Year in review: slow, steady, some surprises Manitoba marked by continued rise of CentrePort and MMF, steadying of downtown Winnipeg, decline of Delta 9
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/12/2024 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Those economic horses showed plenty of pluck in 2024, gamely hauling the social cart through an unfamiliar post-COVID-19 pandemic terrain. (If unemployment was so low in Manitoba, why the heck were those nags making such poor time as per GDP growth?)
In some respects, the unusual dynamics allowed the field to clear, allowing new players to emerge (like the Manitoba Métis Federation). The sad culling of some favourite restaurants happened almost on cue after facing interminable pandemic shutdowns and the hand-wringing about downtown Winnipeg took on a more dire rhythm, but the top business stories of the year also included the kind of slow, steady pace Manitobans know and love and are resigned to live with.
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Destination USA
Despite some of their own looking for ancestral links to other nations so as not have to endure another four more years of Trumpy weirdness, Winnipeggers have never had so many direct route options to fly to the U.S.
WestJet added Nashville and seasonal Fort Lauderdale, Fla., service after fanfare-inducing L.A. and Atlanta flights that started last year.
United Airlines revived its Chicago and Denver flights this year, and there’s even a daily flight to Montreal and thrice weekly to Ottawa.
Winnipeggers have never had such a diversity of choices to get out of town.
Improving business zone
Not only did the hard-working souls at the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone have to cajole and entice workers back to the area while many of its member businesses embraced hybrid workplace environments, unhoused encampments and a revival of old-fashioned shoplifting made doing business a real challenge this year.
Although the first half of the year saw the first net increase in downtown businesses since 2020, there are 60 fewer than there were four years ago.
Still, with the construction of the first high-rise in the east Exchange District in 50 years, the occupation of the city’s newest downtown tower by Wawanesa Insurance, and revival of construction of a half-built apartment tower at Donald Street and St. Mary’s Avenue means maybe there’s still hope.
Delta goes dry
Delta 9 Cannabis entered receivership.
While the rest of the industry was blowing its brains out trying to create an industry model matching the old cigarette oligarchy, Winnipeg’s Delta 9 Cannabis, the fourth licensed producer of cannabis in Canada, was a great homegrown story of well-organized, modest production of formerly illicit weed.
But Delta 9 ran out of runway in 2024, done in by standard-issue vulture capitalism. Even in receivership, it still managed to stay cool with all the stores remaining open, staff employed and buds still being harvested.
Epic tale continues
A casual observer might be mistaken to think the Town of Churchill is a lot larger and busier than it really is.
The only Arctic port in Canada has a growing ($100 million) tourism industry and is the terminus of the only railway through the North.
This year, it received a much-needed $60 million in track upgrades and, for the first time in 20 years, shipped Manitoba-mined minerals (concentrated zinc) destined for Europe.
But for it to realize its potential — both as a tourism destination and thriving seaport — it has a long way to go.
And to make it that much harder to realize, an even more fantastical alternative concept was being touted by some (Alberta energy concerns) to build an entirely new port south of Churchill.
I’ll take that to go
It may have taken some time to materialize, but as some pundits warned when the lockdown mandates started up in 2020, many Winnipeg restaurants finally succumbed and shuttered this year.
The list includes, in no specific order: Starbucks (Osborne Village), Tropikis, Roughage Eatery, RnR Family Restaurant, Pancake House (The Forks), Preservation Hall, Second Cup (Polo Park), Fionn MacCool’s (Regent Avenue), Nick’s on Broadway and A & W (Osborne Village).
According to Restaurants Canada, more than half of Manitoba eateries are currently losing money or breaking even compared to 19 per cent before COVID.
New kid in town
Winnipeggers finally got local access to big-name brands including Kripsy Kreme in 2024.
7-Eleven just opened its first licensed facility in Winnipeg (and also closed a handful of its convenience stores), Stella’s returned to the airport and boutique bakery Jenna Rae Cakes opened a kiosk inside airport security.
Wolseley stalwart Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company is building its biggest location yet in St. Boniface.
Activate Games has continued its rapid international
expansion.
Activate Games, the Winnipeg high-tech amusement facility featuring unique interactive technologies, continues to take over the world.
After inking a partnership with a developer in Dubai at the end of 2023, and along with significant growth in the U.S., it signed distributorships in Europe in 2024. It’s now on pace for 200 locations around the world in the next few years.
Reconciliation, capitalist style
Two of the largest development projects in the city — Naawi-Oodena and Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn — are led by First Nations organizations.
The Manitoba Métis Federation’s big property acquisitions in Winnipeg.
The Manitoba Métis Federation has been going hard for years but, in 2024, it was as if its stock doubled.
Already the owner of the old BMO building at Portage and Main, the MMF acquired the 24-storey Bell MTS tower and its 13-floor sister space at 191 Pioneer Ave., along with a 99-stall parking lot, opened the Lake Manitoba Resort and a new pharmacy and health facility in Dauphin, plans to turn the old Roxy Lanes into an affordable 55-plus residential tower and partnered in a downtown yoga studio.
Big players in small-business town
Manitoba’s economy is fuelled by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but when the big players are feeling confident, it makes a difference.
In 2024, the Chipman family-owned True North Real Estate Development flexed once again to commit to a $680 million redevelopment of Portage Place mall.
After years of successfully satisfying ‘Buy America’ provisions to be able to sell its heavy-duty urban buses to U.S. transit authorities, NFI is investing in its hometown so it can finish the manufacturing of its buses sold into the Canadian market.
James Richardson & Sons, Limited reacquired the Fairmont Hotel after a 24-year hiatus.
Gerry Price, one of the smartest and most successful (and least well-known) Winnipeg entrepreneurs of his generation, was recognized by his alma mater, the University of Manitoba, with the International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award.
Putting rail in tri-modal
CentrePort Canada Inc. has built a highway through its 20,000-acre footprint that virtually surrounds the Winnipeg airport.
This year, the second tenant of its 665-acre rail park started construction, with five more in the queue.
This is where the largest greenfield developments in town that need direct rail access to the CPKC main line (with interswitching to CN and BNSF) will be built.
Also this year, the City of Winnipeg and province of Manitoba committed $75 million to install servicing for another 1,800 acres in CentrePort south, including 500 acres of residential (housing for up to 12,000) and 1,100 acres of industrial space.
In the past five years, $750 million of development permits have been let for the northwestern corner of the city and part of the Rural Municipality of Rosser.
Let them eat fish
Arctic Char, to be specific.
Arctic char fry at the Sapphire Springs facility.
Sapphire Springs Inc., a locally owned enterprise is building an Arctic char fish farm north of the city that will almost double the global supply of the delicious salmonoid.
Located at the former site of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Rockwood Experimental Fish Hatchery, it draws its water from a glacial aquifer, recycling 99 per cent of it through each growing cycle.
Sapphire Springs may not solve global food security problem, but if successful, it could provide at least the inspiration for other forms of industrial protein production.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
History
Updated on Saturday, December 28, 2024 9:17 AM CST: Removes Yafa Cafe from restaurant closures
