Major development in West Transcona well underway
It has been a long time coming, but the transformation of the old City of Winnipeg Public Works yard on Plessis is well underway.
Plans for the first phase of the new 22.5-acre Park City Commons (1500 Plessis Rd.) mixed use commercial and residential development have all been approved by the East Kildonan-Transcona Community Committee. Roads have been laid out, piles driven and structures rising for the first businesses, which are expected to be open in early 2019, are going up.
Phase 1 of the project, which is being developed by EdgeCorp Developments, features a No Frills grocery store, a Shell gas station and car wash, a Pet Planet, a Starbucks, an A&W, and a KFC along side with 95 residential units. When all phases of the project are complete, between three to five years from now, Park City Commons will be home to approximately 100,000 square-feet of commercial space and over 700 residential units.
This is becoming a model for brownfield development in the city.
"There is a need for people who live in apartments to have access to groceries and other amenities," said Keith Merkel, president of EdgeCorp. "This has got everything you need on a daily basis right here, and if you need to get to work you can take a bus. There’s not a lot of stuff like this in city."
Across Transcona Boulevard, the new Transcona Library is nearing completion and expected to open in the fall. A feasibility study for a connected recreational complex —the East of the Red Rec Plex — was delivered to committee on June 19. The report was in turn referred to the standing committee for community services. The proposed rapid transit eastern transit corridor is also expected to start its route outside the library and travel through Park City Commons.
"There’s more construction going on in this end of the city than the south end, but you never hear about it," Merkel said. "The northeast is cooking."
EdgeCorp acquired the land at 1500 Plessis in February 2016. But the wheels have been turning behind the scenes for nearly 20 years.
"As a council, we kicked off this area, believe it or not, it was exactly four years ago," Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona) said. "It was all dust and sand, just a mess. But this goes back even further, to when council approved decommissioning the old Public Works site back in 2000. But we didn’t know what would happen with the site."
Construction is well underway at Park City Commons (1500 Plessis Rd.), a mixed use development that, when complete, will be home to retail, residential, and recreational facilities.
Wyatt said that things really began rolling after the Transcona West Area Structure Plan was adopted by city council in 2008.
"That was when the idea for Transcona Boulevard came together. A gentleman by the name of Neil Myska, who died tragically at 49 of a heart attack, a great engineer, he really made that road happen."
A major hurdle that had to be overcome to develop the site was salt contaminated soil and asbestos in the old buildings. Cost of cleanup was estimated around $8 million.
"The City earmarked the land dedication money from this project back towards the remediation, given how big it was," Wyatt explained. "For the City, we were receiving zero tax dollars, but soon it will be generating millions."
EdgeCorp worked with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to provide some funding for their remedial work, and with the City to develop a plan to make best use of the space.
"We’ve planned the buildings around some of the contamination so we could remediate it to a level that we could sustain residential," Merkel explained. "That helped cut down the cost, because some of the sale is encapsulated under the parking lots. Salt isn’t carcinogenic, so under a parking lot you can just leave the soil there. It’s good gravel, why replace it?"
In that way, the project was groundbreaking for Winnipeg.
"This is becoming a model for brownfield redevelopment in the city," he said.
With the first residential units expected online in summer 2019, upwards of 1,200 could call Park City Commons home within the next three years.
"Not only does this create a new neighbourhood that didn’t exist before, but it also helps the older neighbourhoods," Wyatt said. "Folks want to stay and age in place. Now they have options. It allows their homes to be available for younger families to move in, quite often older homes which are more affordable for younger families."
"This is very central to all the new developments too," Merkel added. "This is kind of like where the Kildonans and Transcona converge."
Sheldon Birnie
Community journalist — The Herald
Sheldon Birnie is the community journalist for The Herald Email him at sheldon.birnie@canstarnews.com Call him at 204-697-7112