Developer, philanthropist came to Canada with nothing

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This article was published 12/03/2017 (2845 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Martin Bergen, a former prisoner of war who arrived in Canada with nothing and rose to become a Winnipeg apartment-building magnate known for his philanthropy, has died.

Bergen, 89, died March 7 at Bethania Personal Care Home in Winnipeg due to complications from dementia and heart disease.

Bergen’s role in the real estate development scene and his work with the Progressive Conservative party put him in the city’s spotlight through the 1970s and ’80s, and his image and backstory was once used in a federal government advertising campaign extolling the virtues of the nation’s immigration policies.

In 1989, he was awarded the Manitoba Order of the Buffalo Hunt: the highest honour the province could bestow on individuals who demonstrated outstanding skills in the areas of leadership, service and community commitment.

A shining example of that community commitment can be found in the Movement Centre of Manitoba, said executive director Margy Nelson.

“Mr. Bergen ended up being our angel: the angel of the Movement Centre,” she said Monday of the series of events that led to the non-profit organization committed to improving the physical health of children and adults with disabilities finding a permanent home.

In 2001, Nelson’s mother, who once worked for Bergen, was talking with him at a barbeque when he asked her “ ‘What does your daughter’s charity need?… I can build buildings. Do they need a building?’ ” Nelson said.

Two days later, Nelson was looking at the asphalt tennis courts that would soon become the Movement Centre’s home on Henderson Highway. “When we moved in in June 2002, it was the catalyst for us to expand our program to gain credibility,” Nelson said of the opening of the Ruth Bergen Memorial Centre, named in honour of Bergen’s first wife, who died in 2001.

Bergen gifted the centre exclusive use of the 5,300-square-foot building and created a private elevator for clients to access the pool at the adjacent residential property (which his company owns).

“It was the turning point for us to be able to expand and have more clients,” Nelson said, adding she found Bergen to be a “humble man” who later would pop in to the centre to say hi to staff and clients.

According to a biography published in 2003 after his donation to the St. Boniface Hospital resulted in the naming of the Bergen Cardiac Care Centre (opened in 2006), Bergen was born July 24, 1927, in Schoenhorst, Ukraine.

He was 12 when the Second World War began in September 1939 and lived under German occupation starting in 1941.

Bergen was conscripted by the German army in 1944 and served as a battlefield medic before surrendering to American forces in April 1945.

After three years, he was released from his prisoner of war service in France and returned to Germany to find his family had immigrated to Canada.

It was not until 1953 that he was able to join them. When he arrived, he was 26 and owned nothing.

Within a decade, however, Bergen had partnered with Jake Letkemann in forming Marlborough Development Corp. Ltd. and under that banner, between 1962 and 1988, constructed (among other facilities) 38 multi-unit residential buildings. (Letkemann retired from the partnership in 1974.)

Likely Bergen’s most well-known project was his final one and the largest by far: Fort Garry Place, a three-tower development that features 900-plus suites, retail and office space, banquet facilities and a revolving restaurant.

His company’s property management arm, Edison Properties, boasts of nearly 5,000 rental units across 25 buildings throughout Winnipeg and remains in family hands, with daughter Miriam Bergen as company president.

A celebration of Bergen’s life will be held Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Fort Garry Place.