Hydro building’s lockdown leaves restaurants hungry for customers

Tenants of Manitoba Hydro’s downtown dining hall are taking a hit to their revenues while the Crown corporation figures out how to restore public access amid a safety review of the building.

Three tenants of Café 360 at Manitoba Hydro Place — Colosimo Coffee Roasters, Greenish and Bagelsmith/Super Slice Pizza — have been inaccessible to the public since Feb. 2 — after a Hydro employee was attacked inside the gallery.

Since then, the building has been closed to the public with the eateries open to Hydro employees only.

Greenish general manager Yunggi Yoon said business has been as slow as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when the restaurant operated out of a different downtown location.

“Lots of our Hydro people can go outside to buy other foods, and then we cannot accept any other customers from outside (the building),” Yoon said Thursday. “We still have a lot of regular customers to come to us, knock on the (emergency exit) door but we cannot open it.”

Most downtown Hydro employees work from home on Monday and Wednesday as part of a company benefit available to most employees, so the sushi spot relies on external foot traffic to drive sales on those days.

On Jan. 30, a man armed with a knife attacked a Hydro employee in the lobby at 360 Portage Ave. as they were leaving work. Another employee and staff from a nearby restaurant intervened before security and police arrived.

An 18-year-old man faces charges of assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon.

With the building closed, people who want to access the two attached restaurants —Rudy’s Eat & Drink and Clay Oven Express — must use external entrances. The dining hall has no external access point.

The emergency exit door, which opens up to Portage Avenue, had been in use as a public access point for some time, until the Jan. 30 incident, Bagelsmith/Super Slice owner Phil Klein said.

Most of Klein’s customers are Hydro employees so his revenues haven’t taken as big of a hit, but he says he wants to continue to grow the business.

“We still have a lot of regular customers to come to us, knock on the (emergency exit) door but we cannot open it.”

“We’ve kind of made it clear as tenants that that door is incredibly important, especially now that the rest of the building is on lockdown,” he said.

Klein met with Hydro leadership Thursday morning to discuss what, if any, plans Hydro has to restore public access.

Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura would not confirm the emergency exit door is being considered as an alternative entrance to the dining hall. In an email, Chura said the Crown corporation is still reviewing and updating security measures.

A re-opening date was not disclosed.

Last week, Chura confirmed Hydro plans to deploy three institutional safety officers at the building as part of a plan to beef up security. The specially trained and licensed security staff have the legal authority to restrain, detain and make an arrest. They carry pepper gel and handcuffs.

The plan to hire safety officers pre-dated the Jan. 30 assault on an employee.

At the time, Chura said the corporation was looking at installing “physical security measures” at Manitoba Hydro Place, but wouldn’t elaborate.

“We’re waiting around to see what happens, I guess, and then we can kind of plan our business accordingly based on what happens.”

About 2,000 people work at the downtown HQ.

Yoon and Klein understand the closure is for the safety of employees and customers, but hope to see it resolved soon.

“We’re waiting around to see what happens, I guess, and then we can kind of plan our business accordingly based on what happens,” Klein said.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca