City considers moving workers into unleased office tower attached to police HQ By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 5:32 PM CDT Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023

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This article was published 19/10/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hundreds of civic staff could occupy long-vacant floors of an office tower the city purchased as part of the scandal-plagued Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project, but there are concerns relocating the workers could leave other downtown properties empty.

In 2009, the city spent $29 million to buy the Canada Post tower at 266 Graham Ave. and an attached warehouse for the HQ project. While police now work out of the former warehouse, two of the tower’s 11 floors remain completely vacant, three are used solely for city storage space and six are occupied by civic and third-party tenants, the city confirmed.

The municipal government has lost money on the tower for several years, with costs exceeding revenue by about $720,000 in 2022 alone, though that figure doesn’t include the value of space occupied by civic tenants.

“We have not been able to lease the space… there hasn’t been a demand for (it),” said Geoff Patton, the city’s director of assets and project management.

“We have not been able to lease the space… there hasn’t been a demand for (it).”–Geoff Patton

The city is now seeking a consultant to complete a business case on the costs and benefits of filling the tower solely with municipal staff. A request for proposals notes the city will provide a list of up to six “candidate tenants,” with three anchor tenants in the range of 150 to 400 people and other groups that “may be” in the range of 20 to 150 people.

Patton declined to state which departments the city will consider relocating or estimate the total number of workers who could fit in the vacant space.

“We want to occupy as much of the building as we can with this process…. The whole goal is just basically to be more efficient and to recover the money,” he said.

Patton stressed the plan will only be implemented if the business case yields positive results and the final proposal wins council approval.

Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy said she agrees city workers would be a good fit for the space, noting security is paramount for the tower connected to the WPS headquarters.

“It does make sense that it would be city staff in there because we would (know) who’s working in that space and the safety element for the police would be taken care of and, also, we wouldn’t have an empty building,” said Gilroy.

However, the plan could produce an unwanted side effect by moving city workers out of other downtown spaces and leaving those sites vacant, she said.

“It’s a pretty big tower so there could be a lot of different departments moving in there. So, (I expect) there would be a loss to other buildings within our downtown,” she said, noting many municipal staff are located close to the City Hall complex on Main Street.

Gilroy said it’s disappointing to see the city lose hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on the tower, more than a decade after the police HQ project began.

“It is frustrating because I could tell you right now a lot of things I would like to see (done) with that money, within my own ward,” she said.

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The WPS headquarters opened in June 2016 at a cost of about $214 million, well above its original $135 million price tag. An external audit found the project was severely mismanaged. The RCMP conducted a lengthy investigation into fraud and forgery allegations, but no criminal charges were laid.

In March 2023, city council approved a settlement of fraud and construction-deficiency lawsuits it launched over the project, which will see the city receive at least $21.5 million. The allegations related to the settlement have not been proven in court.

Meanwhile, the tower’s condition could complicate the proposal to relocate city staff. Back in 2009, city officials predicted the tower could be sold for $18 million. However, the city later determined the structure, which was built in 1958, would need about $20 million of renovations.

Patton did not provide an updated repair cost.

“It’s premature to talk about… the specific costs because they will likely be dependent on the department that’s selected (to move in) and then the timing of when those costs (are) incurred,” he said.

“We want to occupy as much of the building as we can with this process…. The whole goal is just basically to be more efficient and to recover the money.”–Geoff Patton

Patton expects staff will provide a report with recommendations on how best to use the tower next year. If city council approves it, some employees could move in by 2025, depending on the renovations required, he said.

Patton said the city will consider the impact of potential changes on the downtown and additional city workers may be moved, if space becomes available as other staff relocate to the tower.

In an email, the head of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ indicated some support for the plan.

“The potential move of hundreds of city workers to Graham would help make this key corridor in our downtown more vibrant. Overall, the more strategic the city can be with its properties downtown, the better it will be for the entire city,” wrote Kate Fenske, chief executive officer of the BIZ.

The city expects to spend up to $200,000 on the consultant’s report.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.