$250-M wish list

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This article was published 29/09/2017 (3214 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After five decades in the spotlight, the Manitoba Centennial Centre Corp. is mulling more than just a facelift.

The provincial Crown corporation tasked with providing infrastructure and administrative support to the arts in Manitoba unveiled its 15-year, $250-million master plan Friday.

The 42-page wish list is aimed at shepherding the renovation and redevelopment of its downtown Winnipeg properties — which include the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Centennial Concert Hall and Manitoba Museum and planetarium — and off-campus buildings housing Artspace and the Manitoba Production Centre film studio.

“It’s a lofty goal,” Robert Olson, MCCC chief executive officer, said following the plan’s introduction during a presentation at a chamber of commerce luncheon.

“What I have to make clear is: there is no funding for any of this. It is a conceptual plan, but it’s one we think, as an organization, clearly highlighted a direction we want to go in.”

Among the potential projects are a new music hall (to be built on the site of the Tom Hendry Warehouse Theatre); new parkade; concert hall upgrades; expansion of the museum; an elevated walkway/atrium linking the parkade, museum and concert hall; a new outdoor arts plaza; a new 300-seat performance space (situated between the theatre centre and Pantages Playhouse); rehearsal hall expansion and street parking upgrades.

The document (mbccc.ca/mcccmasterplan), roughly two years in the making, was “done through a consultative process with the stakeholders most impacted by the operations of the Centennial Centre… everyone from municipal government, provincial government, to ballet, symphony, opera, Manitoba Theatre Centre… Quite a range of people were consulted on the development of this plan,” Olson said.

“The intent is to get it out to the public, let them know it wasn’t done in isolation… Our goal as a corporation now is to enact the plan in stages (and) see if we can’t build this thing out. Our first priority is the parkade.”

The 400- to 600-stall, six-level structure on the site of the Rupert Avenue parking lot north of the Manitoba Museum would feature ground-floor, commercial-style rental units, with the goal of being open to the public by 2019.

No physical work has been done on the site, but the proposal is before the provincial government for consideration and a decision is expected this fall, Olson said. The master plan calls it “a relatively low-risk, high-yield development opportunity, given current demand.”

Of perhaps greatest impact, Olson said, would be the development of a new arts centre on Lily Street and alterations to the concert hall.

“It needs to be upgraded. It’s 50 years old,” he said, pointing to similar facilities in Alberta that have undergone renovations in the last decade.

Due to the hall’s historical significance — in March, it will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first concert — “we want to rehabilitate and rebuild. We do not want to tear it down,” Olson said.

However, the price tag attached to reworking the stage, lighting, seating and front lobby falls in the $25-million to $35-million range.

MCCC was incorporated in the early 1960s and Friday’s announcement is the first update to its original 1967 master plan.

It was time, Olson said.

“A few years ago, we knew that we needed to develop a new vision for the next 50 years.”

Given the provincial government’s interest in pursuing private-public partnerships in future infrastructure projects, Olson said there is room for MCCC’s plan.

“We believe… some of these projects can be managed under either format: in collaboration with the private sector or through public funding — but public funding with a return, that is a key distinction,” he said.

“If we are going to use public money to develop, (it is imperative) there be a financial return on that project.”

scott.emmerson@freepress.mb.ca