Winnipeg, MB - Building upon the successful release of OurWinnipeg’s “Complete Communities” document and Council’s adoption of the Transcona West Area Structure Plan, today Mayor Sam Katz and Councillor Russ Wyatt announced plans for the Park City Plaza, a state-of-the-art redevelopment of the former City of Winnipeg Public Works’ lands located at 1500 Plessis Road which will include a new multi-use housing development, recreation, leisure and a rapid transportation hub.
Situated on approximately 40 acres of City of Winnipeg Public Works’ lands, this major transformative area, as defined in OurWinnipeg, is now available for redevelopment due to the consolidation of the Public Works Department’s operations in their new facility opening this summer in East Elmwood.
After three years of consultations with Transcona residents with regards to leisure and recreational amenities, this location was identified as an ideal site for the new Transcona library and a new indoor recreational facility (YM/YWCA model). The City is currently in discussions with the YM/YWCA to facilitate a strategic partnership for new facilities to be built in various parts of Winnipeg.
As a transit oriented development, the Park City Plaza concept calls for increased east-west connectivity with the new Eastern Rapid Transit Corridor to be built and the extension of Kildare Avenue West through to Peguis Street under the new name of Transcona Boulevard, ultimately connecting to Lagimodiere Boulevard via Reenders Avenue.
In the summer of 2012 the City of Winnipeg conducted Phase One and Phase Two Environmental testing of these lands and found that the required environmental remediation would cost just over $8 million, most of which is due to salt storage on the site ($6 million). The Park City Plaza concept proposes to mitigate these impacted lands by encapsulating them under the future Rapid Transit Station and parking lot which is servicing the future YM/YWCA and library. Furthermore, the housing density identified in this concept makes it possible to open up this site for City services. Once fully developed, the Park City Plaza’s proposed 1154 units of multi-family housing which will generate upwards of $1.3 million in new tax revenue to the City of Winnipeg.
“The Park City Plaza project is a great opportunity for Transcona,” said Mayor Sam Katz. “The vacated Public Works site has tremendous potential to be redeveloped from under-utilized land into a well-planned, sustainable community.”
“The community has known for some time that Public Works would be vacating this land; creating a great opportunity for badly needed housing, and a central site for the new Transcona library and indoor recreation facility. With the future vision of building the eastern Rapid Transit line, as well as the new tax revenues generated by this development, this is a win-win for our City,” said Deputy Mayor and Transcona Ward Councillor Russ Wyatt.
The City of Winnipeg will take steps to re-zone the land this summer with an Expression of Interest to be issued later this fall to allow for the Canada-wide marketing of these lands.
To learn more about the project, residents are invited to attend a public open house on Thursday, May 16, 2013 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at CanadaInns Transcona at 826 Regent Avenue West.