Winnipeg | Forks Redevelopment | Parcel 4 - Rail Side Initiative | Proposals

[esquire]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I'm not really up to speed on whatever happens in other Cities with industrial buildings and offices. But I've heard from numerous people it's weird to have your head office / corporate office slapped in the corner of a warehouse, like is extremely common in Winnipeg.

They have an office located somewhere else, likely downtown in an office building. And have the warehouses in the industrial areas. Seems normal to me.

FWIW it's not like Acklands Grainger is run out of the back of a dirty warehouse. They have a proper industrial park-style office building on Scurfield.

But I take your point that the corporate office is often run separately from operations. One of my old friends used to work for a small metal company that had an industrial park site but the office was downtown in an office building... I thought it was kind of an awkward arrangement to have that kind of separation in a small company but it worked for them.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I'm not really up to speed on whatever happens in other Cities with industrial buildings and offices. But I've heard from numerous people it's weird to have your head office / corporate office slapped in the corner of a warehouse, like is extremely common in Winnipeg.

It's actually very common. It's definitely even more prevalent in Edmonton and seemingly Calgary as well. Depends on the industry probably.

But, for many companies (especially an international a construction/manufacturing company) it's way more sensible to have all ops on the same site, and close to the airport. You'll often have people flying in for meetings or whatever and need to hit many departments, so to have to travel all over a city to do this isn't the best practice.

Really depends on the size of the office workforce and type of warehouse/manufacturing operation. If it's an office with hundreds of workers that don't need to interact with the other side at all, sure a downtown office makes sense. But this is generally only applicable to the big multinationals.

[buzzg]

Side note – anyone heard updates on the the Assiniboine-Fort Gibraltar Trail cycle connection along Main? Last I heard in fall was NWC still unhappy about sacrificing some parking spots to make this connection, not sure if it has been resolved yet.

[wardlow]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Side note – anyone heard updates on the the Assiniboine-Fort Gibraltar Trail cycle connection along Main? Last I heard in fall was NWC still unhappy about sacrificing some parking spots to make this connection, not sure if it has been resolved yet.

Based on the plans for this connection (dated Feb. 2017), I don't think NWC would be losing any parking, and the new bike lane would encroach into a part of their property that is landscaping. Don't know when it will be built, unfortunately.

It's going to be the most ideal connection, but will be a billion times better than the current situation on the east side of Main at Assiniboine Avenue.

[buzzg]

No they definitely need part of the parking lot – there's only about 2 feet of landscaping between the sidewalk and parking. Less than that at some places. I think the issue is not that they'd lose current spots, but losing the space will make it difficult or impossible (they say) to access the spots along the rail line. I'd have to think there's gotta be some spaces in lieu on the other side of NWC near VIA they could work with VIA to negotiate if needed.

[Ando]

Originally Posted by buzzg

It's actually very common. It's definitely even more prevalent in Edmonton and seemingly Calgary as well. Depends on the industry probably.

But, for many companies (especially an international a construction/manufacturing company) it's way more sensible to have all ops on the same site, and close to the airport. You'll often have people flying in for meetings or whatever and need to hit many departments, so to have to travel all over a city to do this isn't the best practice.

Really depends on the size of the office workforce and type of warehouse/manufacturing operation. If it's an office with hundreds of workers that don't need to interact with the other side at all, sure a downtown office makes sense. But this is generally only applicable to the big multinationals.

I don't think Acklands-Grainger has a big corporate presence in Winnipeg. There head office is in Toronto but not downtown. I guess I would have seen a boutique law firm or something like that being a more logical Forks tenant.

[Urban recluse]

The company was founded in Winnipeg. Does anyone know when the head office moved? Would be nice if they were still HQ in Winnipeg.

[Wolf13]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Someone mentioned in the Retail thread Kite & Kaboodle expanding... in other Johnston Terminal news, the former Finns space has been converted to offices for Acklands construction... So now that 2nd floor patio space will have no use.

Wasn't their kitchen/Mech setup insufficient (or atleast not ideal) for restaurants anyway?

Originally Posted by Ando

I don't think Acklands-Grainger has a big corporate presence in Winnipeg. There head office is in Toronto but not downtown. I guess I would have seen a boutique law firm or something like that being a more logical Forks tenant.

Law firm or similar would have been better, but I think it's ultimately a good thing that offices want to be downtown or at the forks. It's certainly less strange than the vacancies we've seen at the Johnston Terminal for it's great location.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

The company was founded in Winnipeg. Does anyone know when the head office moved? Would be nice if they were still HQ in Winnipeg.

Ackland's was bought out by Grangers in 1996 so it would have been after that the office that was on Higgins was closed.

[DowntownBooster]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

The company was founded in Winnipeg. Does anyone know when the head office moved? Would be nice if they were still HQ in Winnipeg.

We need more business leaders like the late Izzy Asper to thumb their noses at Toronto (or Calgary for that matter) and keep their HQs in Winnipeg. Just think of all the jobs we lost over the years because of those moves. I wonder how much different Winnipeg would look today if most of them chose to stay and grow their business from here instead.

[Urban recluse]

Agreed. The focus needs to be on attracting new companies to the city, helping small business grow, and startups.

[Tacheguy]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

Agreed. The focus needs to be on attracting new companies to the city, helping small business grow, and startups.

Yup. I used to think the first of these was the most important component for regional growth, but later came to realize the last two were the key. Fun facts; research indicated (a few years back) that start ups by women had a much higher survival rate over the first five years than those started by men. But, and it's a big but, the businesses started by men, if they survived, grew at a much faster rate. This was fodder for some policy development work undertaken by the Women's Enterprise Initiative..

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Wolf13

Wasn't their kitchen/Mech setup insufficient (or atleast not ideal) for restaurants anyway?

Yes, but that's because it was originally part of Old Spaghetti Factory, so they didn't need a kitchen upstairs. When WOW! sold OSF, they kept the Finns space as a separate operation (just boarded up the staircase) and because it's WOW! they were to too cheap to spend money putting in proper ventilation and just moved Dingo's in there to provide horrific food.

[WolselyMan]

Originally Posted by Tacheguy

Yup. I used to think the first of these was the most important component for regional growth, but later came to realize the last two were the key. Fun facts; research indicated (a few years back) that start ups by women had a much higher survival rate over the first five years than those started by men. But, and it's a big but, the businesses started by men, if they survived, grew at a much faster rate. This was fodder for some policy development work undertaken by the Women's Enterprise Initiative..

That actually nicely illustrates the average differences in intellectual personality between the sexes. Men are more likely to be a risk taker, which means a ton of failures and only a few who hit the jackpot, while women are more likely to prefer a calculable steady path that rewards patience and a strong sense of discipline, which means much less failures, but are much less likely to stumble upon that key opportunity that'll unlock super stardom. It's just different strategies for success, although the perfect recipe for that will always be the right combination of both.

But anyhow, to steer this back on topic and away from gender politics, the takeaway is that if Winnipeg really wants to become a business hub that can give birth to the next amazon, or Tesla, it helps a lot to create an economic environment where people have the freedom to fail.

[Biff]

Im not smart enough to capture an image off a PDF but....on page 2 of Westland Construction's Building Up newsletter there is an image and small write up about one of the first buildings for the Railside at The Forks. 6 storeys, lots of colour. Should start in 2019.

Can't wait to see some shovels in the ground.

http://www.westlandconstructionltd.c...buildingup.pdf

[Urban recluse]

I second that.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by Biff

Im not smart enough to capture an image off a PDF but....on page 2 of Westland Construction's Building Up newsletter there is an image and small write up about one of the first buildings for the Railside at The Forks. 6 storeys, lots of colour. Should start in 2019.

Can't wait to see some shovels in the ground.

http://www.westlandconstructionltd.c...buildingup.pdf

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

I’m not sure what that hosting site you’re using is, but it seems to think I’m interested in sexy Asian babes. Not that there’s anything wrong with sexy Asian babes but i don’t recall ever googling them.

[Kris22]

Thanks for the photo^^

In the description it says it is in the early design phase so I hope that render is just a place holder....it is actually just a grey box with coloured balcony glass. Not to be totally negative but I hope the design standards are better than that.

[esquire]

^ Yeah, at first glance it reminds me a little of the building that recently went up on Market. Not that bad but not really all that great either. Hopefully the collection of buildings will add up to more than the sum of their parts.