Growth pains

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This article was published 22/09/2016 (3054 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The head of the city’s downtown development agency says the city’s proposed growth fees will stifle new development downtown and she’ll be pushing to have the area exempt from the proposed levy.

“We have to be cautious about how… these fees are applied to downtown,” Angela Mathieson, president and CEO of the CentreVenture Development Corp., told reporters Thursday after the agency unveiled two multi-year programs to encourage more ground-level retailing downtown.

“I would like to see downtown exempt. It’s not unheard of in Canada,” she said. “I think the economies of developing downtown are very difficult. I think a full exemption really eases that, and I think it also sends a strong message (to developers).”

Mathieson said CentreVenture has been involved in many of the new residential developments built downtown in recent years, so her office understands the economics of infill projects.

The growth fees would be charged to new residential and non-residential developments in Winnipeg to help pay for infrastructure projects such as libraries and schools.

Mayor Brian Bowman is leading the charge to introduce the new fee, and a city report has recommended they be implemented Jan. 1 The local development community is strongly opposed to new fees.

Mathieson said she was pleased the city’s executive policy committee on Wednesday delayed a vote on the fee proposal to allow for further consultations.

She said she’ll argue CentreVenture’s case for why downtown should be exempt from such a fee.

She told reporters the fee wouldn’t apply to the two new CentreVenture initiatives unveiled Thursday because they involve improvements to buildings, rather than new developments.

One of the programs, called Push, provides three-month rent subsidies and other assistance to entrepreneurs who lease vacant storefront space in order to test the downtown market.

It’s hoped they will become permanent tenants downtown.

Under the second program, called Face Forward, CentreVenture provides matching grants of up to $50,000 to the owners of downtown buildings who make major improvements to their storefronts.

Both are permanent replacements for pilot programs CentreVenture has been running during the last several years.

The Manitoba government is contributing $238,000 per year for the next four years for the programs.

Mathieson said CentreVenture hopes the grants will leverage up to $8 million in private-sector investment during that time period.

Thursday’s news conference was held in front of an older retail building on the northwest corner of Graham Avenue and Kennedy Street.

The building’s owner spent more than $250,000 on upgrades to the exterior and interior of the complex, with the help of a $35,000 grant from CentreVenture.

The upgrades helped to land a new retail tenant for the building — Thom Bargen Coffee & Tea.

The owners — Graham Bargen and Thom Hiebert — said the upgrades not only convinced them to set up shop there, but have helped to establish their six-month-old venture, which is their second location.

The first is on a gentrified strip of Sherbrook Street.

“When you walk up to this place and when you walk into it, it just feels like you’re so engaged with the street with all of the (big) windows,” Hiebert said. “It’s fresh, and I think it’s a little oasis downtown.”

Bargen said the new storefront has changed the feel of the block.

“It looks great. The more we can focus on kind of beautifying some more corners down here and getting it less grey, (the better),” he said. “It’s really important for walkability and for lifestyle.”

Mathieson said CentreVenture’s ground-floor retail strategy is about attracting new businesses downtown and creating a critical mass of unique retailers, especially on streets such as Graham Avenue.

“The Face Forward program supports storefront improvements such as heritage restoration, lighting and accessible entryways on downtown’s older buildings,” Municipal Relations Minister Eileen Clarke said.

“This funding encourages local owners and businesses to make investments in these buildings, creating a more vibrant urban community that will attract more visitors and strengthen the local economy.”

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca