Breathing new life into downtown

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This article was published 28/04/2010 (5668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CentreVenture Development Corp. has unveiled its new vision for downtown Portage Avenue, which includes a new hotel across from the MTS Centre and extending the skywalk system to the University of Winnipeg.

With the redevelopment of Main Street well underway, the city’s downtown development agency is turning its attention to breathing new life into Winnipeg’s other key thoroughfare.

Corporation officials told the agency’s annual meeting Tuesday the agency and the Downtown Council, which includes the area’s major stakeholders, have developed a new "action plan" for Portage. Highlights include dividing the downtown around Portage into four distinct districts, seeking to have the area designated as the city’s first tax increment financing (TIF) zone, extending the pedestrian skywalk system westward to the U of W, and redeveloping the former Mitchell Copp/A & B Sound buildings.

CentreVenture CEO Ross McGowan said in an interview the agency recently acquired the former Wild Planet building across the back lane from the other two buildings. It wants to turn all three properties into a new mixed-use development which could include a hotel, residential units and retail space. He said it will be a multimillion-dollar project, but he refused to disclose any details until planning is complete.

"There is progress being made with commercial and hospitality interests," McGowan said. "I think by July or August we’ll be able to make an announcement."

He said the agency’s redevelopment plans don’t stop with just those three properties. It’s also trying to acquire several other properties in the same block between Portage and Ellice avenues and Donald and Hargrave streets. But he wouldn’t say which ones or how many, because negotiations are ongoing.

He said the agency would like to have the area around downtown Portage designated as a TIF zone so the additional property and education taxes generated from any new redevelopments there can be placed into a separate account and used to spur on more new developments in the area. The proposed extension of the skywalk system to the U of W campus is one of the projects that could be funded with TIF proceeds.

"We’re exploring it (the skywalk extension). It’s on the agenda."

He said one of the key objectives of the action plan is to shrink the size of the downtown by focusing development within the four new districts.

"Instead of going south with new development or going north, we want to push it all towards the centre — to strengthen the core," he said.

McGowan, CentreVenture chairman Jim Ludlow and Mayor Sam Katz all told the meeting that great strides have been made in efforts to revitalize the downtown.

"The downtown is in the midst of a serious upswing," McGowan said. "I think we’re much closer to our tipping point than many would have thought just a few years ago."

"I’m excited about the downtown," Katz said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca