Next stop: Portage Avenue

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/04/2010 (5832 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city’s downtown development corporation, CentreVenture, is shifting gears from Main Street to Portage Avenue. It’s not that Main Street is a thing of beauty today, but the area is on the mend and it’s up to the private sector to plug the gaps that remain.

The WRHA and United Way buildings have filled in empty space, while Youth for Christ will be operating out of a major new building at Main and Higgins next year. Red River College is making plans to occupy part of the Union Bank Tower and the Bell Hotel is undergoing a renovation that will help homeless people get off the street.

Portage Avenue, however, has not advanced as quickly as was hoped when the MTS Centre opened to great fanfare six years ago. In fact, it has been slipping backwards. There are just too many empty or underused buildings on the proud old avenue. Safety and social issues, too, remain a major concern and obstacle to progress.

The image of decay, both human and physical, is alarming because of the negative signal it sends to investors, visitors and residents.

CentreVenture’s approach to Main Street was to assemble land and find worthy occupants to fill it, creating an environment for further development.

The approach will be much the same for Portage. The agency is focusing on achievable goals, rather than dream-like visions of an ideal future.

CentreVenture and the Forks North Portage Partnership own two buildings on Portage across from the MTS Centre, and a third around the corner on Donald Street. They’re tangible assets in a strategic location, which are being studied by private investors for a mixed-use development, including a hotel and retail centre.

Considering the dimension of the challenges downtown, it’s a relatively modest development scheme, but it’s the kind of project that can make a difference by laying the foundation for future growth.

The agency is also proposing that the walkway system be extended to the University of Winnipeg, where some 16,000 students and staff are located. The university has been expanding in the opposite direction, but a direct weather-protected link would help draw more students into the downtown.

When it comes to downtown renewal, one definition of success is when there’s more private capital than public investment going into the effort, particularly if the money is coming from outside the city.

Winnipeg hasn’t reached that tipping point yet, but it’s getting there. Developers, for example, have responded to $20 million in civic and provincial incentives for residential construction downtown.

Qualico Homes, one of the largest real-estate companies in Western Canada, is building up to 150 units in seven retrofitted heritage buildings in the Exchange District. It’s a major vote of confidence from a company that has previously been skittish about the challenges of developing heritage buildings.

The lesson of the MTS Centre is that no single project, regardless of its size, can magically redraw the map of downtown Winnipeg. It will take many projects, small and large, over many years before the city turns the corner.

One thing we should all agree on, however, is that the task is worth it.