City parkade demolition begins as Market Lands development waits approval

Excavators are taking their first big bites of concrete as Winnipeg's Civic Centre parkade starts to come down.

The demolition is a few months behind schedule, but finally chunks of long-shuttered parkade are falling and the abandoned former Public Safety Buildingis next in line for the wrecking crew.

Workers have been steadily removinghazardous materials from the twostructures since last fall.

Estimates to tear down the concrete structures have varied over the last four yearsand currently pegthe demolition at $9.7 million.The city has a web page dedicated to the project and is live-streaming the demolition.Ifplansget a final blessing from city council, a development called the Market Lands will rise out of the rubble, but for the momentthe sound of cracking concrete rings across a part of theExchange.

"I think it becomes a lot more real. People are going to see this site totally differently when those buildings come down and they're going to understand how an opportunity which is this large can actually happen on that site because it is a big site," said Angela Mathieson, the president of CentreVenture.

The city's development arm has been stewarding the design and development process of the block-sized project since 2017.

A design for the2.4-acre site was approved by council last spring. It will feature apublic market, art gallery and exhibition spaces and over 100 suites of mixed-income apartment rentals, some of which would be for approved low-income tenants.

The project is moving to a critical phase as CentreVenture looks to city hall to approve the next moves.

Mathieson says councillors will be briefed on the finance portionof the development, including estimated costs, and how it fits into a national housing co-investment fund program.

"We're designing this building to qualify through those programs. We'll be explaining all of that. We'll be talking about how we're going to go out to the private sector for the development to the north. And then timing because as you know the buildings are coming down." Mathieson told CBC News.

CentreVenture believes the project could trigger a wave of development north, across blocks of under-used or empty land.

Mayor Brian Bowman appears comfortable with thedirection the project is heading, lauding the depth of consultation done in the years leading up to demolition of the existing structures on the land.

"I think it's a generational, transformative opportunity for this part of the city and it builds on the investments made by Red River College and so many others in the area. I want to see more customers downtown. I want to see more residents downtown," Bowman told reporters Tuesday following a meeting of his executive policy committee.

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Mathieson says CentreVenture is "ready to go" with a briefing for councillors and is just waiting for the calendar to open up to make a visit to City Hall.

Demolition of the two bunker-like structures could take several months and construction may not begin until the following year.