Onward and upward in St. James

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This article was published 22/01/2024 (633 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first of what’s expected to be many new multi-family residential builds is underway in St. James since the city loosened its building restrictions near the airport.

The Park Bridge, a seven-storey, 84-unit apartment complex that broke ground last July, is expected to wrap up construction in September and open in October. The complex will offer one- and two-bedroom options that range from $1,100 to $1,900 per month and include a high-quality gym.

The development represents a more significant milestone, however. It’s the first multi-family development on Portage Avenue in St. James since before 1994.

The site at 2140 Portage Ave. had remained nothing more than a big patch of grass for three decades, due to city council adopting the Airport Vicinity Protection Area (AVPA) regulation in 1994. It prohibited new residential development on any parcel of land inside Area 1 (lands immediately adjacent to Winnipeg Richardson International Airport), which covered most of Portage Avenue in the St. James area between Kenaston Boulevard and Strathmillan Road.

The regulation also limited residential building to minor infilling or replacement residential development in Area 2, lands further away from the airport. All development within the regulated lands needed to comply with indoor noise level limits set out in the regulation.

The AVPA was adopted due to concerns new residents would complain about airport noise and threaten the airport’s 24-7 operations.

It also yielded little in the way of new large-scaled residential development in St. James between 1994 and 2021.

In 2021, the city shrunk Area 1, leaving 2140 Portage Ave. a prime spot for housing.

“We limit ourselves to seven stories, but you are allowed to build higher with the new airport PDO,” said Nigel Furgus, president and CEO of Paragon Living, the developer of The Park Bridge. “But the biggest thing that allowed us to construct this building was the height restriction was lifted in this particular area.

“However, as a result of building in the area and seeing the demand… St. James residents love St. James and we’ve been talking to a lot of residents and engaging with them, and just hearing the feedback and the demand coming into that, we’re actually looking at a few other locations in the St. James area, as well.”

Furgus said he’s noticed an appetite for new residential options from the area residents and a specific demand from people who want to be closer to relatives and Deer Lodge Centre.

“In my eyes, and a lot of other eyes, St. James is one of the best places to live,” said Coun. Shawn Dobson (St. James). “So, people constantly try to move here, to live here, even from the air base. A lot of them would prefer to live closer to the base and then, of course, in St. James. For all the people retiring, this is a great place to retire to, so having more housing aids in the fact that the children can live in the community they grew up in.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful that we have new builds going on in St. James. It’s been too long since we had very many builds. But I can see a lot of new builds coming in the near future,” Dobson continued. “With the revision, now we have an opportunity for a lot of new development in and around Polo Park, which we couldn’t do before.”

Last September, Towers Realty Group proposed an eight-storey 101-unit complex with 9,300 square feet of commercial space that spans 914 and 980 St. James St. in the Polo Park area. Development would include a stand-alone 6,000-sq.-ft. commercial building built to the north.

Then there’s the $1-billion proposal by Cadillac Fairview — owner of CF Polo Park — and Shindico to redevelop 84 acres of land that surround the mall into a community that includes low- and high-rise residential buildings. It would see the former site of Canad Inns Stadium, the old home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, converted and add thousands of dwellings to the area.

All new developments must adhere to the AVPA’s noise mitigation standards, which require buildings to cut up to 35 decibels of sound in the bedroom, 40 decibels in any living, dining or recreation room and 45 decibels in the kitchen or bathroom.

The Park Bridge is a concrete-and-steel build, which Furgus says will not only make for a quieter living space than wood builds but has also allowed Paragon to build faster than usual in the winter months.

“We’re going to construct this building in 14 months. It’s a seven-storey concrete-and-steel structure, and we’re tracking to just under three weeks to a floor right now,” Furgus said. “Typically, you’d see buildings like these built in around 16 to 18 months.

“(Insulated concrete form) in the winter time is a great method to construct in. We don’t have to heat and hoard ICF, so we’re finding that our ICF buildings, all of them are ahead of schedule, and we’re talking some of them are two months ahead of schedule.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca