North Main getting major facelift

March 18, 2008
Winnipeg Free Press
Written by: Murray McNeill

$40-M project to breathe new life into desolate strip

The biggest commercial development on North Main Street in nearly a century was to be unveiled today as part of a multimillion-dollar plan to breathe new life into one of the most desolate sections of downtown.

CentreVenture Development Corp. was to announce at its annual meeting this morning that about $40 million will be spent over the next 18 to 24 months to rebuild a nearly three-block stretch along the west side of Main between Logan Avenue and the CP Rail underpass.

The project is being hailed as a catalyst to help North Main recapture some of its past glory as a hub of commercial activity.

Although CentreVenture spearheaded the redevelopment effort by purchasing all the properties along the three-block strip, dominated by boarded-up buildings and litter-strewn lots, private-sector players like Resolve Group Inc. are also stepping up by buying some of that land from CentreVenture and developing it.

The cornerstone will be a new $30-million, four-storey, 80,000-square-foot office/ parking/retail complex that Resolve Group is building on the northwest corner of Main and Logan. The office building will serve as the new head office for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, bringing about 200 office workers to the area. The building will house a community health centre on the first two floors and offices on the top two floors.

The redevelopment will provide a critical link between North Main and the Exchange District, which has undergone a rebirth of its own in recent years with retailers moving in and new condominiums springing up along Waterfront Drive and elsewhere.

It also continues a trend that has seen other businesses move into buildings along Main between Lombard and Logan avenues. But this is the first time anyone has tried to tackle the strip of Main between Logan and Higgins Avenue, which CentreVenture officials have described as the ugliest section in all of downtown Winnipeg.

"I think it represents a fantistic move forward," longtime North Main merchant Paula Mitchell said in an interview Monday. "When you remove decay and replace it with functioning spaces and people coming and going... it results in a renewal that changes the socio-economic realities of the area." Mitchell and CentreVenture chairman Jim Ludlow predicted the project will lead to even more private and public-sector redevelopment in the North Main area.

"I think once you have one commercial development of this magnitude in the area, a second will follow," Ludlow said. "And a second will lead to a third..."

CentreVenture first started talking about the North Main project last fall. Now it's ready to turn talk into action.
"We're not just talking about something that's months and months down the road," CentreVenture CEO Ross McGowan said in an interview. "The rubber is hitting the road."

The president of Resolve Group said the company will start demolishing buildings on the site in May and begin building the new complex shortly thereafter. Gisele MacDonald said the plan is to have the WRHA start moving in by July next year.

The second phase of the project involves the conversion of the former Bell Hotel into assisted-living or transitional housing units, the construction of a new 3,000-square-foot retail storefront and a surface parking lot next door to the Bell, as well as construction of a new credit union building on the long-vacant northwest corner of Main and Higgins. The credit union was not being identified, as the deal hasn't been signed yet.

The surface parking lot will be for the Sun Wa grocery store on Henry Avenue, which is immediately west of Main Street.

The Resolve Group project represents the first phase of what CentreVenture officials expect will become a multi-phase, multi-year redevelopment of the North Main area.

McGowan said the intent is to use the revenues generated from the first two phases to help fund other redevelopment. However, he said it's too soon to say what that will involve.

He said the Resolve Group project was one of five redevelopment proposals CentreVenture received for the former Starland Theatre site.

"And any one of those five could have done the job," he said.

MacDonald said her firm is project manager for a number of the University of Winnipeg's downtown redevelopment projects, and she's looking forward to playing a role in the revitalization of North Main.

"That's what really intrigued me," she said. "We've got an opportunity to see some real exciting times again for Main Street, and I think it's way past due."

MacDonald said she also hopes this project will just be the start of Resolve's involvement in helping to revitalize the area.

"One (project) isn't going to be enough," she said.

WRHA CEO Dr. Brian Postl said Monday the health authority looked at several potential downtown sites, but the Main Street one was where CentreVenture officials were most keen to see it go.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

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