‘We want to help do our part … to save downtown’ Manitoba Métis Federation to purchase pair of core-area office towers, parking lot By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:00 AM CDT Thursday, Jul. 18, 2024 Last Modified: 4:48 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 18, 2024 Updates

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The Manitoba Métis Federation is adding two prominent downtown towers to its real estate portfolio — and is calling for more investment in Winnipeg’s core.

“We believe downtown needs to be saved,” said president David Chartrand, speaking to the Free Press exclusively ahead of today’s announcement at 333 Main St.

“It needs to be supported.”

The Métis government is in the process of buying the 24-floor Main Street office building and its 13-floor sister space at 191 Pioneer Ave., along with a 99-stall parking lot at 179 Pioneer Ave.

Both towers bear Bell MTS signage and stand near the city’s iconic intersection of Portage and Main.

They’re a short walking distance from the historic former Bank of Montreal building, which the federation purchased and is transforming into a Métis heritage centre.

It’s an area Red River carts once roved, Chartrand noted.

A roughly eight-minute walk south of the towers is 200 Main St. The federation announced its purchase of that building, Wawanesa Insurance’s former headquarters, in September 2023.

Since then, 300 federation employees have relocated and work in the Main Street office daily, Chartrand said. He expects another 160 staff to occupy the towers currently emblazoned with Bell MTS logos.

The core’s office vacancy rate has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting a new high of 18.6 per cent in 2024’s second quarter, according to CBRE data.

“If you don’t have a downtown, especially an economic zone, you’re not a city,” Chartrand remarked. “You’re in trouble.

“No matter where you live… you want to have a downtown. You have an image you want to protect, a city you want to protect.”

The latest purchase is both a cost-savings initiative by the federation and an action towards economic reconciliation, Chartrand outlined. He called reconciliation a “two-way street.”

“We want to help do our part, and our part, we believe, is to save downtown.”

The federation negotiated for the sister towers over the past year with owner Artis REIT, Chartrand said.

Artis has been selling off buildings since 2021, after it unveiled a business transformation plan. In August 2023, the towers and parking lot were listed for $33.5 million.

Chartrand was mum on how much the MMF is paying for the structures. He said there’s a “very favourable position” for both parties.

The deal is set to close Oct. 1.

Chartrand expects MMF staff to occupy the towers daily within the next six months. They’ll come from offices across the city. Some MMF buildings were continuously in need of repair and not meeting the federation’s needs, he added.

It’s more cost-effective and collaborative to amalgamate staff under one roof, he said. The MMF has plans for its soon-to-be-vacated office buildings, Chartrand added, declining to provide further details.

“We’re probably going to be one of the bigger players downtown very soon,” the MMF president commented, adding he’d vowed decades ago the Métis would “get our land back, if we have to buy it one acre at a time.”

Since 2019, the MMF has spent upwards of $100 million on at least 500,000 square feet downtown, Chartrand estimated.

No other government’s funding is being put towards the towers at 333 Main St. and 191 Pioneer Ave., according to the MMF.

Chartrand said the federation’s business ventures allow it to purchase and build properties across the province. It has a hand in construction, pharmacy and fur trading.

It expects to make money at a new RV camping site and golf course it’s opened in St. Laurent; it’s creating nurseries to grow and sell trees, Chartrand said.

The MMF attracted $33 million in funding from the federal and provincial government for its Métis heritage centre, which Chartrand said should open in 2026.

The federation will also have an upcoming announcement regarding 280 Fort St., a downtown site it purchased a few years ago, Chartrand hinted.

He’s wanting more private-sector and government investment in core-area Winnipeg revitalization: “If we all work together, we can make our downtown better.”

It comes with risk, he noted: 333 Main St. is currently 68 per cent vacant.

Chartrand believes the vacancy rate will drop to 32 per cent once MMF staff enter the building, provided other tenants, such as Bell MTS, don’t leave.

Ground-floor vacancy rates downtown remain around 30 per cent, according to Kate Fenske, CEO of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone.

Still, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the BIZ has noted more companies opening than closing — a net gain of three enterprises during the year’s first quarter.

Upwards of 165 businesses have closed since March 2020, while more than 120 have opened, according to its data.

“It’s really encouraging to see the MMF’s ongoing commitment to downtown,” Fenske said. “It’s showing tangible action … bringing more of their employees into offices.”

Hundreds of extra workers means more people spending money at local restaurants and shops, which could help lower the downtown ground-floor vacancy rate, Fenske added.

Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said he hopes the MMF investment will spur others in the private sector.

Red tape in permitting, construction inflation and crime downtown — both perceived and real — are hurdles blocking business investment, Remillard noted.

A general economic slowdown and change in workflow — more work-from-home access — has kept Winnipeg’s downtown office vacancy rate from declining, explained Paul Kornelsen, managing director of CBRE Winnipeg.

He doesn’t foresee a major change in the vacancy rate within the next year: “I see it being stable.”

The MMF requires its staff to be in-office daily, Chartrand touted.

Roughly a quarter of core public service staff in the Manitoba government have a flexible work policy, allowing for work-from-home at least once a month, a spokesperson wrote in a statement.

The City of Winnipeg has a flexible workplace program.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.