[Wpg_Guy]

Arcade fired?
Committee expected to approve removal of 'pedestrian arcade' at Portage and Main
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...511716112.html

The arcade sits between the street and a piece of prime commercial real estate, a roughly 5,000-square-foot unit that occupies the ground floor of 201 Portage. That unit has never been leased during the building’s nearly three-decade history.

"It’s been unleasable because the arcade is in front of it," said Hill Blaisdell.

"(For) the first time in 30 years, we actually have an interested tenant. But of course, the tenant is more interested, obviously, if it has windows to the street."

Winnipeg city planners have recommended approval of the plan to amend the development agreement and do away with the arcade. If the property and development committee votes in favour today, Hill Blaisdell said, the plan is to build a curtain wall on the outside of the arcade and incorporate the space into the unleased ground-floor unit.

"We think that incorporating the arcade into our larger building structure will actually meet the objectives of the original development agreement, because it will put safety and security and eyes on the street, and it will have visibility of people inside and out, which today doesn’t exist," she said.