Winnipeggers can sneak a peek into the future of The Forks

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This article was published 20/8/2015 (1035 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers can catch a glimpse of some grandiose ideas for the Forks Thursday evening and again on Saturday.

The big ideas include a rapid transit hub at Union Station, public art displays and a residential village.

The 12-acre area known as the rail side lands and Parcel 4 has been under development for years, and most recently was granted a one-year extension by city hall to secure matching provincial and federal funds for its ambitious development of the last remaining vacant property on the site.

Last year, city council agreed to turn over ownership of a gravel parking lot adjacent to William Stephenson Way — once considered a site for a controversial hotel and waterpark — to The Forks on condition it secures matching funds from the province and Ottawa within a year.

Paul Jordan, the CEO of the Forks Renewal Corporation, said this represents the 20-year plan for the area, with no timeline or budget set, which he described as something that could be "a $200 million investment" mostly coming from the private sector.

Tax increment financing will pay for the public green spaces which a private developer wouldn’t pay for, he explained.

"A lot of it is going to be determined by the response we get when we got out for request for proposals by the development, and we are getting a lot of interest already," he said. "So it could go fairly quickly, it could go 20 years, we are not going to try and put an artificial timeline on it, it is not something you want to rush, given what that place is."

On Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m, the public can view the 10 new ideas that came from the recent consultation process that have gone into the development.

Readers can view the 10 ideas here.