Residential resurrection

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2021 (1490 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The grounds of a former church parish in Transcona have become home to a 60-unit infill apartment complex, giving renters looking for modern options in the area some reason to rejoice.

For years, attendance at the francophone Notre Dame de l’Assomption church on Leola Street had been in steep decline, in part due to changing neighbourhood demographics. In 2019, with the space empty and long-idle, the church along with the Archdiocese of St. Boniface decided to market the property, with hopes a developer would step in and partner up on a residential development — a deal with mutual benefits for both parties.

After a minor shuffle and fallout with initial development partners, the long-talked about project got a second wind in early 2020, when a new group of investors showed interest in the property and saw potential.

“That parish had been diminishing and closed its doors four or five years ago,” said Kyle Kostenuk, a commercial builder and partner in the development. “I’d driven by it hundreds of times,” he said, and the ball got rolling.

Kostenuk and his partners in Leola Properties purchased the land from the church, partnering to develop the unused land, and by the end of 2021, get a new “village” style development ready to lease. In September, the old church building was demolished.

That’s a quick turnaround, pandemic or not, and to meet such an accelerated timeline, the new ownership consortium consulted Winkler’s Grandeur Homes, a company specializing in pre-fabricated, modular construction, a process through which building components are constructed off-site to facilitate efficient on-site development.

“Because of that, our time for on-site construction was significantly less (it was done in about seven months) than it would have been with conventional construction,” said Kostenuk, a convert and true believer in the church of modular building.

Aside from shortened on-site timelines, there are other benefits to the style of building, which is now increasingly being considered as an option not just for small projects but for larger complexes too. Kostenuk said building can be done in a controlled environment, offering better quality control, and from a sustainability standpoint, modular building was a positive experience too: dual wall construction meant increased insulation values, and material waste was limited. “Every piece of cut-off in the manufacturing process is used,” he said.

“I think it could be a way of the future in Canada,” added Kostenuk, who said a relative turned him on to the idea of modular building. “It’s already used a lot in Europe and Asia.”

Despite some crane issues and permit hang-ups owing to the novel nature of the construction style, the project —whose rents range from $1,275 to $1,525 — hummed along, with 50 to 60 modular units arriving and being erected in quick succession.

Now, the complex — which has 30 one-bedroom and 30 two-bedroom units — is about halfway leased, with Transcona residents and newcomers to the area responding well to the fact the new development is infill, rather than a standalone property that feels separate from the mature neighbourhoods of the community, which was once its own city.

Other multi-family projects of this size have come online in Transcona in recent years, but not so much on the infill side. As is often the case with infill projects, the developers received some pushback from residents concerned over the new project, however, Kostenuk said an overwhelming majority of the feedback received since the property went up has been positive.

He singled out the area’s city councillor Shawn Nason for his support, and said the city was a strong partner, much like the archdiocese, with which the developers plan to seek out other opportunities.

In Transcona, 2021 has been a solid year for housing starts, with the area experiencing a vast expansion in the first six months of the year as compared to the first half of 2019 and 2020. According to the CMHC, the area recorded 132 housing starts in that stretch of 2021, compared to only a combined 28 in the preceding years.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca