Delay in construction prompts lawsuit against city, consulting firm

A contractor is suing the City of Winnipeg and a consulting company in relation to the permitting process that it claims delayed construction of a townhouse complex in the Prairie Point neighbourhood.

Prairie Point Inc. contractors filed a statement of claim in the Court of King’s Bench on Dec. 19, naming the City of Winnipeg and Affinity Architecture as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges the city issued permits for the residential complex and underground parking lot, but later claimed the project violated Manitoba’s building codes.

Prairie Point, which claims it suffered a financial loss, seeks unspecified general, special damages and $750 in costs from the city and Affinity Architecture because of delays and incurred costs to address the violations.

The City of Winnipeg and Affinity Architecture have yet to file statements of defence.

Prairie Point purchased a parcel of land at 20 Ken Oblik Dr. in October 2021. The project was designed with the townhouses and underground parkade as separate structures.

The lawsuit states the city issued permits for the separate structures in May 2022 and the project was built as planned.

In December 2023, Prairie Point applied for a final occupancy permit for the parkade. The court filing says the city denied the application on the basis that the parkade and the townhouses were, in fact, considered one structure and a fire alarm needed to be installed that would run from the parkade throughout the townhouses.

The consulting company, Affinity Architecture, disputed the denial and re-applied for a permit. It was denied a second time on the same basis, the lawsuit says.

Prairie Point says the city rejected a professional opinion that the project complied with Manitoba building codes, and asked the company to hire a third-party to prove compliance.

Later, the city rejected the third-party engineer report and demanded the company make changes to the fire alarm system; it wouldn’t accept alternative solutions, the lawsuit states.

“(The city) continued to require the owner to provide further alternative solutions without specific direction as to what it required,” the court filing says.

In August 2024, the city accepted the final alternative option to address the fire alarm system. Final occupancy for the project was granted in February.

During the fire alarm debacle, the lawsuit states the city inspected the project and raised issues about the egress of certain units. The company submitted a solution and it was accepted by the city.

Later, during a city-conducted audit of the project, the lawsuit claims the city retracted its acceptance of the egress solution and asked Prairie Point to do more work to fix the problem.

That caused further delays in getting tenants into the townhouses, the court filing states.

Prairie Point claims the city was negligent during the permit review process and that the city inspected the project several times prior to the audit and failed to raised issues with respect to compliance of provincial building codes.

The lawsuit alleges Affinity Architecture was responsible for designing and ensuring the project was built to code, and is liable for losses incurred by the company.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca