Hotel, conference centre planned for ex-Kapyong Barracks site

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This article was published 23/05/2024 (501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new hotel and conference centre are poised for the former Kapyong Barracks.

Economic Development Winnipeg’s president hinted at the properties during his agency’s “unprecedented” annual general meeting Thursday with Manitoba’s top politicians.

Treaty One Development Corporation, which is behind the creation of Naawi-Oodena, confirmed it had found “an ideal location” for a hotel and conference centre on the former Canadian Forces site.

The buildings are currently in their conceptual phase. They’ll likely span 16 acres, CEO Kathleen BlueSky said in a statement.

“We are optimistic that this development will become a key attraction for conference visitors to Winnipeg, enhancing the city’s appeal as a prime destination for both business and pleasure,” she continued.

Naawi-Oodena received positive remarks from Economic Development Winnipeg, Premier Wab Kinew and Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham during Thursday’s AGM.

The yearly event was “unprecedented,” said Ryan Kuffner, president of Economic Development Winnipeg.

Never before had the meeting included a “fireside chat,” minus the fireplace, with Winnipeg’s top politicians.

“I think what it speaks to is the strength of the relationship between the city and the province,” Kuffner relayed, adding the two parties show a shared priority of economic development.

Both parties conveyed their economic priorities to more than 100 businesspeople.

“We in the city want to be more focused and intentional about economic development,” Gillingham told the crowd. “The premier and I are committed to working together now and in the future.”

The upcoming creation of Naawi-Oodena, Canada’s largest urban reserve, is a focus for the city, Gillingham noted.

To accommodate the growth, Kenaston Boulevard must be expanded, he pushed. He’s waiting on a report about the proposed project, along with reports on the closed Arlington Bridge and a Chief Peguis Trail extension, to come by the end of 2024.

Shovels hit soil on Naawi-Oodena’s first physical building, a gas station, in November. The first phase includes an office building, a strip mall and possibly a bank.

There’s a need for more infrastructure across the province, Kinew noted. He pointed to Pembina Valley and Manitoba’s north.

“We can’t leave federal funding on the table,” Gillingham added, eliciting cheers from the crowd.

He highlighted the North End Sewage Treatment Plant as an infrastructure priority. The project was initially budgeted to cost $552 million; since then, city council has been warned the price tag could rise to $912 million.

Both politicians expressed their commitment to revitalizing downtown. Gillingham pointed to CentrePlan 2050, the city’s guiding document to revamping its core.

He’s hoping to “coordinate and align” various agencies working on downtown safety, including the Winnipeg Police Service and Downtown Community Safety Partnership.

“We’re going to begin working on that plan in greater earnestness,” Gillingham said after the event.

Meanwhile, Kinew reiterated the province’s need to tackle chronic homelessness and housing gaps.

“For me, success is if you’re proud to come downtown,” he told the crowd, adding change will take years.

More people living in the city’s core will boost the local economy, Kuffner noted. He spotlighted the $122 million earmarked for Winnipeg in the federal government’s housing accelerator fund.

“In the past, people went where the jobs were,” Kuffner said. “Now, the investment is following the talent.”

And businesses have been investing, Kuffner relayed. Economic Development Winnipeg clocked a $1.5 million private sector investment into its coffer over the past year.

It also touted a $197.6 million impact through its Yes! Winnipeg business development arm — including contributing to the development of a 10,000 sq. ft. Burcon NutraScience technical centre — and a $70 million impact through Tourism Winnipeg, its tourism branch.

Special events including the World Police & Fire Games and the International Indigenous Tourism Conference netted a more than $32 million economic impact last year, Economic Development Winnipeg’s 2023 annual report shows.

Overall, 2023 events Economic Development Winnipeg played a role in had an estimated $124.3 million economic impact and led to more than 75,000 hotel nights booked.

The agency has slated three conferences it estimates will have a combined $6.8 million economic impact for 2024 through 2026.

“We think we’ve got tremendous opportunity ahead,” Kuffner enthused.

He’s eyeing businesses in the creative industry — like video game development — and the clean energy sector to bring to Manitoba.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it typically takes Economic Development Winnipeg 18 to 36 months to land a new investment, Kuffner said.

Inflation and interest rates haven’t necessarily made it harder to draw business, Kuffner noted. However, it’s changed how his team markets Winnipeg: they now highlight the lower energy costs and the “extremely long job tenure” of employees. It’s expensive to constantly be training, Kuffner explained.

Higher costs have dampened business development within the city, Kuffner added: “the consumers and the buyers can only absorb so much.”

Both Economic Development Winnipeg’s revenue and expenditures exceeded 2022. In 2023, it saw $11.67 million in revenue, up from $8.5 million the previous year. More than $10 million of its revenue came from government, a jump from the $6.24 million received in 2022.

It ended 2023 with an excess of $560,927 in revenue, more than doubling the $265,425 kept in 2022.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com