Official Brian Bowman Thread

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

now as we do have an entity that has delivered a high quality product to our city that they continue to invest 10 years ago we would been going nuts for this project now its anti wtf?

My concern, which I have shared here several times, is if the 220 Carlton deal was done by Katz/Shindleman/Sheegl people would be calling for audits and public enquires. That Bowman and Chipman are involved everything is suddenly all sunshine and rainbows except for Bowman who it seems people think should be run out of town. The development that is happening downtown is great but the level of transparency and public awareness really needs to be increased as the SHED is seeming to be heading towards an "only Chipman call build here" zone. Collectively Winnipeg should be asking themselves if this is any better than what most people came to hate about Katz's time in the mayor's office.

[esquire]

People are being seduced by sexy renderings. Suddenly everyone has to get out of the way so that Longboat can build the 2015 version of Portage Place.

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by esquire

Suddenly everyone has to get out of the way so that Longboat can build the 2015 version of Portage Place.

I wish I could stick a gold star on your forehead.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by esquire

People are being seduced by sexy renderings. Suddenly everyone has to get out of the way so that Longboat can build the 2015 version of Portage Place.

I want everybody to watch this minute and a half clip from 24Hours (the old CBC news program) about Portage Place 9mths after it opened.

Then I want everybody to remember what sort of 'Jets effect' we saw from the MTS Centre that was used to justify millions upon millions in subsidy.

Then remember the vacancies still sitting in CentrePoint - including at ground level.

Tell me what's changed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Tko7LtREE

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Then remember the vacancies still sitting in CentrePoint - including at ground level.

Pretty sure CentrePoint is being very clever crafted to minimize the amount of available ground floor enclosed space to ensure 100% vacancy. There is effectively two restaurants, the hotel lobby and the office lobby on the Donald at Portage corner. On the Hargrave side there is a Glass House lobby and ground level parking. On the Ellice side it is all ground level parking. It is a very big departure from the original concept which saw minimal exposed ground level parking. Further, I thought a condition of receiving funding from the City for the parkade was that it would have ground floor commercial space. Better not ask that too loudly though.

The former Dayton's building which is on the same block but not part of the development is a different issue.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Pretty sure CentrePoint is being very clever crafted to minimize the amount of available ground floor enclosed space to ensure 100% vacancy. There is effectively two restaurants, the hotel lobby and the office lobby on the Donald at Portage corner. On the Hargrave side there is a Glass House lobby and ground level parking. On the Ellice side it is all ground level parking. It is a very big departure from the original concept which saw minimal exposed ground level parking. Further, I thought a condition of receiving funding from the City for the parkade was that it would have ground floor commercial space. Better not ask that too loudly though.

The former Dayton's building which is on the same block but not part of the development is a different issue.

The Milestones 9000 sq ft space is now a vacancy. I guess it's possible they can change the design to accommodate that, but it would make it unappealing to anybody who may eventually come along.

Otherwise, the funding deal for the parkade is publicly available if you're interested.

ETA: Here's the agreement. I'm not seeing anything in there about ground floor commercial space. This agreement was later amended to discharge a portion of the security the city received, but not by much. Only about $700K which is peanuts in this development.

http://winnipeg.ca/CLKDMIS/ViewDoc.a...pc/2012/m12345

[CoryB]

^^ I did not know that Milestones had left the development. I do recall seeing they were looking for someone to operate the space under their banner after securing the location. I also recall when Milestones was announced it was reported there were may very qualified groups interested in the space. Why have none of those groups then stepped up to fill such a high profile location?

In terms of the ground floor commercial space it might not have been written into agreement for CentrePoint however my understand was the City was going to push all new parkades to include ground floor commercial space as part of their approval process. With the CentrePoint parkade receiving City funds from the sale of the Winnipeg Square parkade I thought it was be included in the terms.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by CoryB

^^ I did not know that Milestones had left the development. I do recall seeing they were looking for someone to operate the space under their banner after securing the location. I also recall when Milestones was announced it was reported there were may very qualified groups interested in the space. Why have none of those groups then stepped up to fill such a high profile location?

In terms of the ground floor commercial space it might not have been written into agreement for CentrePoint however my understand was the City was going to push all new parkades to include ground floor commercial space as part of their approval process. With the CentrePoint parkade receiving City funds from the sale of the Winnipeg Square parkade I thought it was be included in the terms.

You'd think. They forced it on Ken Reiss. But this is the Chipmans we're talking about. We've even given them a $5MM interest free loan to build their parkade essentially freeing them of their required equity component.

And yeah, Milestones is no longer a tenant. They've said they're still interested in the market, but not downtown. Cushman is now trying to fill the vacancy.

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

You'd think. They forced it on Ken Reiss. But this is the Chipmans we're talking about. We've even given them a $5MM interest free loan to build their parkade essentially freeing them of their required equity component.

And yeah, Milestones is no longer a tenant. They've said they're still interested in the market, but not downtown. Cushman is now trying to fill the vacancy.

The City is also fixing the streetscape along Hargrave from Portage to Ellice (why, I'm not sure if the parkade won't have ground floor retail) to the tune of $1.5MM.

[cllew]

Is so you have something nice to look at when you leave the City Place parking lots after an event at MTS center you have something nice to look at as you head north

[biguc]

Disgusting arrogance out of Centreventure today. I don't know how a bunch of bureaucrats get off demanding an apology from the mayor elected to make sure they do their job right.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by biguc

Disgusting arrogance out of Centreventure today. I don't know how a bunch of bureaucrats get off demanding an apology from the mayor elected to make sure they do their job right.

The power structure must be maintained. For a couple weeks the institutionalized cronyism got a little concerned that their rightful places in society were being threatened by the majority, but then the Jets began to turn things around culminating in a win last night and the Free Press's sanctimonious hand-wringing campaign wore at the good sense of even the most ignorantly beholden and now here we are.

All the progress of the last three years out the window. Let it never be said that Winnipeg doesn't know how to properly stand in the way of its own best interest.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

The power structure must be maintained. For a couple weeks the institutionalized cronyism got a little concerned that their rightful places in society were being threatened by the majority, but then the Jets began to turn things around culminating in a win last night and the Free Press's sanctimonious hand-wringing campaign wore at the good sense of even the most ignorantly beholden and now here we are.

All the progress of the last three years out the window. Let it never be said that Winnipeg doesn't know how to properly stand in the way of its own best interest.

Why do you hate the Jets?

JETS

[esquire]

Freep still going hard against Bowman for getting in the way of pork for True North Square. Amazing how fast they've turned on Bowman. I guess when you threaten the gravy train of a crony, the gloves come off pretty fast:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opi...ce=d-more-news

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

Freep still going hard against Bowman for getting in the way of pork for True North Square. Amazing how fast they've turned on Bowman. I guess when you threaten the gravy train of a crony, the gloves come off pretty fast:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opi...ce=d-more-news

That op-ed is unbelievable. Did he actually suggest that it is a bad thing that the mayor and council are influenced by the people who vote? Given what this city has gone through the last decade he might as well have written an op-ed titled "FUCK YOU WINNIPEG."

We don't even know the slightest detail of the "$400 million investment." Looks like Chipman's tossing of that red herring out there to sway public opinion sure worked on the FP editorial board, although there are several more ties there.

Wonder what Shannon Sampert would say about this if I were back in her Politics and Mass Media course at the U of W again and this entire scenario went down. Nice to know that she actually has no integrity.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

That op-ed is unbelievable. Did he actually suggest that it is a bad thing that the mayor and council are influenced by the people who vote? Given what this city has gone through the last decade he might as well have written an op-ed titled "FUCK YOU WINNIPEG."

We don't even know the slightest detail of the "$400 million investment." Looks like Chipman's tossing of that red herring out there to sway public opinion sure worked on the FP editorial board, although there are several more ties there.

Wonder what Shannon Sampert would say about this if I were back in her Politics and Mass Media course at the U of W again and this entire scenario went down. Nice to know that she actually has no integrity.

This is now the 5th editorial saying the exact same thing. 3 of them have come under the banner of the editorial board, one has come under the byline of Paul Samyn, and this one is under David O'Brien's.

And now the continual harping on Bowman's trial balloon to scale back some recreational facilities. So, on one hand you have the Free Press hammering home the egregious intent of Bowman to desperately find $1MM in the civic budget by cutting some recreational programming while simultaneously using their little crony pulpit to hand-wring about the dangers of not supplying the city's wealthiest with even more development subsidies for things we don't need to benefit people who don't require it.

Ironically and intentionally overlooked is that the $1MM they seek could be easily recovered if the farce that allows the MTS Centre to skirt property taxes was just ended. Or if, say, the incredibly profitable Jets actually paid their estimated $6MM in entertainment taxation?

Nah, those are off limits.

[Winnipeg Architect]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Ironically and intentionally overlooked is that the $1MM they seek could be easily recovered if the farce that allows the MTS Centre to skirt property taxes was just ended. Or if, say, the incredibly profitable Jets actually paid their estimated $6MM in entertainment taxation?

Nah, those are off limits.

Looks like True North is a poster child of Corporate Welfare in Winnipeg.

Quite sad as Thompson is worth $26.1B (No tag days for him)

He could pay for the True North Square with pocket change................maybe pocket lint.................in one of his old Levis jeans...............from 1979...........the best year ever!

I would say pure insanity and the money True North nets out each year in grants, tax breaks etc could help Winnipeg Harvest, Shelters to help the homeless and working poor in a huge way.

What a shame.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

And now the continual harping on Bowman's trial balloon to scale back some recreational facilities. So, on one hand you have the Free Press hammering home the egregious intent of Bowman to desperately find $1MM in the civic budget by cutting some recreational programming while simultaneously using their little crony pulpit to hand-wring about the dangers of not supplying the city's wealthiest with even more development subsidies for things we don't need to benefit people who don't require it.

Ironically and intentionally overlooked is that the $1MM they seek could be easily recovered if the farce that allows the MTS Centre to skirt property taxes was just ended. Or if, say, the incredibly profitable Jets actually paid their estimated $6MM in entertainment taxation?

This point bears repeating until the Free Press stops embarrassing itself.

[CoryB]

Just wanted to point out Eadie claiming council was unfairly targeting pools and rec centres in the inner city for closure is definitely a straw man. First, it is doubtful any of those facilities would be completely closed, instead if this was factual their funded operating hours would be reduced. The bigger issue with that argument though is that City run rec centres only exist in the inner city and most of the public pools are in more mature neighbourhoods. To my knowledge there is not been a new public pool or rec center built in Winnipeg in over 30 years. This would be similar to trying to claim Bowman isn't building roads in the inner city as he is focusing on Waverly West.

[esquire]

Another day, another Free Press editorial board member ragging on Bowman.

Today, Shannon Sampert gives it to Bowman about his twitter habits.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opi...291633961.html

Good Lord.