A giant rises on Lagimodiere

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This article was published 17/08/2009 (6134 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

That lonely Steinbach Credit Union ATM on Lagimodiere Boulevard north of the Revenue Canada tax centre is not so all alone anymore.

Rising out of the vacant land north of the Regent Avenue retail strip, on the east side of Lagimodiere at Almey Avenue, is the latest manifestation of the success of the Steinbach Credit Union.

The 42,000-square-foot steel and glass building under construction shows that when it comes to new branch development, SCU believes in the adage, "go big or go home."

"People are not going to their financial institutions every week," said SCU’s chief executive officer, Glenn Friesen. "We don’t need to build 20 branches in the city."

SCU is the largest credit union in the province, with assets of $2.7 billion.

The four-storey edifice will be one of the largest private-sector commercial developments deploying geothermal energy in the province and one of the largest credit union branches in the country.

SCU decided not to seek LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, but Greg Ward, president of the Waterloo firm that designed the building, 1st Financial Building Corp. of Canada, said there are enough design elements that the building would qualify. It will achieve Manitoba Hydro’s Power Smart designation.

"We have gone through every nook and cranny so that the building will sit lightly on the planet, as it were," Ward said.

In addition to geothermal, the building will feature triple-glazed glass windows and a low carbon footprint, so rather than getting marble shipped from Italy, the building will use Tyndall stone from Manitoba quarries.

Ward said design elements, like an indoor waterfall that will show the SCU logo in lights behind the falling water, will create a comfortable and inviting feel to the branch.

The credit union spent $10 million on the development of its south Winnipeg branch in 2003 and it is acting as developer on this project. The cost is not disclosed.

Friesen said SCU has determined that it is the best deployment of members’ equity to own all its projects, as opposed to other financial services institutions, some of which lease their premises.

Lloyd Dueck, SCU’s facility manager, said: "We are using as many "green" features in the building as possible because we want to be seen as leaders in the community."

For 20 years, 1st Financial Building Corp. of Canada has exclusively designed and built credit union — and only credit union — branches and head offices. Ward believes SCU will be the largest branch it has ever built.

Dueck said that in addition to the geothermal and Power Smart features, the retail part of the building will include teller pods, a new element of retail banking design in Manitoba.

Four teller islands with two tellers each will give SCU members a unique branch experience compared to the traditional institutional feel of retail banking, Dueck said.

The full-service branch, scheduled to open early in 2010, will house about 60 employees, most of whom have already been hired and are in the process of being trained.

In addition to the typical retail branch services, Friesen said SCU members will be able to access all their commercial, agricultural, small business and wealth management banking services at the Lagimodiere location.

It remains to be seen, but there may be a lot of traffic at the new location for SCU’s popular mortgage products — last month, SCU wrote a record $50 million in new mortgages — because the area is a hotbed for new housing starts.

SCU owned the Lagimodiere property for four years before it started construction.

In addition to SCU’s shrewd growth strategy — Friesen said it was forced to build a new Winnipeg branch because its south Winnipeg location is bursting at the seams — the credit union also seems to have a knack for anticipating the best locations before they become unattainable.

Its south Winnipeg branch, a 35,500- square-foot site at the corner of Kenaston and McGillivray boulevards, opened in 2003.

At the time, that regional retail power centre was just being formed and it was too soon to know with any certainty if it would become as enduringly successful as it has.

Not to say the same thing is going to happen with SCU’s next Winnipeg location, but it might.

The area is currently zoned for hundreds of new homes in several housing developments. Harbour View South, directly north of SCU’s site, has hundreds of homes planned as well as additional commercial and community amenities.

Sandy Shindleman, president of Shindico, one of the savviest real estate developers in the city, controls a 34-acre site just south of SCU.

The city’s second Storageville location has gone up on that site and Shindleman is talking to all sorts of retailers who are considering developing there.

"It is a great area with lots of new housing on the books up there," Shindleman said. "The housing is coming up east and north and there is a lot of it."

As a real estate professional, Shindleman takes a very technical approach to the benefits of the location.

"We’re very optimistic about the site," he said. "It is really good access and it is a very busy corner. We think SCU will be a very nice shadow anchor for the site."

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

 

 

January

2010

Scheduled opening

42,000

square feet

The size of the building

60

The number

of staff

expected to

work there

$2.7

billion

Steinbach Credit Union’s assets

$50

million

New mortgages written

in July 2009, a record