230 Princess & Red River College Expansion

The location of the Jeld-Wen showroom at 230 Princess seemed to be an interesting choice for the company. They are celebrating the grand opening of that particular show room tonight and I was interested in researching why they decided on that particular location. Apparently it is a new venture for them to position a showroom in the downtown area. It is “the first foray into the heart of a city for Jeld-Wen’s Canadian operations” since the other four showrooms are located in the suburbs of Montreal, Calgary, Burnaby and Edmonton.

The 230 Princess Street location was part of a redevelopment project led by Mark Hofer, which Jeld-Wen signed a 10-year lease with in order to occupy the main floor. The most interesting part of the redevelopment is that the majority of the building is being converted into affordable housing. Mark Hofer “wanted to create something that was affordable for a wider range of people”, because it is his belief that “ more affordable housing has to happen before downtown really takes off”. This could offer an opportunity for additional Red River College students to live near the campus.

Jeld-Wen played a large roll in making the redevelopment possible. According the Mark Hofer “they ultimately made this viable” since the 10-year lease guaranteed that Mark Hofer would at least have a partial tenant for a long term period. 

Also, Jeld-Wen moving into that area is anticipated to have a positive impact on the downtown area.  Mark Hofer says “It’s great news for the downtown that a company of this caliber has confidence in an area like Princess Street. – We’re hoping this will be a bit of a catalyst for further confidence in that area and for further development.”

It seems that this location choice was outside Jeld-Wen’s typical business approach but I think that the redevelopment of 230 Princess will be beneficial to downtown Winnipeg

 

In other news related to Red River College, they have recently announced a plan for an expansion. According to a Winnipeg Free Press article the college spokesman, Colin Fast, said “we are at capacity right now – some of our trades programs, like carpentry, welding and electrical, are bursting at the seams”. Therefore he says it “allows us to expand our presence downtown and also increase capacity for a lot of the skilled trade programs at the main campus”.

The plans for the new development would make use of the old Union Bank Tower. The historic building would become student residences (100 residence units) and a new home for culinary and hospitality school. This would allow the College to accept over a hundred more students into culinary arts.

The expansion is estimated at 25 million dollars, and the date of completion is anticipated to be 2010.

M.H.

http://www.naylornetwork.com/wrl/articles/?aid=21077&projid=1516

http://winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/4239556p-4882766c.html