Apartment and New Keg Restaurant Back on For Downtown

In 2023, a 14 storey apartment town and new Keg restaurant halted construction as economic supply chain issues and inflation raised its $40 million price up beyond $60 million. The developer was local Keg owner Gord Howard who still owns the three restaurants in the city. The apartment at Donald Street and St. Mary's Avenue was 30 per cent complete when it went into creditor protection.

It is now back on under Carrington Real Estate and called DSM (short for the street crossroads). A Winnipeg developer that is new to the downtown but with projects all over the city. The design has been reconfigured for 160 units including 40 affordable ones. The developer is hoping to access the accelerator program from the Fed in the next intake. That fund was over subscribed all over the country from developers keen to build housing. There likely be a 2025 intake but there is no guarantee that a new government will renew the program.

Parts of south Portage have been surface parking lots for decades. This is what Toronto looked like in the 1980s. Massive parking lots surrounded the bank towers of the major Canadian banks. It is pretty much been in the last 20 years that condos went up on all available space they could find. And those banks looks small compared to them. However, for all the towers in Toronto, affordability has not come.

I have said a few times here that the affordable housing for today is usually built 20 years earlier. Shortages of housing raises what those houses can go for. Cutting immigration and student visas can send those housing prices down. But it can also send Canada into recession as the universities topple on the edge and employers can't find critical workers. 

The very long period of almost know multi-unit housing going up and the slow pace of detached homes going up. Winnipeg went for quite some time with nearly no apartments going up or at such a slow pace that it is reflected in soaring house prices. Supply chain problems continue to slow down today's construction. Higher interest have had an effect but keep in mind that low interest rates didn't help on prices or supply either.

Building capacity in the system is something all three levels of government, private industry and consumers need to work on. Oddly enough, the federal and provincial governments have sat on the sidelines about building for years. And consumers often want the door shut on further building in their area once they have moved in. This eventually becomes a problem because people require different types through the course of their lives. Also, housing often needs to be rehabilitated or rebuilt. In Winnipeg, the housing stock is rapidly aging. In some cases, houses get knocked down and what is left is an empty space.

This is the story of a lot of downtown Winnipeg. Houses, offices, warehouse, hotels and other buildings have been knocked down and turned to surface parking. The corner of Donald and St. Mary's Avenue has been a parking lot for decades. It is kitty korner to Cityplace and walking distance to Canada Life Centre. It is without a doubt going to be very attractive as a destination for Jets, Moose and concert goers with a Keg there.

Once upon a time there were two Kegs downtown. There was a large location where Pony Coral was and the longtime location on Garry Street. The latter location remains and it uncertain it stays open although no one has said anything to the effect that it will close. It probably has enough of a base to continue forever. That being side, the new Keg on the ground floor of the Donald/St. Mary's location will be 10,000 square feet. To put that in perspective the Keg location on Portage Avenue is 8,000 square feet. The one of McGillivray is 12,000 square feet.

This will be the second steakhouse locate on the first floor of a downtown apartment of office in recent years. The first was Hy's when it moved to the first floor and basement of the Richardson building in 2005. It has taken quite some time for Hy's to be joined by 529 across the street in 2024. And now sometime in  2025 The Keg will up.

The new building will be called DSM which stands for Donald St. Mary's. It is a good news story for more housing on a surface parking lot and the return of a large Keg to the downtown area.

Four Safeways to be Converted to Freshcos

The Safeway at McGillivary and Pembina last Thursday on one of my last walks. It will be the site of one of the four new Freshcos.

Some time ago I reported that Safeway/Sobeys was going to be converting stores into Freshcos. So far Winnipeg has two which are operated as franchises at Regent and Lagiomediere and at Jefferson and McPhillips.

Aside from the Pembina location, the other three Freshcos will be Safeways at Niakwa Village and on Sargent that will be converted to Freshcos and a former location at Bronx and Henderson that has stood empty since 2015 will be renovated and also be a Freshco but not till 2021.

All Freshcos will have pharmacies and be locally owned. The re-opening of the Bronx and Henderson location will create 100 new jobs while 100 jobs will be retained with the other stores.

There were far too many Safeway/Sobeys when the merger took place. Even when the combined company was forced to sell four stores by the federal government they still have stores across the street from one another operating under the same flyer and the same corporate policy. It made the overall company vulnerable to new competitors.

The benefits of local ownership have been demonstrated often by having Food Fare, No Frills and others here. They choose to sponsor different things, give chance to other products and more keyed in to local needs.

Obviously some union people will be affected. They will lose their jobs with the corporation and I'm assuming will be re-hired by the franchise owner. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on wage or working conditions. It will depend on the person. However, in the end there will be more jobs to be had that what existed before.

In all, some great news and for Winnipeg consumers, it could mean better prices overall for groceries.

Lot 88 Steakhouse and Bar to Open on Pembina

Steakhouses are staking out Winnipeg. In the last weeks Mr. Mike's SteakhouseCasual has opened on Kenaston and coming on the heels of that, Lot 88 Steakhouse and Bar announced they were coming to Pembina Highway.

In September, Lot 88 will take over the former Barley Brother's location that recently closed at 2005 Pembina Highway near the University of Manitoba. It is a large building of 6,900 square feet with a patio as well. The owners of the steakhouse approached Barley Brothers even though the site was not on the market. It was fortuitous as the owners there were about to receive a court ordered bill of $475,000 from their former location on Empress which closed 18 months ago.

Timing is everything and Barley Brothers accepted the offer and Lot 88 will open in September in time for the Banjo Bowl and the Bombers presumably. This will be third restaurant at the spot with Earls being the first. A steakhouse might be a good choice since there has not been a good one since The Keg relocated their location near the McGillivary and Pembina years ago. Go back even further and some cheap steak places like Mr. Steak and Ponderosa along Pembina.

Lot 88 will be a fine dining steakhouse. It brings a new concept of cooking your own steak at your table using a volcanic stone. It will be an interesting concept. It will certainly give other steakhouses competition .

The restaurant business is fierce. Much of it has turned to sports and grill formats. Flat screen TVs tuned to sports has changed the business. No longer is a restaurant/bar limited to a picture tube TV mounted in a box or a large blurry projection screen TV. They are ubiquitous. Still, a lot of people still love a place that has big booth, great food and are all about the atmosphere. Lot 88 will probably hit it off with them.

Pembina is a high traffic area and the location near Investor's Group field and the University of Manitoba should give it a spot on location. It will be interesting to hear what their lined up customers will think.

The End of the Cement Plant

July 2017

It has been a fixture on Kenaston for more than 50 years. The Inland Cement plant was constructed in 1963 and completed in 1965. In a few more weeks the large buildings responsible for build Portland cement  (a type of concrete) will be gone forever. City Mix continues to operate in adjacent buildings and cement is made in a building by a rail spur line by Inland Lehigh.

The location of the cement plant was no accident as nearby clay was quarried from what is now the Fort Whyte lakes. From 1913 to 1992 clay was dug up and holes left that were 60 feet deep. Things slows by late 1980s and by 1994 the Kenaston plant and cement/quarry site near present-day Forth Whyte shut down.

The quarry site is a distribution center now with several buildings and rail connections. The Kenaston plant has sat empty since 1994 although cement trucks continue to come to the next door Lehigh plant. Several Canadian and Hollywood production companies have filmed in the cavernous building over the years including last year. It lent itself to a horror or dystopian future milieu.

Until the 1980s Kenaston was a two lane road primarily built to go to the cement plant and rail yards. Linden Woods was not yet built and held the Van Wellingham dairy farm. Driving down Waverley, there was an unobstructed view all the way west to Kenaston, the cement plants and beyond.

The cement plant will soon be gone as will the Kapyong Barracks which are rapidly being torn down. Rumours about about what will go where the cement plant is. Easiest would more offices for the Terracon Business Park but there has also been talk of restaurants and a hotel to take advantage of proximity to IKEA.

Industrial buildings are never architectural gems, especially ones abandoned and spray painted. It does mark the end of an area for a building that represents what Kenaston used to be: an industrial service road. It has grown to much more and the plant's demolition was inevitable. Still, when you drive by, remember that the land used for cement was tomorrow's gift as Fort Whyte and for one of Winnipeg's biggest commercial roads.

Jones New York Stores Close Across Canada

Jones New York on Kenaston

The company was saved just last year when Grafton Fraser in Canada, owner of Tip Top, bought the Canadian arm of classic women's wear company Jones New York.

The company continued to bleed money in a tough retail environment until this week the decision was made to pull the plug. All 37 stores in Canada will close and the stock liquidated. There will be a loss of 300 jobs.

In Winnipeg, the one and only Jones New York is on Kenaston at McGillvary and can be seen from the road. The province to take the biggest hit will be Ontario where the bulk of the stores are.

The Kenaston big box location has seen some closures recently. Some of those are likely in anticipation of the opening of Outlets of Seasons factory mall. There should be some interest in the vacant spots but things will be in flux till next year for sure.

Retailing has never been more fickle and the market so difficult to read. This won't be the last store group to close. Sears continues to struggle and that is one everyone is waiting for to sink or swim.

Original Pancake House Coming to Kenaston

The first Original Pancake House Pembina

The city has approved for a 5500 square foot Pancake House to be built on the west side parking lot of the Odeon VIP Theatre at Kenaston and McGillivary. Over the years the Original Pancake House has expanded to Polo Park and The Forks.

The Kenaston area has been sadly lacking good breakfast and brunch places for a sit down meal. IKEA and Perkins have been built in the last years but many other places don't really get started till noon hour.

A few years back there was a bit of a commotion when it looked like House of Pancakes was going to move into Seasons of Tuxedo. The company adamantly said there were no plans for that despite a map showing that this was precisely what was proposed. No doubt that Winnipeg's love for pancakes in the Kenaston area spurred Original Pancake House into action.

Pancake House site across from Costco

The proposed site across from Costco on Columbia Road and in the parking lot beside the Odeon VIP Theatre is likely to be successful. St. Gianna's Catholic Church is right across the road as well.

It is a known fact that churchgoers love pancakes.

The big question is how will be people in Whyte Ridge react? When there was a proposal for apartments just a short distance away, they reacted with anger and signed a petition in the thousands.

Several years back the people in Linden Woods were up in arms about a Keg restaurant going up across the street from the housing development. The fear was that the smell of steak would make dogs nuts in Linden Woods.

Could the smell of pancakes waft into Whyte Ridge and turn non churchgoers into churchgoing people? I hope city council remembers to examine this issue closely as they did when they rejected the first plans for The Keg on Waverley.

I say good luck to The Original Pancake House in their quest for their Kenaston location!

Linden Ridge Shopping Centre

Linden Ridge Shopping Centre

The Linden Ridge Shopping Centre has been one of the slowest of the retail power centers to develop along Kenaston Boulevard. Since the 1990s, it has had retail at the back end of the mall but has sat on open land while development occurred all around. It has had a few restaurants come and go and a few stores as well.

The mall will receive a considerable boost as construction nears an end to for big box retail outlets beside The Brick.

In red, for new stores

all leased

I have written to a few parties to get some information as to what will be located in the mall but so far no luck. Last time I drove past, there was no indication of what was going up either.

There is a surprising amount of room left for development for further building. Unlike its counterparts along Kenaston and McGillivary which filled up fast, this has been a piecemeal work in progress. Of course, some of the land was not accumulated till when Kleyson Trucking moved its depot in recent years. This led to redevelopment of the old truck office into Steinbach Credit Union today.

I am uncertain whether Canadian Tire purchased their spot from the developer or someone else. However, they own the land they occupy. The Brick joined the other retailers after that.

Some of the present retailers at Linden Ridge

Surrounding retailers around Linden Ridge Shopping Centre

I expect a flurry of new retail and restaurant announcements soon.

Seasons of Tuxedo - Restaurant Closings - Arkadash Closed

Seasons of Tuxedo - Phase 1

Anyone driving down Kenaston will notice the sign crews have been busy. Cabela's sign has gone up and last night the store was all lit up on the outside. Dollarama put up its store sign in the last day as well.

Sign crews worked throughout the day Wednesday along Sterling Lyon.

There is so much work being done on site laying down foundations for further work that is difficult to know which building will be completed first.

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One note about something reported a few days ago: Kelsey's at McGillivray and Kenaston and Kelsey's at Empress/Polo Festival have closed. Aside from a note in the door thanking people for their patronage, no other information is available. They were both around 5000 square feet restaurants and are now both are up for lease.

Kelsey's closed at Kenaston

Kelsey's closed at Empress

I only went a few times to this restaurant. I am not sure if this is fall out from other places that opened in the city but both locations seem ideally suited for a big player from the U.S. coming in.

Another restaurant bar to close is the large  Dylan O'Connor's at 2609 Portage Avenue. The 7500 foot location has been stripped of signs and is listed for lease.

Dylan O'Connor's...formerly owned by the also closed Brit Cafe family

The Portage Avenue restaurant close potentially be a great opportunity for a local restaurant group to shine.

It is a tough market for restaurant owners. We may see a few more places that have been around for years get uprooted.

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This just in this morning.

Arkadash restaurant appears to have closed this morning on Portage Avenue.

Juss Jazz next door closed just a while ago as well.

Thanks to Marty for the tip. Details to follow...

A Modest Proposal - Movie Theatres

Cinema City: Before and After

In what is surely a preemptive move from prospective construction of a multi screen movie theatre on the IKEA site, Cineplex Odeon at McGillivray Boulevard and Kenaston Boulevard.

From the beginning, it has been reported that part of the IKEA site was going to movie theatres, possibly from the Empire chain or the expanding AMC chain. This obvious didn't sit well with dominant player Cineplex.

The response from Winnigeggers has been somewhat mixed since a decent second run movie theatre is now going to have first run movies and posh prices.

So now the Cineplex Odeon McGillivary & VIP Cinemas is born.

What will it consist of? It will be eight traditional auditoriums and three VIP screening rooms. Presumably, if Justin Bieber is back in town, he will be able to entertain his girlfriend Selena Gomez at this theatre rather than at Silver City Polo Park.

The Cineplex announcement is part and parcel of $6.5 million of renovation being done to most of the properties the company owns in the city. New concessions, paint, seats and entertainment are all part of what we'll be seeing in the various facilities.

Now...a modest proposal:

Since we are losing a discount movie theatre in the south end of the city, is not time to consider the Empire Theatre location at the Grant Park Mall. It is the only location of the Empire chain in Winnipeg.

If indeed, it is Empire intending on building on the IKEA site, would it not make some sense to possibly convert the Grant Park site to a discount theatre?

I know I'm not the owner or anything but yeesh, we do like our discount theatres in the city and Grant Park might do well by it.

****

Just picked up the Uniter at McNally Robinson. Saw the story on OMC there. Good job!

I'd love it if the Uniter, Manitoban and Projector were available in boxes around the city. Just sayin'

Despite the fact that so much is online, I love the feel of the paper in my hands.

Cinema City McGillivray

Cinema City McGillivray

By the way, would you stand at that bus stop in front of the theatre? You'd likely get picked off by a wide vehicle or fall into the ditch behind.






Meadowbank Road. Take a look at the theatre wall behind and the "landscaping" of evergreens between the theatre and back yards of the housing.

Back on June 9, the Assiniboia Community Committee approved a plan for Cinema City McGillivary to reduce the landscape buffer between the theatre from 20 feet to 16 feet. The lowest picture shows the mature evergreens which are the only buffer to the back wall of the theatre complex.

The zoning department enforcement people dropped the ball in 1989 when the theatre was built and instead of a 20 foot buffer there was only a 16 foot buffer. How this can happen is anyone's guess and City Clerk's office merely shrugs their shoulders and says it happened for "reasons unknown."

So why is it important now? Well, the Cinema City McGillivary owners wish to build a large Shopper's Drug Mart west of the theatre and any further development would require the 20 foot buffer required under zoning.

On June 9, the city committee approved a proposal to amend the variance to affirm the actual 16 foot buffer existing on the south side and to also make the setback from that buffer 10 feet instead of 50 feet on the west side. As a sop to the changes which would have cost the developer even more to comply with, a proposal of further landscaping in the parking lot out front was promised.

In case anyone is wondering just how busy that area is, right across from the theatre is Costco.

There is so much clean up left after all the zoning and building changes in 1989 that it defies description. In the last city election many people sang the praises of the work of the late councillor Bill Clement. His service is undeniable but it is also the work of his committee that did not put in service roads or drop the hammer on developers who violated their approved zoning.

There is a mess on Route 90 and a lot of it is in this area. Let's hope that the new councllor and committee won't say for "reasons unknown" that zoning here was laughed at by developers later on.