Forward thinking

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2017 (3346 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An anchor tenant has been found for the office atrium portion of the $20-million James Avenue Pumping Station redevelopment on Waterfront Drive.

Think Shift, a local advertising agency, has signed a tentative agreement to lease most of the roughly 12,000-square-foot atrium, which will sit on steel girders suspended three metres above ground level inside the original building. The firm is waiting for the final leasing documents to be signed.

Work on the one-storey atrium is well underway, and co-developer Bryce Alston said it should be completed in November.

“It’s actually been going quite well. We’re on schedule… so that’s good,” he said.

“And with the nicer weather now, it’s really going to start to pick up. It just opens up a chance to do a whole bunch of work that we couldn’t do. We’ll be able to really ramp up.”

The developers plan to carve a series of large skylights into the roof of the original building so tenants in neighbouring buildings can see down into the building.

The interior office atrium will feature glass walls, with several large cut-out areas in the floor so Think Shift employees — and maybe even some of the occupants in the two neighbouring buildings — can see the refurbished pumping equipment in the building’s lower level.

Think Shift CEO David Baker and company president David Lazarenko said their firm expects to move into its new quarters in February 2018.

Both sound as if they can’t wait.

“It’s just going to be stunning. Essentially, the glass walls will wrap around where the pumps are,” he said. “And (the original pump house) is such a spectacular building. You can see why Heritage Winnipeg wanted to protect it.”

Baker noted the roof on the pump house building has dual peaks, so they’re leaving the rafters open in the office atrium to add more character to the space.

The office atrium is the first of three phases in the pumping station redevelopment, which was announced last summer.

The second phase involves the construction of a narrow, six-storey building on the east side of the original structure, and the third phase will see the construction another six-storey building on the west side of it.

The east-side building will have about 1,500 sq. ft. of commercial space on the ground floor, another 3,000 sq. ft. of office or retail space in the front portion of the basement and five floors of rental apartments.

The west-side building will have an underground parkade, about 3,000 sq. ft. of main-floor office or retail space and five floors of rental apartments.

Alston said work on the east-side building is scheduled to get underway in July, and will take about 14 months to complete. Work on the west-side building won’t begin until next March and will take about 16 months to finish.

Both of the new buildings will feature a hybrid design. The ground-floor podium will be made of steel, and the rest of the structure will feature wood-frame construction.

Alston said they will be only the second and third wood-frame buildings that are more than four storeys high to be built in the city.

The first is another six-storey building he and co-developer Rick Hofer are building on Ross Avenue, in the West Exchange District.

There will be 90-plus one- and two-bedroom apartments in the two new buildings. Most will be one-bedroom units ranging in size from 525 to 550 sq. ft. The monthly rental rate will be $1,250 to $1,300. The seven two-bedroom, two-level penthouse units will be about 1,200 sq. ft. in size, with a rooftop deck. They’ll rent for about $2,500 per month.

Alston said they’re hoping to find a restaurant operator for the main floor of the east-side building.

“I’ve had a couple of people approach me already, and we haven’t really even begun designing it yet. We know the size it will be, but there’s still a lot of things to figure out.”

The commercial space in the lower level of the pumping station will be suitable for either another restaurant or maybe an office tenant, Alston said.

He said they’ll extend the windows on the front of the building down to the floor-level of the basement to allow more light into the lower level.

Alson said it’s a relief to have an anchor tenant lined up for the office atrium.

“It gives me a lot more confidence pushing forward and it will help with leasing up the balance of the commercial space. Getting that first tenant is always the key.”

Although they looked at several other locations in the East Exchange, Baker and Lazarenko said their preference was to be on Waterfront Drive.

“You’ve got the park across the street there, and we can see restaurants starting to pop up (in the area). It’s also got great character… and it’s central,” Baker said.

Lazarenko noted Baker had been looking at the pumping station even before they learned Alston and Hofer were planning to redevelop it.

“He (Baker) has always had this idea of working with the shell of a great building… and really making it unique,” Lazarenko said.

“So when Bryce came along and said they were going to be doing this, it was almost fate in some ways.”

Because they got involved at an early stage in the project, Baker and Lazarenko had a lot of input into how their new office would be designed.

Think Shift will lease about 10,000 sq. ft. altogether.

It’s currently leasing some office space on Erin Street until the new quarters are ready.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca