Winnipeg Police Headquarters | Graham Ave.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

The office tower part is a no brainer. Put all the City services that are in leased space in the tower. I think one of the issues is cost. With asbestos remediation and such. However, that cost will be there regardless of what goes in. So get'r done City.

Wouldn't dealing with asbestos be a cost even if they opted to demolish?

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by esquire

Wouldn't dealing with asbestos be a cost even if they opted to demolish?

Ya that's what I mean. Someones got to do it no matter what.

[CoryB]

The move to the old Canada Post sort plant was seemingly based on the office towering being sold/leased to outside groups. It seems pretty obvious having privately leased space sharing a wall with a police HQ was a security risk somehow was overlooked on the justification of the site selection.

The reality is there are carrying costs of the office building well it sits empty, renovation, and remediation costs if needed, to prepare it for a new tenant and possibly early termination costs for leases in privately held spaces. It isn't as simple as just get them moved. There are a lot of cost elements to be looked at and the timing figured out. There is also the issue on if having other city offices is the tower is viewer as being "safe enough" for police operations.

[cllew]

The city could have moved the 311 contact center two streets east from City Place to the office tower. The City Place lease was renewed earlier this year so the timing could have worked if the city wanted to bring that department as a tenant of the tower.

[Wolf13]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ It would be interesting to know what could have been built on a blank slate for a $357 million budget total, inclusive of land and financing costs.

Almost one TNS and almost two 300 Mains.

Originally Posted by drew

I would exercise caution using any of SkyCity's budget numbers as a comparable.

Possibly TNS would give a better cost per square foot for comparison purposes.

That said, the Police building would likely have a higher cost per square foot compared to residential/office for the added complexity of the building.

SkyCity would have come in at 220M+ probably.

Yet they still had allll that existing building to work with. Obviously rife with challenges, but it shouldn't cost the same as new construction class A high rise at all.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by esquire

I would cut them some slack on the tower in general because no one seems to know what's going on there yet. The jersey barriers are inexcusable, though. Come on already.

I don't cut them any slack. The skywalk connection isn't going anywhere, it doesn't take much money to redo the floors and paint the walls. They just moved the credit union in there and a new coffee shop, so they're clearly not worried about tearing it down in the near future.

Originally Posted by esquire

You say best case scenario, but how is that not in actual fact the glaringly obvious, only feasible option scenario here? How has this not entered the public conversation yet? The city continues to occupy all this leased space while it just sits on a big office building that it owns.

Because the average citizen has no clue it's empty, and the situation its in. Most people only make a big deal about things they can see or understand.

[CoryB]

A perhaps telling sign is the nearly year old Starbucks in the Canada Post tower never had the baseboard style finish put on their exterior walls. Perhaps that means there is a plan to do something like the floor/walls in the common walkway area.

[bomberjet]

I would assume that Skywalk will be reno'd as it's a complete mess. Jungle Java or whatever it is still remains vacant. Must be something happening cause it's a dump. Like was mentioned, the ceiling is a mess of hanging cables and overall it's half finished.

Also, it's the City and the bloody Police. What else do you expect from them? This will drag out for years IMO.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Also, it's the City and the bloody Police. What else do you expect from them? This will drag out for years IMO.

Pretty much this. If I were the credit union or a restaurant in that skywalk on a 5 year lease, I'd have no worries about any decisions being made before that time is up.

[bomberjet]

Is the police credit union owned by the police union? Or someone involved with the police? Or is it just named that to cater to police?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Is the police credit union owned by the police union? Or someone involved with the police? Or is it just named that to cater to police?

Like all credit unions, they're owned by their members. I think that CU is a closed bond institution and is only open to police and their families, though. (There used to be a lot of ethnic CUs that were the same way but they all opened up to the broader community... some employee CUs are still closed, like this one is.)

[bomberjet]

Right, right.. My $5 share is sure paying dividends haha.

[The Unknown Poster]

Originally Posted by esquire

Like all credit unions, they're owned by their members. I think that CU is a closed bond institution and is only open to police and their families, though. (There used to be a lot of ethnic CUs that were the same way but they all opened up to the broader community... some employee CUs are still closed, like this one is.)

Isnt that how all CU's are/were? I recall there was a CU for MTS employees a million years ago (my parents maintained an account there for insurance or something decades after moving away it for their regular banking).

[bomberjet]

The CU I use is basically like a bank (of course). I just went in and joined. I have a $5 share. I get to vote and stuff but really no different. My account fee is waived because I have a mortgage there.

[esquire]

The WPA is making some noise after an incident involving an off-duty cop outside police HQ recently:

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/lo...507305972.html

The Winnipeg Police Association is sounding the alarm after an off-duty officer reportedly had a gun pointed at him outside police headquarters Sunday morning.

The union says a Winnipeg Police Service officer had finished his shift and was returning to his vehicle, parked on Smith Street, when he was confronted by a man brandishing a gun. The man allegedly identified the officer as a WPS member and pulled the trigger, but the weapon failed to discharge.



"This is about as close a call as you can have with a potential tragic loss being prevented only because a firearm malfunctioned," Maurice Sabourin, the president of the WPA, said in a written statement.

As a result of the incident the union is once again calling on the City of Winnipeg to create a secure downtown parking option for officers, who currently have to park their vehicles on the street or in nearby parkades.

I have to admit, given the nature of the WPS' work, having some form of secured parking does not seem like an unreasonable request. The question then becomes, where does this parking go?

I presume it would have to be a parkade in order to be properly secured. The easiest solution would be for the city to turn over a level or two of the library parkade to the WPS, but that leads to its own problems. So where does such a parking facility go? On Graham or St. Mary Ave.?

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

The WPA is making some noise after an incident involving an off-duty cop outside police HQ recently:

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/lo...507305972.html



I have to admit, given the nature of the WPS' work, having some form of secured parking does not seem like an unreasonable request. The question then becomes, where does this parking go?

I presume it would have to be a parkade in order to be properly secured. The easiest solution would be for the city to turn over a level or two of the library parkade to the WPS, but that leads to its own problems. So where does such a parking facility go? On Graham or St. Mary Ave.?

If even police officers don't feel safe downtown it sounds like an even bigger problem than providing secure parking!

[esquire]

^ Given that the new east and west district (in Tuxedo!!!) police stations have secure parking for officers, I'm not sure it's something you can really blame on downtown so much as it is a situation that comes with the job.

[headhorse]

its downtown, why don't they take the bus?

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Given that the new east and west district (in Tuxedo!!!) police stations have secure parking for officers, I'm not sure it's something you can really blame on downtown so much as it is a situation that comes with the job.

Fair enough but no one thought about that when the Canada Post building was being rehabbed into the new WPS headquarters? Seriously!

Seems like everything was an afterthought with the new WPS headquarters, did the city and WPS bother to look at what other cities were doing because obviously no one here was capable of formulating a plan for what the WPS needed!

[Tacheguy]

Originally Posted by headhorse

its downtown, why don't they take the bus?

They mostly live outside the city lol