Three New Goodlife Fitness Locations for Winnipeg 2019/2020

Safe to say that Winnipeg is experiencing a building boom when it comes to fitness center across the city. The reasons for this vary but in part it can be explained as community centers not having nearly enough space or resources for a mature market of people wanting exercise centers. After graduating from schools and universities the choices for the adult fitness market are more often than not private fitness places. Moreover, how people keep fit can change as we age out of school and community sports like hockey, football and basketball. It is difficult to keep active with team sports due to work, family commitments or wear and tear.

Fitness is a solo thing save for joining group exercises such as yoga, cycling or dance/weight classes. We can still do our regular stuff such as swimming and biking, gardening and golfing but Canada is a winter country and daylight hours wane away so have created an infrastructure of indoor recreation facilities nation-wide.

Until recently you would really only be able to point to the Y as being the one true national fitness center. However, the Y kind of gives away its mission statement. It skews young and always will. It is a family friendly place and make no apologies for it. And over the years many of their facilities and services have upgraded and they do their job very well.

Goodlife, on the other hand, is a genuine Canadian coast to coast fitness center with a large presence in Winnipeg. That presence is about to get bigger. Goodlife is going to spend $30 million on two new clubs, relocation of one club and renovations on the rest. And by big, that means big. As reported already here on this blog, a 60,000 square foot club is going up on Bishop Grandin between Pembina Highway and Waverley along the north side. It will be double the size of Grant Park and Kenaston locations.

The Bishop Grandin location above will have a women's only section, a pool, a hot yoga studio and meditation space. The fitness center is scheduled to open in December. It would appear to be that it is in a race with the Altea fitness center which looks to be complete about the same time in the Bridgwater area on far south Kenaston. The Altea will be even larger and feature its own exclusive amenities. The continuing residential development and density building along Kenaston and now Bishop Grandin might generate the population to sustain the large facilities. In the case of Bridgwater, this growing area seems to have an anemic public recreation area so Altea might be only place for several years to come. As far as Bishop Grandin, the new bus rapid transit and high rises are right along the route the new Goodlife will stand on.

The Kenaston Goodlife is likely to benefit from a huge residential component in Kapyong and along Sterling Lyon while the Grant Park location is surrounded by apartments and is also adjacent to bus rapid transit. A lot of thought has gone into these multi-million dollar developments. Winnipeg is growing and the competition to serve the city means we are seeing some top notch building taking place.

Goodlife has indicated clubs in existence will be getting renovations. In this heavy competition, fitness centers will have to look to upgrade faster lest people look elsewhere. As far as other fitness centers like Shapes, Planet Fitness, Snap or Anytime Fitness, they will have to compete on price, location and amenities. Big won't always win the race. For those not in a car, the presence of a gym in a place such as the Osborne Village will be the choice they often make.

It is obvious Winnipeg has seen a dramatic increase in fitness centers across every geographic area but one area has been sadly lacking: St. Vital. The rumours have been true all along and Goodlife will be building in St. Vital Mall likely in the old Sears location. The location will be 27,000 square feet and be ready in spring on 2020.

The third new club will be at 330 Main Street in what people still call the Trizec building. It will be part of the residential/commercial component being building above Winnipeg Square and will be ready in summer of 2020. Once it is complete, the old Goodlife in what was the TD/Canwest building will be shut down. The new club will be about 24,000 square feet.

Once complete the new clubs will add about 200 jobs to the market.

The growth of Winnipeg by the tens of thousands in recent years and a desire to get healthy will probably fuel this competition for the next few years. It is interesting to note that malls such as Winnipeg Square, Garden City, Grant Park and now St. Vital Mall are adding fitness centers to drive traffic. It is difficult to imagine it happening 10 years ago in the city.

Biggest Goodlife Fitness Coming to Bishop Grandin Crossing

I have been following Bishop Grandin Crossing moves through city planning but it has been a long, slow process. It goes back nearly five years now on the site of the old Sugar Beet Lands proximate to the north of Bishop Grandin as it connects to the west of Pembina Highway. It is easily seen on the drive on Bishop Grandin between Waverley and Pembina Highway.

The Bus Rapid Transit overpass has been under construction along with the route these past two years. It nears completion even now. The long planning process and master plan for the site is done and now we are getting an idea of who the new residents of this mixed office, retail and housing development will be.

Make no mistake about this. Bishop Grandin Crossing is as massive a development as Seasons of Tuxedo is. It involves an extension of two city streets into the site as well as access to Bishop Grandin. It will also include bike paths, sidewalks and of course, the BRT station. It is huge.

The first confirmed tenant of the site will be Goodlife Fitness with the largest location in Manitoba at 60,000 square feet. To put that into perspective of the other clubs: the bigger Goodlife Fitness buildings in Winnipeg are around 25,000 to 30,000 square feet.

This move by Goodlife has been long in the making but hastened by the announcement of Altea Fitness being built in Bridgwater which will also be 60,000 square feet. Lest anyone think there is not enough people to sustain either gym or will possibly feed of the other gym locations, keep this in mind: the population is going up in the area in the tens of thousands.

Bishop Grandin Crossing will house a great many residential buildings with a few thousand people calling it home. Moreover, this is an invitation for people just across the river in St. Vital to have access to services like Goodlife that have yet been able to find space in the packed suburb.

Is there a limit to all this growth? Sure there is. The area that might be affected is Kapyong Barracks. If the thinking there was retail, it might not be able to find what they are looking for. More on that in another post.

As for Bishop Grandin Crossing, all the pieces are now being put together and having a major national gym like Goodlife locate there is just the beginning.

Save on Foods Coming to Bridgwater Center and St. James Street

Left, Save on Foods location

As reported here, Save on Foods is coming to Winnipeg. Billionaire Jimmy Pattison (who owns the grocer among other holdings) announced three locations and more to come at the former Zellers at Northgate Shopping Centre. Around a thousand people came to hear Pattison and his execs in person talk about the west coast grocer moving into the Winnipeg market with possibly 12 stores.

Any why not? The U.S. owners of Safeway tucked tail and ran back to the U.S, and sold their interests to Sobey's. The government forced a bare minimum of stores to be sold in the interests of competition but did nothing about all of the warehousing and manufacturing that Safeway had in the west. Subsequently, Winnipeg has been hit hard by Safeway lay-offs. The ice cream plant and now the enormous distribution plant on King Edward/Route 90 are being closed and a few hundred employes shown the door.

The only reason that Sobey's has probably not shut down even more Safeway stores is that they were possibly nervous that Co-Op might pick up even more than the four stores they have now.  Now they have even more to contend with now that Save On Foods has come to town.

In addition to the Northgate Shopping Centre where part of the old Zellers will become a store, Save on Foods will be building a store from the ground up in the Bridgwater Centre area of Waverley West and at the old Future Shop location on St. James street opposite Polo Park. All stores should come on street sometime in the fall of this year.

Old Future Shop location, future Save On Foods

The conversion of the old Future Shop on St. James is a brilliant stroke as it comes on the heels of all the roadwork to improve access. A very large Safeway and Real Canadian Superstore are close by but this store will be the closest to Polo Park than any other grocer.

Future Save on Foods at Bridgwater Centre

The move into the Bridgwater Centre is a real coup because it is totally new and the shoppers will be totally new. An entire population is developing around the area and their local store won't be Safeway, Sobey's or Co-Op. It will be a Save on Foods.

All roads lead to Save on Foods

Save on Foods is likely going to need a distribution center of their own as they continue their growth of possibly 20 stores in Manitoba and the same in Saskatchewan.

The site of the new Save on Foods

There will be hundreds of jobs created with the arrival of Save on Foods. The biggest plus though is that competition between grocers will be keen and that can only be good for everyone in Manitoba.

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!

Wayfinding in Winnipeg

Winnipeg Transit Wayfinding

In 2003, Winnipeg became one of the first cities to create a wayfinding system that was coordinated with graphics and maps that would help navigate the city's downtown whether by the walkway system or driving. Add into the mix Winnipeg Transit, you had a logical and consistent format to get around the town.

It has been more than 10 years since the system has been put in place and more cities across Canada have come on board and have come up with innovative ways to improve the idea.

Winnipeg's unrolling of wayfinding was not without trouble. Costs were underestimated and publicity surrounding the plan was spotty. The city's website is not exactly informative about it and some the improvement zones have their own version of the mapping system.

To be sure, Winnipeg probably needs to re-examine the program, expand it and make it smart phone friendly. They could probably take a note from Winnipeg Transit who, despite controversy from the rapid transit debate, continue to try and meld technology and infrastructure. The Navigo app and signage with realtime updates is excellent and only getting better.

Special event signage is getting better.

Routes After Bomber Game

Winnipeg Transit has to think city-wide though. That is the mandate for the operation. Winnipeg's wayfinding though seems stuck downtown. It needs to spread out to other areas such as parks and recreation. Imagine the Winnipeg Zoo and Assiniboine Park coordinated into this wayfinding system on multiple platforms of technology and infrastructure.

A coordinated approach should be made for every road, every walkway, every cycling path, every business zone and all recreation and park service.

Winnipeg Transit is doing a good job in moving ahead.

Wayfinding at Investor's Group Field

The signage, the apps, the clocks on arrival times are excellent for Winnipeg Transit.

The debate aside on rapid transit...Winnipeg's bus service has increased ridership because it finds a way to work despite many misgivings about public transportation some people have, especially those in power.

There are map geeks all over the world and even in our own city. How often have we gone to a new place and had the delight of restaurant placemats featuring maps of the local area? It is a quick way to get to know an area. Quite honestly, we don't have enough maps in the city. It is not enough to have people use cell phones with a mapping system from Google.

The maps have to be extremely local. They have to be attractive, innovative and and informative.

Winnipeg Signpost?

It is good to have consistency. Winnipeg does not have a numbered street system so it is very important for people to have a common frame of reference. If a Winnipeg person tells someone to drive down Waverley to get the turn-off for the University of Manitoba, it may not make any sense to someone not familiar with the road. How many people in Winnipeg know that Waverley is Route 80? Yikes, talk about a disconnect between local knowledge and what is on a map.

While a bus may have the route number on it, it doesn't mean Winnipeggers who drive cars will know. It seems the city and province should sit down and come up with a signage policy that might incorporate the name and route number but getting the two governments to cooperate is always a daunting task.

Winnipeg's orphaned Wayfinding

The signage downtown and in the Walkway system is accompanied by maps to major areas of the city. Kiosks are present and offer maps for people to navigate the city street system, Concourse and second level overpasses. The problem with the system is the city's website offers very little information on the system. There has been adding of new technologies such as interactive kiosk maps, no new apps for smart phones and no use of Google streetview to show the walkway system first hand.

The wayfinding has not been expanded at all. It is an orphaned program that once was championed by Gord Steeves but has no one speaking for it now.

Various city wayfinding maps.

It is hard to see who in the city will champion wayfinding in the city. Other major cities in Canada such as Edmonton and doing a re-think on the subject and Calgary and Toronto have been adding to their systems with great effort.

We can and should do better. Now only is it fun but it is good business. It is entertaining and it is informative. It can be the way to distinguish your city and create excitement.

And for Pete's sake, we should do better on signage leading into the city of Winnipeg.

New High School and Dorms for Lee Boulevard Waverley West

South East Collegiate

 

Back in October I pointed out how much development was happening opposite the Waverley West lands near Lee Boulevard. I pointed out then that a major condo development was slated to go up on the corner of Waverley and Lee.

I also indicated that Lee Boulevard had become a centre for First Nations health and education through the South East Tribal Council. A high school as well as personal home centre have been in place from 1995 and 2011 respectively.

Field where new school will be built

The latest news is that the high school will be re-locating to a spot just in front of the personal car home. It is possible the thinking is of having more students attend the school as it will come with 156 two bedroom dorms. The present population of the school is 160 students. By my reckoning that will really increase the amount of students in the school.

School site

 Meanwhile, South Pointe and Bridgwater are no where near approving a school to be built for high school students.

The issue of traffic along Waverley and through the Waverley West area will continue to grow. Expect some woes associated with that.

However, an expanded First Nations school is a good thing.

Waverley Development at Lee Boulevard

Waverley at Lee Boulevard Development

Lost in the rapid growth of Waverley West is the fact that it has opened development opportunities in the gaps east of Waverley.

Lee Boulevard bisects the area east from Shore Street near Pembina Highway all the way west to Brady Road. South of Lee has been filled with home for Richmond West for many years.

North of Lee has been home to South East Collegiate since 1995. The school has 160 aboriginal students from Grade 10 to 12.  Beside the school is the South East Personal Care home built in 2011 for $21 million. The 80 bed facility for elderly Indian, Metis and Inuit was the first of its kind in Winnipeg.

Without anyone really taking notice, Lee Boulevard north has become a center for First Nations health and education.

A section of land beside the school used for baseball and soccer has now become very valuable as it situated beside the recently reconstructed Waverley and the quickly developing Waverley West with neighbourhoods of Bridgwater and South Pointe.

Development Site...South East Collegiate on the right

A proposal has been sent to the city to turn the corner lot into 166 condominium townhouses.

I see no reason why this project won't go ahead and be fairly successful. However, it is another reminder as to why concern over traffic along Waverley will will not go away.

The north and south traffic flows along Kenaston and Waverley will only continue as new and infill housing goes in.

A better response is probably needed for what surely will be traffic chaos along the streets.

166 Condos for Lee Boulevard

Canada Safeway Sold to Sobey's

To certain, it looked like something had to change with so many food retailers crowding into the market. It will be Canada Safeway that retreats back across the border with its tail between its legs and $6 billion in its pockets with Sobey's grabbing up all their stores and concerns.

Winnipeg has a long history in Winnipeg as city was the headquarters starting from 1928. Eventually, executive offices moved to Calgary although Winnipeg continues to have as many as 40 back office people based around their Waverley offices. The old Pacific offices have long since been vacated.

I am uncertain when head office functions moved west but the 1980s were unkind to Winnipeg with recession and bruising company closures. This is when Read Canadian Superstore's WestFair Foods noisily exited decrying the NDP's payroll tax. I think Safeway slowly followed suit.

It is uncertain what will happen to office staff given that Sobey's will look to end redundancies. This is more likely to have a huge impact where Calgary has close to 600 head office staff now. The 40 staff in Winnipeg may have a better chance as back office functions for the west might best continue in a less expensive city than Calgary.

The very large distribution center of Safeway set up in 1962 and with about 80 employees is part of the sale to Sobey's. It is difficult to say what will happen there as Sobey's as massive 350,000 square foot warehouse on Inkster. However, a lot of the recent expansion there has been to supply Target with food product.

There are 10 Sobey's in Winnipeg, a Cash and Carry and other associated stores of the company. Safeway has 20+ stores. There is going to be some cross over.

Do we see store merged? Do we see some sold? Do we see some go under a new banner and marketed differently? What about Airmiles and Safeway cards? So many questions.

Safeway has been part of people's lives here for a very long time. It is not hard to see they have been struggling though and there have been pressures on staff along the way. Those pressures are likely to continue.

Sobey's has a pretty good reputation and is a Canadian owned company. Perhaps a sign of good things to come.

South Pointe - Waverley West

Northern section of South Pointe. It is alongside Waverley.

Southern section of South Pointe. Waverley Street diverts West

South Pointe, the suburb south of Bridgwater Forest


South Pointe is a Ladco development alongside Waverley Street headed down to the Perimeter Highway. Most will know the lands as Waverley West.

In some respects the development is evolving like many suburbs do in the city. The area is flattened and then serviced lots are provided along a street system the developer outlines and houses are built. The total area to be built is 480 acres with 1500 single family homes. Only 25 acres is set aside for multi-family dwelling for 500 homes. Unlike Bridgwater, none of these homes has been built yet. One wonders if they wait long enough will South Pointe residents complain about later on.

Likewise, there is supposed to be a commercial element of 55 acres built servicing the area. None of that has been built but it appears it is concentrated along Waverley Street.

Included in the development is 30 acres of park space.

The unusual thing about South Pointe is the city planners are sending Waverley in a curve towards the Perimeter Highway. It did go straight down past the Perimeter to La Barriere Park at the turn off for Bison Drive prior to the development.


As anyone will tell you, it is now a speedway down Waverley to get to points of Fort Richmond, St. Norbert and La Salle. The road was once mostly gravel, oil and bitumen right through to the 1990s. It was never meant for the type of traffic it is getting now. It is hard to imagine it can support ever greater amounts of people. Most troubling is the lack of a proper overpass at Bison and Waverley. It is a bit of a blind spot where it turns.

South Pointe lacks a trail and sidewalk connection to other areas. With such a low density population, it hard to know what sort of public transit it will rate.

Some of the future problems of this neighbourhood are not the fault of the developers themselves. Winnipeg's planning department has not ensured that roads will be able to handle future volumes of traffic. Service roads around major shopping areas have not been built. Rapid transit remains a dream. Sidewalks and trails are not in place. High density hubs are lacking.

South Pointe in particular will bottleneck at Bison Drive.

The prospects for Bridgwater to the north are far better since they will have more access points to Kenaston and Waverley. Also, the neighbourhood is doing more to ensure that there will be fewer fights about multi-family dwellings since they are going at the same time everything else is going in. This will make public transit to the area far more reliable than a neighbourhood with only single family houses.

Some say all development in the area should be halted. As mentioned, this would probably push development to La Salle and Oak Bluff, beyond city control but still a factor on city roads and services.

No, what is needed is plan of action and the province, major developer of Waverley West should be on the hook for a major infrastructure change in the area. This means they should be contributing to an overpass, sidewalks and transit for the area.

Violent Reaction in Whyte Ridge

The Southwest Corner of McGillivary and Dunkley Street

Look into the background and you can see Whyte Ridge. It is way back behind a fence.

A condo complex with no entrance into that subdivision warrants a 500 person petition and a verbally violent committee meeting where the police might have to intervene. Am I getting this right?

Assiniboia Community Committee of City Council - Councillors Paula Havixbeck, Grant Nordman and Scott Fielding approved a condo complex that seemed to go out of its way to ensure that it was not offensive. The step of having no entrance into the sub-division was a huge step. All traffic will enter and exit via McGillivary.

Now, I do have some thoughts on McGillvary. It is turning into a speedway to even further exurban subdivisions. Despite a recent widening, it may prove to be a bit tricky for left turns in.

However, one thing is obvious: Whyte Ridge's four lanes in and out to McGillivary is unaffected. They have controlled access to the McGillivary at Columbia Drive. They also have an entrance with lights to Kenaston at Scurfield.

So what is the concern of Whyte Ridge about a condo outside the fenceline and and away from its major traffic routes? Well, according to some people, it is a monolith looking into their yards? Really? I count maybe four or five house on Breckenridge Close and a few on Scurfield that are even close to the development. And these are pie-shaped lots with very large backyards.

How could a condo set back from the fence and houses set back from the fence upset one another? Even landscaping seems to be included that would mitigate consequences of overseeing one another?

It is hard to believe that Whyte Ridge wants a commercial development on the site. That is a realistic possibility given a movie theatre or Shopper's Drug Mart are down the street.

And what about runs past Breckenridge? It is high powered lines and a railyard? Aren't those far worse for the neighbourhood?



The old rail and Manitoba Hydro lines running past Whyte Ridge.

The site where the condo is getting is a mix of scrub bush, dirt or gravel road and a house and out buildings. It has a rural/industrial feel. And honestly, so close to Kenaston and being on McGillivary, it is hard to imagine it staying the way it is.

Perhaps, the residents of Whyte Ridge would like human remains to be kept there? No? Well, looky what goes up down the street next month.






St. Gianna's Church at the Corner of McGillvary and Columbia Drive

St. Gianna's Church goes up in a month. It is a $11 million Catholic Church with...

It will feature the first Columbarium Crypt in Canada. Yes, you read that right. A crypt. Of human remains. Beside Whyte Ridge.

Moreover, this is just phase 1.

Just imagining the cars involved. And those cars will be using an access point to Whyte Ridge.

There were no 500 person petitions against this church right up against the fences of houses in the community?

It is no wonder that city councillors were not swayed by extremely angry and possibly violent citizens. If this condo project could get turfed outside the fenceline, what next? Close the church? Pull the rail and hydro lines?

Come on Whyte Ridge? This isn't even inside the fenceline to your subdivision.

This reminds me of when The Keg got chased away from Waverley by Linden Woods residents because of people saying the smell of steak cooking across the street *opposite* the fenceline would make dogs nuts in the neighbourhood. I kid you not. That was what was in the meeting and Councillors backed down like a dog with its tail between its legs.

I hope the full city council takes the hysteria into account and ignores it. This project is not the end of the world for that neighbourhood.

It makes me think how smart it is to put condos and apartments in as a neighbourhood is being built as we are seeing in Bridgwater now.

Let this project be built. I'm sure that people now will be embarrassed later on about how they overreacted.

Bridgwater - Waverley West

Back in 2009, some critics of Waverley West were giving an earful about the slow development of the area and that demand was not there and it was simply drawing people from elsewhere. With only around 75 housing starts there and no firms stats on just how much the city was growing, it was a fairly easy conclusion to make.

Winnipeg's slower growth, it was assumed, was going to mean that any new neighbourhood built was going to de-populate established neighbourhoods and contribute to sprawl. There was evidence in the 1980s and 1990s that this was happening.

What the statistics show is that Winnipeg's population is indeed growing and at a faster pace that we have seen in decades. This has led to demands for more housing. The changing demographics also have altered in some cases what sort of housing people are looking for. The biggest example of that is Waterfront Drive where no population existed a few years back and where the next census is likely to reveal thousands live there now.

Now, I am going to get into the overall and sometimes divisive debate in regards to urban versus suburban versus exurban versus rural. Suffice to say, it is difficult to to tell people where and how they can live. Truth of the matter is that even the oldest neighbourhoods started off as developments including Point Douglas. A great deal of thought needs to go into how the city develops because a too heavy handed approach will be ignored and a too light approach will result in a Sim City meltdown of the community.

The attractiveness of Point Douglas from early on, for example, was diminished by the quickly rising wealth of the city and an increase in house size.

This has been a trend that has manifested itself decade after decade although some evidence suggests that the trend could be changing due to an ageing population, smaller families, expense, transport energy cost, cultural mores and a whole host of other factors.

As mentioned, changes in people needs and desires is a moving target. And this has meant that a need and a desire for a development like Waterfront Drive arose.

The breakdown of Waterfront Drive home-owners is young professionals, people who have sold larger primary homes and want luxury but not on the size scale they might have had in Tuxedo or Linden Woods and lastly, people who work downtown.

However, this is not about urban versus suburban. It is about needs and wants in the population and how to manage those desires in terms of planning and costs.

The one thing I will say is that the government must ensure that the costs of such neighbourhood expansion are built into the development or it will not sustain itself and end up costing money later on. In other words, if taxes shoot through the roof as they did in the 1980s, there will be an inevitable exodus of tax dodgers running to places just outside city limits.

However, if you don't address the needs and wants of the population with a development they like, you may also have an exodus of people outside of the city jurisdiction. And if poor city planning turns existing neighbourhoods into speedways to the suburbs, the older neighbourhoods will lose desirability and possibly become run down.

There is an element within the city that wants a sub-division like Bridgwater. It is no use getting angry at people who don't want to buy a re-sale market home, want a yard, want something new and so on and so on. The psychology of this is well documented if not well understood by those who don't share the thinking.

So, it is a balancing act for a city to provide disparate people who have various incomes and several needs and want, the right make-up for a successful community.

In terms of Bridgwater, the expense of getting there is not fully costed. Route 90/Kenaston has not even given a budget for replacing the St. James Bridge or expansion of the road to three lanes in each direction. Already, tens of millions has been spent on expanding around Kenaston Commons and Ikea. All told, it may that costs climb to few hundred million. That isn't just idle talk either. The cost of a road construction as a rule of thumb is $1 million per kilometer. Add the cost of the bridge is and it is huge money.

Why bring this up in relation to Bridgwater? Well, the success of the place could and will be affected by people trying to get in and out of there. If everything bottlenecks, there will be a rising fury about it and people may just decide to bypass the area for housing, shopping and recreation.

The synchronized lights have rarely worked since being installed and more and more traffic lights go up all the time. More businesses have gone up in the business parks along Kenaston all the time. Canadian Western Bank is under construction by Tim Horton's in the GoodLife Fitness parking lot. It is a zoo in the that area every evening.

So, back to Bridgwater...

It is proceeding rapidly now. Just how fast? Well, I see clients with street names listed that I don't have a clue where they are. You can't even Google where they live since it was just a field a few months ago.

And what of the development itself?

What special attractions does it offer that will inspire the same loyalties we see in those who live in River Heights, Charleswood, St. James, Wildwood Park or Transcona?

For example, River Heights has its stately homes and tree-lines streets, Charleswood has the ditches, gravel roads and rural feel, St. James was the first to have winding roads and larger yards, Wildwood Park with its backlanes and front of the house facing a park and Transcona with its affordable homes and community ties.

Well, it would appear that the the winding road one might expect in Linden Woods and Whyte Ridge are there. Likewise, the lakes and parks with trails. However, the community also has sidewalks for the streets which have not been in style in nearly fifty years. A component of green space forest exists and trails runs through it. And like a lot of suburbs, fencing and berms for sound and visual privacy surround the neighbourhood.

So what else is new? Well, unlike its suburban counterparts, there are condos and townhouses within the fencing of Bridgwater. The big fights about a condo going up in Linden Woods are not happening here because there multi-unit buildings are up even before the regular housing is. Significantly, the condos are up near the entrances to the sub-division. If residents do seek to use transit, there may be numbers to support it just outside on Waverley.

One of the things promoted in the development is the idea of a town center. Most suburbs shun anything of the kind. A few critics have scoffed at the whole thing.

To be continued in part 2.

The End of McMansion?

Bridgwater McMansion?

The Census Bureau in the U.S. has released data indicating that the McMansions are on the decline.

After years of growth, the Census Bureau recently reported that median new home size fell to 2,135 square feet in 2009 after peaking at more than 2,300 earlier in the decade.

McMansions are described as:

a pejorative term for a large new house which is judged as pretentious, tasteless, or badly designed for its neighborhood.

Does Winnipeg have McMansions? Well, look at this:

The Manchester can be found at 35 Edington Point in centrally-located Bridgwater Forest.

"This home is a very functional, efficient design," says Menno Friesen of Realty Executives, sales representative for Randall Homes (along with Dave Mick) for 35 Edington. "It's a wonderful design full of great features contained in a floor plan that wastes very little in the way of space."

Due to its well-conceived floor plan, the home -- already an expansive 2,329 sq. ft. spread out over two levels -- feels even larger than the listed square footage. That feeling of space starts in an extra-wide (and long) foyer (with 17-foot ceiling) that provides seamless access to the voluminous great room. It's here that the space and common-sense floor plan merge to create a family home designed for easy living.

Description of McMansions:

Typically it will have a floor area over 3,000 square feet (280 m2), ceilings 9-10 feet high, a two-story portico, a front door hall with a chandelier hanging from 16-20 feet, two or more garages, several bedrooms and bathrooms, and lavish interiors. The house often covers a larger portion of the lot than the construction it replaces.

Add the livable basement space in the Winnipeg house and you have 3000 feet.

I wonder if the Waverley West is building for a market that might be downsizing in just a short time?



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Parker Avenue

A Google map close-up of the Parker Avenue lands

In July, a land swap took place between Gem Equities and the city's transit department. The area has been undeveloped all these years and has acted a shortcut for many between Waverley Street and Pembina Highway. Gem promptly indicated they were going build townhouses on the site.

As one can see from the picture, there is a combination of woods and scrub land in the selected area. It has never been designated as park land for the city although many people use it for walking trails.

There was some controversy a few years ago when the Winnipeg Humane Society located to Hurst alongside the 22 acres around Parker. Now, some workers there are complaining about further development. It is hard to hear people advocate for closing the door once they themselves are in place.

The Not in my Backyard (NIMBY) protests are sounding all over the city for almost any type of change.

The lands around Parker Avenue could have easily gone industrial rather than residential. That probably would have drawn even more criticism. The plain truth is that the area was never designated as park land and there has never been plan to make it a park.

The city has recently completed the Sterling Lyon Parkway from Route 90/Kenaston to Waverley Street. It makes sense to connect Waverley to Pembina Highway via an extension of that road.

Some have complained the lands should remain as is, a forest or scrub land but this doesn't help the neighbourhood if traffic continues to rise along Parker as the city grows. To simply make it local access only bottlenecks traffic even for those who wish to preserve their little sanctuary.

I don't know the full environmental impact in the Parker Avenue woods. A study should be done to see what it will entail. I do know that we if protect every space within the city that we will continue to sprawl, we won't have transportation corridors for rapid transit or traffic and it will cost everyone in the city.

Ideally, an extension of Sterling Lyon would have bikepaths, sidewalks and greenery. It would connect Pembina and Waverley and put off the need immediately for an underpass for Waverley. It would allow for easy and controlled access north and south of the road.

If Gem does decide to build townhouses, it should be done with the same principle of sidewalks, bikepaths and greenery.

The NIMBY principle of rejecting any type of change in a neighbourhood is becoming exasperating.

I think that the project should be watched closely but it could be a very good thing for the city as a whole.



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