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This article was published 15/11/2010 (4579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The University of Winnipeg is planning to expand its campus yet again, this time through the construction of a seven-storey residence south of Portage Avenue.

Earlier this fall, the university’s community renewal corporation issued a request for proposals to build a seven-storey apartment building on a 16,000-square-foot plot of land south of the Buhler Centre/Plug In Gallery space on Portage Avenue.

The plan for the $15.5-million building calls for 80 to 100 units, with at least 75 per cent of the apartments designated as affordable housing, said Dan Hurley, the university’s senior executive officer. The rest of the units will be rented out at market rates.

Hurley said the demand for housing is high around the University of Winnipeg, whose year-old McFeetors Hall residence is already full.

That building, on the west side of the university’s downtown campus, has dorm space for 172 students and 25 apartments for the community at large.

The university’s community renewal corporation hopes to access provincial affordable-housing grants to help build the residence. A city-provincial tax-incentive program may also aid the project, Hurley said.

The request for proposals to build the residence has closed. The university’s community renewal corporation will now spend the next few months selecting a construction firm to build the residence and will also choose an environmentally friendly design, Hurley said.

If all goes well, construction could begin in late 2011 or early 2012. The building would replace a surface parking lot at the south end of the Buhler Centre.

“It’s wonderful. It’s better than a parking lot,” said Stefano Grande, executive director of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone.

“It’s another positive move for the university campus. It’s all about more people, of all types and all incomes.”

The entire city faces a shortage of rental apartments as the vacancy rate for residential housing continues to hover around one per cent.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca