Woodrow Place in Wolseley --- Priced at $595,00 to $695,000
Brother can you spare a dime?
The first brownstone in Winnipeg and without doubt, the most expensive condos ever in to be built in Wolseley. Construction will start off Maryland along the Assiniboine River on Woodrow Place once pre-sales targets are met. Mulvey School sits across from the site.
At the moment, five rental bungalow's sit on the site.
Fresh Projects Design Builders are the developers of the site and they say that there is demand for higher end condos in established neighbourhoods. Undoubtedly, this is true. I can imagine that someone selling a large riverside house in the Wolseley area might seriously consider such a condo rather than moving out of the area.
Some of the higher end prices we are seeing in Wolseley for homes are reaching $500,000., some up to $600,000. Thoughts that the granola belt was all lower priced homes, rooming houses and rentals should be dismissed out of hand.
There are some people deeply concerned with wealthy people moving into the neighbourhood. They shouldn't be. The best neighbourhoods are a mix of people and a mix of uses. A condo complex along this street raises the density over single family dwellings. It is a shame rental houses are lost but at the same time, it is important to constantly rehabilitate housing stock. We have seen what long term absentee ownership has done to some rental houses over time and it isn't pretty.
Ten years ago, we were very close to seeing some parts of the Sherbrook and Maryland Street areas becoming completely undesirable for housing or business. Some fires left gaps where houses once stood. There were rooming houses, rentals and massage parlours all along both streets. Violence was happening along the street around the hotel and some businesses. The prospects felt grim.
In 2007, a fire at Westminster and Sherbrook took out an older apartment block with some small businesses on the ground floor. It was rather sad and many thought the block would remain empty. It now has Stellla's and other restaurants on the site and that corner.
Additional condos are all going up all along the street.
There is a new excitement in the area and it has built steadily over the last five or six years.
No one be surprised if this area starts to bubble up and surpass Osborne Village in the next years. It is happening before our eyes.
It's interesting to see the shift in thinking in Winnipeg - for many years, the only nice new homes that one could buy were out on the suburban fringes of town. The thought of spending half a million dollars for a condo near Juba Park or $600K on a townhome on Woodrow Place would have struck many as completely improbable. But those things are happening now, and it's to the benefit of the city as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI really love the color of this place. Wish to live in property like this. When I need to relax, I just need to walk in that greeny surroundings. :)
ReplyDeletearrielle p
What's interesting to me about the boom in >$500k housing in Winnipeg is this:
ReplyDeleteThere are, in the entire province of Manitoba, a total of fewer than 3,500 individuals who earn more than $250,000 in total income (earned + investment) per year. In fact, there are barely over 10,000 individuals in the whole province who earned more than $150k.
My impression (with little data) is that the proliferation of high-end housing is out of line with the size of the total market who has any business owning half-million dollar homes.