RRC announces Innovation Centre

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2017 (3269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The announced development of a $95.4-million Innovation Centre at Red River College’s Exchange District Campus is expected to add fuel to the catalytic impact the college has had on the neighbourhood since it opened 14 years ago.

The 100,000-square-foot development on the north side of Elgin Avenue — which will include the restoration of the five-storey Scott Fruit Company warehouse — will bring another 1,200 students downtown to join the more than 2,000 already there when the project is completed by the end of 2019.

Bryce Alston is one of the partners in a $12-million, 94-unit rental apartment project currently under construction nearby on Ross Avenue.

He is one of many in the area who believe the project will add to the momentum that has seen hundreds of new residential units built in the West Exchange since 2000.

“It is a huge vote of confidence for the area,” Alston said.

“It will have a big impact on residential demand downtown and in the Exchange District.”

The federal government is providing $40.6 million of the cost of the building through the post-secondary institutions strategic investment fund and the province is providing a loan guarantee up to $54.8 million. RRC is giving itself five years to raise that amount in a major new capital campaign that will launch next week.

Paul Vogt, president of RRC, said the Innovation Centre is a bold move bringing students, faculty and businesses together that will enhance activities already underway in the nearby Innovation Alley. The new building will function as a “collision centre” where students can work with startups and larger businesses, ideally gaining a more rounded skill set more suitable to the changing nature of the workplace demands.

“We have been moving toward this incrementally with our business IT program,” Vogt said. “We have been at it for a couple of years and the demand has been enormous.”

Jeff Ryzner, CEO of North Forge Technology Exchange, is involved with many startups already working with RRC students. He believes the development will add scale and build a deeper foundation for the cluster of innovation activity downtown.

“This will be a huge thing for the entire ecosystem,” he said.

The news of the development comes in addition to other projects already in the works in the area, including the redevelopment of the Public Safety Building and parkade across the street.

“Ten or 20 years ago, it seemed like it was one project at a time. Now, it’s one after another,” said Lorne Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

“We used to talk about turning the tide in the downtown. Now, it is about momentum and we are building on it as opposed to trying to fix the downtown.”

In the last 15 years of the 20th century, there was virtually no new residential development downtown. Since then, there’s been 2,400 new residential units downtown, with another 2,100 in the works, said Angela Mathieson, CEO of CentreVenture, the city’s property development agency.

Mathieson said that doesn’t mean the city should expect the pace of development will continue on its own — the higher cost of downtown land and additional expenses of restoring heritage buildings can be deterrents. Also, a key downtown rental development grant program has now been fully registered and developers such as Alston are backing off committing to new projects.

“We are absolutely ecstatic about the Innovation Centre,” Mathieson said. “It is about layering residential, students, events, people working downtown… We will not succeed unless we have all those thing working together.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca