Downtown Recovery in 2024?

It takes forever to get development projects going in Winnipeg.  Zoning seems to be only one thing that holds it all up. In the case of the demolished Civic Parkade and Public Safety Building, it has been a long while. The primary reason is that most of the land had a public mandate when it was originally donated. This was likely missed by those who thought they could make a quick sale to private owners in one of those proposal walked onto council floor.

The pandemic crushed foot traffic downtown and despite a return by some businesses back to the office, some workers have remained at home or do a work hybrid. A number of apartment buildings have gone up including the tallest building in Winnipeg. This is a good development and has led to a rejuvenation of Winnipeg Square with Earl's, Goodlife and OEM opening. A few other apartments have opened in the last year but the slow return of workers downtown has meant street life is still not where it was in 2019.

Several announcements of projects for 2024 should help kick off a new wave of investment. Portage Place, The Bay and the Market Lands project all look to have start times in the new year. The Market Lands work looks to start the soonest beside City Hall. Every project has a housing component to it. This is good because the days of retail, commercial and residential of the last decades is disappearing. 

The Seasons of Tuxedo lands are almost complete as a mixed development. Polo Park has gotten approval to go in the same direction so there should be a number of proposals coming soon. One apartment is already working its way though the zoning maze at City Hall. Using the existing infrastructure of roads and utilities is one effective way of cost management for a city. Sadly, the history of Winnipeg has been sprawl which has increasingly led to unsustainable costs.

The various levels of government can't support ultra low density areas with road infrastructure that involves long commutes from where people live to where they work. Already in Winnipeg, we see those who live outside the city come in only to be choked in traffic along some of the main corridors. Adding lanes to Kenaston probably won't help given the building of residential outside the city as well as future Kapyong work coming in 2024.

The bus service is supposed to get a security team because staff and transit users don't feel safe. This is absolutely essential. Even those who sympathize for those who are homelessness and have addictions, it is awful to navigate personal safety red flags. The fears are not unjustified. You only have to have something happen once and it can change your behaviour forever. Presuming, you can walk away from whatever happened.

There are so many aspects of rehabilitation for a city and as many ways for it to all turn bad. Winnipeg's problems are not unique. We were modestly successful in 2019 with a list of economic and social achievements that gave many confidence. The pandemic, drug issues and loss of so much housing has us and much of the continent on its back foot.

The federal government walked away from having a housing minister in the 1970s. They funded provincial governments as it was mainly their responsibility to determine their housing needs. Cutbacks from both federal and provincial governments and restrictive zoning from municipalities have seen multi-unit housing disappear when the need has never been greater.

Single detached housing or one or two bedroom luxury apartments are not the only type of housing that should be approved and built. And yet, that is what has happened. Even downtown much of the new apartment housing has been high priced rentals and condos. While this has helped raised the population in certain areas such as Assiniboine Avenue as well as Waterfront Drive, there has been a loss of some affordable housing that has been torn down or burnt down.

The lack of connectivity makes downtown development difficult. And no, a skywalk isn't the answer if the street level is devoid of life. The construction of the arena has been only one part of bringing activity to Portage Avenue. The True North people through the Chipmans and Thomsons have been good at adding components supporting an entertainment district. As with most things, such as The Forks, it takes quite a while to put the parts together. And there can be setbacks as well.

For The Forks it has been piece by piece and largely successful although the next years of reaching financial self sufficiently will be critical. It has to be commercially as well as socially successful. Security has to be a priority. And it has to connect various areas of the city with things like the walkways, ice paths, Forks to downtown, to St. Boniface and elsewhere. It does quite a bit of that now but once the last section across from Human Rights Museum is filled, it will be interesting if a focus will be reclaim the spaces along Main Street.

Wab Kinew has said that Portage and Main is not a priority for him and his new government into 2024. It remains to be seen what the Manitoba Metis Friendship Centre might think of that as they spend $33 million renovating the Bank of Montreal building they acquired in 2020. Access to it was one of their key goals. The Richardsons are already closing the dangerous Concourse access outside their building. What will be done with the one outside the MMF building?

Their purchase of the Wawanesa headquarters on Broadway and the $14 million boutique hotel project at 280 Fort Street in the former Carleton Club/yoga studio location all point to a downtown strategy by the MMF. The high profile MMF presence in the old Manitoba Sports Federation building and their Christmas lights display showcase is part of the $86.5 million spent in downtown Winnipeg over the years. 

As mentioned earlier, connecting one area to another is as important as the bridges throughout Winnipeg have been historically. The bridges from Winnipeg to St. Boniface were fundamental to commercial, residential and industrial development in the city. Rail, car and pedestrian/bike bridges have been a boon to the city. 

Likewise, when the East Yards relocated to Symington, The Forks created access to the Red and Assiniboine Rivers which connected the city to the water in a way that outlasted the big riverboats. The river walkways are used all year round and the skating trail has become a huge connector of citizens to neighborhoods all along the rivers.

The city has attempted to connect the city with bike paths but the lack of consultation has been ham-handed, disruptive and under utilized in a lot of cases. For every successful bike path such as long Sherbrook Street, the city puts up ones in the Exchange Area and Assiniboine Avenue that literally are dangerous to people crossing Main Street and have caused problems for many businesses along their routes. It doesn't have to be this way as demonstrated by Sherbrook.

Most people don't like the huge gaps in neighbourhoods. Downtown along certain streets has surface parking lots for blocks. While this might seem great when attending for work and attending a Jets game/concert, it isn't all that ideal when considering a restaurant, shop or even a safe place from the wind when walking three blocks. It certainly isn't welcome at night when being all alone walking to a car does not feel all that secure. 

Since 2010, the Winnipeg Jets have been a consistent draw of thousands of people several times a month. Add to that thousands from Moose games and concerts. The Jets owners add to the entertainment district every few years with things such as event centre for travelling shows, the development across the street that put the Alt Hotel, some restaurants, a condo and parkade in close proximity. And in recent years, the True North Square which continues with the hotel and condo component which has been painfully slow in building. Initially, the hotel was to be completed in 2021 but now it is 2025.

That is a lot of years of a street that is very difficult to walk down as construction has lasted years. Much of St. Mary's Avenue was miserable to travel down for all year. It is hard for other businesses to survive when construction is several years in the offing. Even worse when it is the city working on roads with no end in sight.

Portage and Main construction has been going on for some time too. Some time in 2024, it should be open for your choice of 529 or Hy's opposite each other. Earl's is a lot closer to the corner as well and with construction finally over this year, more foot traffic ought to find its way to their doors. The old Earls became Friskee's but has since closed. It still seems an obvious choice for a Moxies or Joeys.

There are a lot of empty storefronts all over the city but downtown has gotten pretty bad. The BIZ groups are trying to set up pop-ups which helps but it could be the landlords really need to move on price. It can't be very encouraging to have a place that remains empty stretching into years. However, sometimes one wonders if the goal is let it fall so much into disrepair that it can be turned into a parking lot.

As more businesses see a return of workers to offices and more housing gets built, retail and restaurants see opportunities close to where people are gathering. Innovative ideas such as a skateboard park at Portage Place or a festival/concert area can also generate traffic. The crux of things has been that foot traffic has been so low that it generates very little business and the less people, the less secure an area is.

Not surprisingly, the downtown areas that have schools, colleges and universities are areas that often have more vitality than spots where students are not present. Bus route locations used to prized but with security issues and homeless use of shelters it has been a challenge. It will be interesting to see if the new security service on board will mitigate the concerns that passengers and drivers have felt over the last years. The entire city depends on getting a handle on this because there will be rising numbers of people who will not have access to a car or who wish to use public transit.

As mentioned, Winnipeg is not the only place around the world trying to figure out how to navigate in a post-pandemic world in terms of cities. Every city seems to be having some angst about empty storefronts, closing music venues, troubled transit systems, crime, addictions and mental health. Housing is on the mind of every community whether it is downtown, suburbs or in the country. 

A recovery cannot really take off unless the business community is involved and we still have tentative investment as growth flags due to inflation worries. There is some evidence that it is coming down and we may have seen an end to aggressive interest rate increases. If this is the case, we should see more housing go up and this remains the most critical area of need in the country. We won't see huge office towers and more malls get built. It will generally have a housing component. For many developer this might be to enhance properties they already own and have a development on such as Polo Park or Winnipeg Square. This is the best bet for development of Portage Place.

We should see some work as early as January in the downtown but it will be some time before we some real progress in recovery.