CentreVenture still seeking input on future of Public Safety Building site

Downtown development agency CentreVentureis looking for more public input into the redevelopment of Winnipeg's old police station and the shuttered parkade next door.

The Public Safety Building closed in 2016 when the Winnipeg Police Service moved into its new headquarters on Graham Avenue. The adjacent Civic Centre Parkadewas shuttered in 2012 due to structural concerns.

CentreVenture has been given the task of determining redevelopment options for the one-hectare site, which the agency is marketing as "the Market Lands." The southern portion of the site must be reserved for public use, thanks to caveat placed on the land when it was donated to the city in 1875.

• Public Safety Building to be demolished
• Public Safety Building to remain intact and closed to public for at least another year
• Analysis: Marketing for the future, burying the recent past

CentreVenturepresident and CEO Angela Mathieson said Thursday initial public consultations have revealed many Winnipeggers are unfamiliar with the site.

Her agencyplans hold events on the site's concrete plaza throughout the summer in an effort to raise its profile. CentreVenture is also seeking feedback at marketlands.ca.

Mathiesonsaid the agency is taking its time in the hopes someone may come forward with a viable use for the Public Safety Building, a brutalist structure valued by architecture buffs.

A city-commissioned study concluded it would be too expensive to renovate the building for public office use.

• Winnipeg Parking Authority to spend $1.8M to demolish derelict Civic Centre Parkade
• Cost of demolishing old police HQ and parkade 6 times more than previously disclosed

Thecost of simply recladdingtheTyndall-stoneexterior is $12 million, not includingasbestos removal and other renovation costs, said JohnKiernan, Winnipeg's director of planning, property and development.