College could be interested in police building, if vacated

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This article was published 13/02/2009 (6247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RED River College could take over the Public Safety Building — provided the college first finds enough cash to expand into the Union Bank Tower and the Winnipeg Police Service finds a new home of its own.

Red River College has made preliminary inquiries about the Public Safety Building, which the city could declare surplus if it decides to give up on a plan to fix the Princess Street structure’s crumbling, Tyndall-stone facade.

In late 2007, the city placed the PSB repair job on hold when the projected cost of replacing the stone cladding and moving police to temporary offices — a process known as decanting — soared above $40 million.

City building administrators immediately began scouting out locations for a possible new headquarters, with the soon-to-be-vacant Canada Post building on Graham Mall emerging as a possible destination back in February 2008.

Building a new police headquarters will cost approximately $100 million, based on a city pitch for federal infrastructure dollars. If the police do move out of the Public Safety Building, the college may be interested in expanding across Princess Street.

"This is strictly hypothetical," said Red River College spokesman Colin Fast. "There’s no real plan, other than we have this idea for a health centre. But it’s so tentative right now, it’s not even a plan."

Red River College first made inquiries about the PSB late last year but wanted to keep them quiet, as the college is still trying to raise all the private and government funds it needs to expand into the vacant Union Bank Tower at the corner of Main Street and William Avenue.

The $25-million project would see the main floor converted into a culinary school and teaching restaurant, while upper floors will become apartments. With plans also underway for a new heavy-equipment building at its Notre Dame campus, the school has no ability to fund another expansion just yet, Fast said.

"We’re looking for opportunities to expand in the Exchange District, but our priority right now is the Union Bank Tower," he said. "We haven’t even been inside the (Public Safety) Building. We all know there’s problems with the outside."

Although the Public Safety Building is structurally sound, the six-storey edifice is believed to be unviable for the police because of the expense of decanting. Re-fastening stone to the exterior is impossible without emptying out the interior, which means it would be cheaper to renovate the entire building if it was completely empty.

The city has been promising to make a decision about the Public Safety Building since May 2008, but a report outlining a recommended course of action has yet to make it to city council. Since the adjacent Civic Centre Parkade also needs to be repaired, those recommendations could include demolishing the entire block and building an entirely new structure or parkade.

Heritage advocates oppose this idea, as the PSB is part of an ensemble of modernist buildings that also include the city hall complex and the Manitoba Centennial Centre across Main Street.

"It has some problems, but it has some interesting architecture," said Point Douglas Coun. Mike Pagtakhan, who represents the Exchange District and chairs city council’s downtown development committee.

– With files from Nick Martin bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca