Office/Warehouse Conversions to Apartments/Condos

Photo above supplied by Alston Properties.

Warehouses are not the only buildings being converted to residential units in Winnipeg and around North America. Office buildings are being converted or adapted to apartments and condos right in the city. This is a good thing but its only now gaining steam, Just as it took the Exchange District many decades to see warehouses adapted, it is a slow process to get offices converted. The Ashdown Warehouse and Prairie Housing Co-Op in the 1980s were but the first although many arts studios in the area have always doubled for apartments even if not lawfully zoned that way.

It is difficult to create connectivity between living units spread out as such. They grow organically with some economic supports. They trigger further developments such as Waterfront Drive which is probably Winnipeg's most successful new downtown housing development now into it's second stage. Just prior to the pandemic, the entire downtown was starting to show the vitality that gave people real optimism about where things were going. In 2023, it has been a slow process recovering. A lot of projects have taken a few years to build and are just leasing or selling now.

Above, the former United Growers Grain HQ which once housed 450 head office worker was converted over to a residential/office mix. The 433 Main Street location is a classic example of newer offices being adapted over rather sitting with a swath of unleased space. Office space is still used for the Passport Office but everything above the offices is now apartments.  The company that did the Main Street conversion Alston is also converting over part of the offices at 175/185 Carlton. The picture up top is that building which has been part of the Lakeview Square office complex. Sometime this year 72 residential units will be built.

Lakeview by the Convention Centre was one of the first mixed use facilities in Winnipeg and one wonders why it was not replicated more often after it was built in 1974. Even today, it has two residential towers, five office buildings and Winnipeg's largest hotel all connected via skywalk to the convention centre. Two of the low-rise officers that are adjoined are being converted to residential units. They should be right at home with the two other residential towers there. No changes are likely for the restaurants that have been there there for decades such as the Ichi-Ban.

But as you can see from the pictures above, we have a lot of surface parking lots, many owned by the province. They literally had to be shamed into giving some up for the expansion of the convention centre. There really wasn't a loss of parking there since they went to a parkade below. It is hard to build more mixed use buildings with parking underneath when hoarding of surface space is so rampant. However, the post-pandemic trend of work from home may make holding these spaces less lucrative.

The above is the Keeewwayden block that was almost lost to fire in 2019. It had been left abandoned when finances fell through for a hotel. Squatters had been seen entering the building and fires inside could have been attempts to stay warm or outright arson. The rise in fires has devastated even operating businesses. Largely, we don't hear much about the investigations after. However, the devastation left is hard to ignore. In this case, it was heavily damaged with an elevator shaft collapsed and visible fire damage outside.

The Keewayden which had been a combination of warehouse and offices will now be a mix of new and old as a $36 million, nine storey, 158 unit apart block. Two storeys will be added and a new section attached with those 55 units having balconies. An experienced Winnipeg company is at the helm that sticks to their knitting even during the pandemic. Steady wins the race in conversions. They aren't fast but they have a profound effect on a neighbourhood. If a place clears out at 5 PM and there isn't a soil around, it has a poor street presence and it can be a security threat. Below are supplied renderings of what the Keewayden will look like.

It simply isn't true that people don't want to live or work downtown although the pandemic has changed how people work. Many work from home even now. But does that mean in the suburbs? It could. But it could also mean in a condo or an apartment downtown. If safety is a concern, keep in mind that a machete attack took place at Polo Park inside the mall. We've talked about crime here before about addictions, mental illness and trafficking have led to issues of security. Housing of all kinds is needed. As bad as the 1970s were violence, we didn't see a few thousand people living outdoors in Winnipeg.

To be sure the population after many years of decline downtown is slowly rising due to a slow but steady pace of adaptive use building.  But even around places like Keewayden are massive amounts of surface parking lots, many empty in evenings and weekends. It will take a steady hand to fill in the space as we have seen in places like Toronto where a surface lot is far less lucrative than doing something with it. Some developers in recent statements have said it is often takes four years of planning and four years of construction. And likely two years of leasing before fully occupied. In that period the market can go up down and back up again. 

Sadly, a few projects have come to a halt for financing reasons even as they are half built. Such is the case with the apartment at St. Mary and Donald. It was to feature a 10,000 square foot Keg on the first floor but after 40% completion, it is stalled. The apartment itself was to be about 19 floors. Developers picture of what the tower was to look below.

The project might be saved with new investors but we have seen projects like One Wellington Crescent stall after initial work was done and stay that way for decades. Some projects on Assiniboine were stalled for years from bureaucracy and sometimes financing. No one wants shoddy work to go up or work that work that displaces other communities already living there. However, sometimes the criticism might be: no buildings over two stories, no multi-family housing, leave as a parking lot or make a park.

Seven new towers are the centerpiece of the True North Square. A new hotel will be added to the mix as well. 

The older offices that companies are relocating from older buildings to True North could be candidates for conversions. This isn't as new as people think. All along roads like Portage Avenue are offices that were once government, banks or social services buildings. As their needs change, they move elsewhere and their old offices are taken over by small businesses, accountants, union offices, law firms and so on. 

The only difference now is that instead of offices, we are seeing housing being put up. Or at least a mixed use building. The real growth remains housing of all kinds. With at least five years of increased immigration, Winnipeg and the province in general need thousands of units of housing on an already short supply. The 400 units at 300 Main Street coming on stream July 1 are exactly what you might expect from a mixed development. The timeline to complete this was six years. Or if you want to be blunt, the base pad for development had been there since 1979 and it took decades for anyone to build on it.

The pandemic has slowed supply chains but even before that time, the process of zoning, rejection, revision and a go or no go timeline could take years. The city and province have been so used to slow growth and have built out suburbs instead of looking at aging neighhbourhoods. As the population has aged, they have had less less need of large detached houses. But there are often no multi-unit buildings anywhere in the area they used to live. People living in River Heights looking for something for senior living usually have to move out of there area. My parents did.

There are only so many developers out there that are good at restorations and reclamations. Many stick to new builds and newly serviced land. The ones that do the older work take their time and do it well. In their wake over the last decades, their work has created neighbourhoods. And the thing about neighbourhoods is that they take a while to show their character. In other words, a new subdivision might not show what it is made of till you see schools, community centres, local coffee places emerge.

The city and the province need to expedite housing conversions because in the post pandemic era, we may only see a two thirds restoration of people returning to the office. Imagine if the empty office spots were housing?