ManitobaMtis Federation expands footprint in downtown Winnipeg, buys 2 office towers near Portage and Main

Downtown Winnipeg is suffering from a historicallyhigh vacancy rateand the ManitobaMtis 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 byBell MTSand still branded with that logo, will add about 600,000 square feet of office space to the MMF'sholdings.

One is a24-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 presidentDavid Chartrandtold 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.

"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 revealhow 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 trustbegan 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," Manjisaid.

Over the past fewyears, the MMF has built up a large real estate portfolio, which now includes11 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.

TheMMFalso has more than550 people workingdowntown, not including the 160 employees it will move into the new tower.

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 theformer Wawanesa Life building at the corner of Main Street and York Avenue, which it boughtin late September 2023 along with a parking lot onFort Street, just behind the building.

The seven-storey, 111,778-square-foot building has various MMF departments that deliver programs and services to Mtis people, including a child-care centre.

In 2021, it boughta three-storey building at 280 Fort St., which used to houseYoga Public. The MMFhas said it wants to turn that into a 36-roomluxury boutique hotel.

As for its crown jewel, the former Bank of Montreal building, which first opened in 1913, the MMFplans to use it to showcase the contributionsof Mtis people to the development of Canada through the plannedMtis National Heritage Centre.

Manitoba became the fifth Canadian province on May12,1870, when the Manitoba Act received royal assent. It was officiallyenacted on July15,1870.The act was based on a list of rightsdraftedby Louis Riel and his Mtis 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 nowMain 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 Assiniboineriversfor 7,000 children of the Red River Mtis. However,the government failed to follow through and mostof 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 the1.4 million acres it was promised.

The MMF received$154 million in a funding agreement signed in 2018 with the federal government toadvance reconciliation between Canada and the Mtis people, and help move the MMF toward its ultimate goal of self-government.

Chartrand, at that time, notedthatfederal and provincial laws forcedthe MMFto be structuredas a corporation, which meant other governments did not recognize its authority.

That changed in July 2021 when a newagreement with Canada officiallyrecognizedthe federationas the democratically-elected government of the Mtis 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 fall2025.

Manitoba Mtis Federation buys 2 office towers near Portage and Main

3 months ago

Duration 2:07

The Manitoba Mtis 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.