David Chartrand says MMF trying to do its part to resuscitate downtown
CBC Indigenous: Downtown Winnipeg is suffering from a historically high vacancy rate and the Manitoba Métis Federation says it’s trying to do its part to revive the city core by expanding its footprint around Portage Avenue and Main Street.
The MMF announced Thursday it purchased two office towers near the famous intersection — immediately next to the landmark Bank of Montreal building it bought in 2020.
The two towers, formerly owned by Bell MTS and still branded with that logo, will add about 600,000 square feet of office space to the MMF’s holdings.
One is a 24-storey building at 333 Main St., and the other is a 13-storey building immediately beside it, with an entrance around the corner at 191 Pioneer Ave. The package also includes a surface parking lot at 179 Pioneer Ave.
“Our main focus, of course, is investing, but … we are concerned like most Winnipeggers are, most Manitobans are, about what’s happening to our downtown,” MMF president David Chartrand told CBC Manitoba Information Radio guest host Faith Fundal Thursday morning.
“Every city in this country has a very prominent downtown and that’s where the action and business [happens].”
The health of the downtown is a measure of how well a city is doing as a whole and everyone — governments and private interests alike — need to ensure it’s vibrant, he said.
“We can’t keep on telling everybody else to do something while we sit there and not do anything,” he said. “We’ve got to keep downtown. We’ve got to revive it. We’ve got to save it. We cannot just give up.”
Chartrand tipped his hat to the Southern Chiefs’ Organization and True North Real Estate Development, which are working together to transform the former Hudson Bay building and Portage Place mall into new ventures they hope can revitalize that stretch of downtown Winnipeg near Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard.
The office vacancy rate in downtown is 18.6 per cent, according to the most recent report from CBRE (Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis), a commercial real estate services firm, which says that’s a record high for Winnipeg.
Chartrand said the MMF is planning to move about 160 employees as soon as possible into one of the new towers. The other one is still occupied by Bell MTS.
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“They rent one entire building right now and I hope they stay. We’re going to lobby like hell to keep them here,” Chartrand said.
He wouldn’t reveal how much the MMF is spending on the towers and parking lot, only saying “we got a good deal and we definitely have a good investment.”
The properties have been owned since 2011 by Artis REIT, a commercial real estate investment trust. When the trust began looking for a buyer several months ago, the MMF was top of mind because of what it had planned for the Bank of Montreal, said Artis REIT president and CEO Samir Manji.
“We knew right from the get-go that we were aligned on the goal of seeing this be one additional catalyst to revitalize downtown Winnipeg,” Manji said.
Over the past few years, the MMF has built up a large real estate portfolio, which now includes 11 properties in downtown alone.
Including the new purchase, the MMF will have infused more than $100 million in downtown through real estate acquisitions, capital development and redevelopment, and property tax and education property tax contributions, according to a news release.
The MMF also has more than 550 people working downtown, not including the 160 employees it will move into the new tower.
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Jino Distasio, professor of urban geography at the University of Winnipeg, applauded the work the MMF has been doing to strengthen downtown.
“I’m really encouraged to see more activity at Portage and Main, in particular … to really support the growth and the importance of downtown. It’s essential, for Winnipeg to thrive as a city, to also have its heart really pumping and being a vibrant part of the community,” he said.
“Some see doom and gloom [in the downtown], but I think what president Chartrand and the MMF are seeing are opportunities.”
Most recently, the MMF added 300 employees to the former Wawanesa Life building at the corner of Main Street and York Avenue, which it bought in late September 2023 along with a parking lot on Fort Street, just behind the building.
The seven-storey, 111,778-square-foot building has various MMF departments that deliver programs and services to Métis people, including a child-care centre.
In 2021, it bought a three-storey building at 280 Fort St., which used to house Yoga Public. The MMF has said it wants to turn that into a 36-room luxury boutique hotel.
As for its crown jewel, the former Bank of Montreal building, which first opened in 1913, the MMF plans to use it to showcase the contributions of Métis people to the development of Canada through the planned Métis National Heritage Centre.
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Manitoba became the fifth Canadian province on May 12, 1870, when the Manitoba Act received royal assent. It was officially enacted on July 15, 1870. The act was based on a list of rights drafted by Louis Riel and his Métis provisional government and presented to the federal government as conditions for the province to enter Confederation.
The bank stands just a 15-minute walk from where Upper Fort Garry once stood, jutting out over what is now Main Street at Assiniboine Avenue. Riel and others took control of the fort in late 1869 and took over the administration of the Red River area until an agreement was reached with Ottawa to establish the new province.
The federal government promised to set aside 5,565 square kilometres of land along the Red and Assiniboine rivers for 7,000 children of the Red River Métis. However, the government failed to follow through and most of that land — most of what is now the city of Winnipeg — was never provided.
In 1981, the MMF began a land claim case against the federal government for the 1.4 million acres it was promised.
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The MMF received $154 million in a funding agreement signed in 2018 with the federal government to advance reconciliation between Canada and the Métis people, and help move the MMF toward its ultimate goal of self-government.
Chartrand, at that time, noted that federal and provincial laws forced the MMF to be structured as a corporation, which meant other governments did not recognize its authority.
That changed in July 2021 when a new agreement with Canada officially recognized the federation as the democratically-elected government of the Métis in Manitoba.
But the MMF is still awaiting a settlement on its land claim. On Thursday, Chartrand said Ottawa has committed to settling that before the end of its current term, by fall 2025.
Manitoba Métis Federation buys 2 office towers near Portage and Main: 1 day ago, Duration 2:07
The Manitoba Métis Federation is expanding its footprint in downtown Winnipeg by buying two former Bell MTS office towers near the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street. The towers are next to the landmark Bank of Montreal building that the MMF bought in 2020.
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Corrections
- A previous version of this story suggested the Manitoba Métis Federation had received $154 million in compensation as part of its land claim. In fact, the money was part of a separate agreement with the federal government. The MMF is still awaiting settlement on its historical land claim.Jul 18, 2024 9:58 PM CT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Darren Bernhardt, Reporter
Darren Bernhardt spent the first dozen years of his journalism career in newspapers, at the Regina Leader-Post then the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. He has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of award-nominated and bestselling The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent.
- With files from Arturo Chang