It has been quite a year! When 2020 started it was not envisioned that we would be living through a world-wide pandemic. At Shindico, we were planning for another busy year, working with clients to find them the ideal space for their business, bringing new properties to market and expanding our footprint in multi-family development. The world changed in March. Lockdowns to protect the public from COVID-19 sent economies spinning and governments scrambling to provide supports to businesses and individuals alike. Despite all these challenges, we have persevered and the outlook for 2021 is optimistic. There are several vaccine options coming to market that offer hope of wide-spread immunity and experts are predicting a strong rebound in the economy.

I live in Fort Garry, get groceries at Sobeys on Taylor Avenue in Grant Park Festival and bank at the Scotiabank next door in Grant Park Pavilions. When I saw the sign for future apartments on the same property, I knew it was meant to be. I reached out to Shindico and placed a $500 fully refundable deposit on the suite of my choosing on the floor of my choosing. 

StorageVille, a self-storage facility in Winnipeg, Canada – is part of the Shindico commercial real estate investment portfolio. Working closely with Shindico President and CEO, Sandy Shindleman, the management team at StorageVille sought out ways to reduce our operating costs. One area which came to our attention is in the renewable energy space with the opportunities available in Manitoba. Often, when someone mentions “renewal energy” and “Manitoba” in the same sentence, the first thing to come to mind is hydroelectricity. However, Manitoba is also a perfect location for utilizing another renewal energy source – solar technology. So perfect in fact that Manitoba Hydro began offering its Solar Energy Pilot Program in 2017.

Winnipeg, the largest city in Manitoba, Canada, has seen steady expansion in population, job creation and industrial space demand over the past several years. Growth in industry sectors such as aerospace, agribusiness, logistics, information technology and manufacturing have driven industrial vacancy rates to below 4 percent.

We sat down with one of Shindico’s property managers, Alex Akman, to discuss Winnipeg’s multi-family market.