Waterfront Drive

• Introduction
  

• Green Buildings
  

• Other Green Features
  

• References
  

Prepared by: Brett Shenback, April 2006

Introduction:

Located on the eastern boundary of Winnipeg ’s historic Exchange District and along the banks of the Red River is Waterfront Drive. In recent years, the underused and neglected 1.5 kilometre stretch of land has been the target of a revitalization effort by local residents and politicians.  

In the Spring of 1999 a Waterfront Committee was formed, to explore the potential in developing a scenic drive through the Exchange District along the Red River between Pioneer and Higgins Avenues.  In the summer of 2000, CentreVenture initiated the East Exchange Waterfront Project and was successful in having the drive approved by City Council as a “unique” project.  The key components of the plan included the following;

• Gateways into the Park recognizing the National Historic Site
• Slow, meandering drive through the park (with on street parking)
• Provisions for a variety of users: cyclists, joggers, casual strollers
• Linkages to MTC, the Museum of Man & Nature, the Centennial Concert Hall, Portage & Main, The Forks, Canwest Global Park, the French Quarter, and Neeginan.
• Views to the river, French Quarter, and city skyline
• Amenities: benches, barbeque pits, and picnic tables
• Variety of year round activities: frisbee, cross country skiing, skating, picnicking, sunning, tobogganing
• New Development Activity: Character condominiums, offices, restaurants and bars, sidewalk cafes
• Upgrades to Stephen Juba Park
• Make allowances for a people-mover (streetcar or other)

Made possible by a $9.1 million tripartite Canada-Manitoba infrastructure funding, a majority of the components set out in Centre Ventures waterfront plan have come to fruition.  This includes, upgrades to Stephen Juba Park , constructing the scenic Waterfront Drive, planting trees and upgrading paths.  In addition, four projects, spearheaded by five Winnipeg firms, resulted from CentreVenture’s call-for-proposals, which closed April 30 2005 . The downtown Winnipeg development agency received 19 submissions for development of vacant land fronting Waterfront Drive. The following is a brief description of the four winning proposals.

Ship Street Village
Located between McDermot and Bannatyne Avenue is Ship Street Village , a $3.5-million project that will include eight townhouse units, starting at about $350,000 each, as well as 4,500 square feet of commercial space. The townhouse units will be large, ranging from 1800 to more than 2000 square feet and are designed with an open concept, ten foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows.  The Ship Street Group, which is a joint venture between Freedom Developments Ltd. and Streetside Developments, a member of Qualico Group of Companies is the developer for the project.