Friends of Upper Fort Garry step closer to acquiring site where fort stood

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This article was published 03/05/2009 (5619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Friends of Upper Fort Garry are one more step closer to taking over Winnipeg’s birthplace.
City council’s downtown development committee has signed off on a report that states the volunteer group has satisfied all the conditions laid out by the city in April 2008, when the Friends were given a crack at creating a heritage park on surplus city land north of Assiniboine Avenue, between Main and Fort streets, where Upper Fort Garry stood in the 19th Century.
The report states the Friends have raised $10.3 million toward the $12.5 million they say they need to build a heritage park at the site. In November, the Friends concluded a deal to purchase Fort Street’s Grain Exchange Curling Club, which also stands on part of the former fort’s footprint.
Pending approval from executive policy committee on May 20 and council as a whole on May 27, the Friends may acquire the land for $1 as soon as June 1.
They will have until 2014 to complete the park, which will be transferred to provincial jurisdiction. The Grain Exchange Curling Club, a city office building at 100 Main St. and surface parking lots at the south end of the site will all be dismantled.
A separate council vote will be required to transfer Upper Fort Garry gate to the Friends because of issues pertaining to an old land title.