130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg is poised to buy an Osborne Village car wash for $3.4 million because the construction of the southwest rapid transit corridor rendered the popular business unviable.

On Wednesday, city council’s executive policy committee met behind closed doors to consider an expropriation settlement for Midtown Car Wash, a five-decade-old business that occupies a triangle of land bounded by Gertrude Avenue, Scott Street and Donald Street.

Earlier this year, the city expropriated a strip of Midtown’s property along Donald Street to accommodate Phase One of the southwest rapid transit corridor, a busway that will extend from The Forks to Jubilee Avenue. To allow the construction to proceed, the city sought to acquire a total of 11 Fort Rouge-area properties, including a Warsaw Avenue travel agency and large chunks of parking lots belonging to the Masonic Temple on Corydon Avenue and Pembina Chrysler on Pembina Highway.

Although Midtown Car Wash only gave up a narrow strip of land, the business lost enough space to make it impossible to operate as it does right now, according to a city real-estate report. Along with a car wash, the business includes a gas kiosk and a car-rental operation.

The removal of the strip of land means there is less space to park rental vehicles, too little room to allow large vehicles to turn into the car wash and too little space between gasoline storage tanks and the property line, according to the city report.

City real-estate managers concluded Winnipeg should acquire the entire property — including the buildings and equipment — as soon as possible "in order to limit the city’s exposure to a potentially lengthy and costly expropriation hearing."

While Midtown’s owners wanted $4.4 million, the city was able to whittle down the asking price to $3.4 million, according to the report. If council approves the deal next week, the city will take possession on Dec. 15.

The city would then list the property and return any proceeds from its sale to the rapid-transit project, "resulting in a net settlement much lower than the $3.4 million proposed settlement price," the report reads.

The city originally budgeted to spend $12.7 in rapid-transit expropriations. The city has already spent $5.75 million to compensate Pembina Chrysler for the loss of part of its parking lot by purchasing land once occupied by used-car dealer Autotown and handing it over to the Chrysler dealership.

Midtown Car Wash’s owners, meanwhile, have already stopped selling pay-in-advance car wash tickets to make sure customers are not harmed by the closure.

Co-owner Jamie Penner, who’s worked at the car wash for 30 years and has owned it with his wife Laurie for the past 20, said he is not sure what he will do after the city takes over his business.

"I didn’t get all twisted up about it, because we’ve been told this would happen before and it didn’t," he said, referring to a previous rapid-transit corridor plan proposed during the Glen Murray administration but cancelled by current Mayor Sam Katz. "This has been going on for 15 years."

Phase One of the southwest rapid transit corridor, a 3.6-kilometre busway which extends from Queen Elizabeth Way to Jubilee Avenue, is expected to be completed in 2011 at a cost of $138 million. So far, the project is $2.7 million under budget.

Phase Two, a six-kilometre busway that will continue south to the University of Manitoba, is expected to cost $189 million. The city has not secured any funding for this segment.

 

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca