Posted Mar 24, 2017, 12:06 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 2,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
For what it's worth there is still good demand for residential space in Osborne Village as evidenced by the steady stream of small to mid sized projects getting built there over the last decade. As we speak there are more projects either in the pipeline or in the actual construction phase.
The real mystery is why that population growth isn't translating into an improved situation in the OV commercial strip... it's markedly worse now than it was 10 years ago, with big, prominent vacancies in the space above Shoppers Drug Mart, as well as the former American Apparel, Chook, Desart, Basil's and Osborne Village Inn locations, the soon to be former TD location, as well as a few other vacant spots or CRUs that are so underutilized they might as well be vacant.
I get that the Exchange District, Corydon and West Broadway have probably stolen some of Osborne Village's thunder, but that still doesn't fully account for the area's current state. I think there's some truth to what Optimus is saying... while there is plenty of growth in the area, the Osborne strip feels tired with not much new in years. A couple of new developments could breathe some life into the area. While the Gas Station Theatre redevelopment project is going to end up smaller than envisioned, there is still good potential in other lots in the area... considering how much is getting built elsewhere in the area, it's not that much of a stretch to imagine some mid-rise residential towers with a bit of ground floor commercial space eventually getting built there. One or two of those would probably have a noticeable effect.
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I love the densification that's going on in OV (in the form of 3 and 4 storey buildings). But I think their impact on population and "critical mass" is really overblown. Every new building that goes up has about the same amount of people as a small cul-de-sac does - a drop in the bucket really.
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