The Year in Review

December 28, 2006

December 28, 2006

Another year is coming to an end and it has been a good one for The Forks North Portage Partnership and for downtown Winnipeg. Some of the highlights of the year are as follows:

  • Plaza at The Forks: The skateboard park opened to rave reviews on June 30, 2006. Who would have thought that when we first had the idea of a skateboard park that we see something of this calibre? Thanks to Jim Burns and the Burns Family Foundation with their vision and commitment to do ‘nothing but the best’ Winnipeg’s skaters are experiencing the best in the world. With some 100,000 young people using the park during the summer vacation months The Forks has fully embraced Winnipeg’s youth (and they deserve it). And then we saw Tony Hawk and his group fly in to town and put on an impromptu show (filming all of it) followed by great comments on his website. And then, the members of Red Hot Chili Peppers skated The Plaza following their summer concert at MTS Centre. It has been a great addition to Winnipeg, and we love it. Now, we continue to figure out how to make the best use of the site year-round.
  • Our Webbsite condos (on Webb Place just across from the Adult Education Centre) were completed in early ’06 and although they took longer than expected to build we are very pleased with the end-product as are the folks that bought them. The project featured excellent design including extensive glazing, access to exterior balconies, loft bedrooms & study with simple but cool kitchens. We continue to believe that this scale of project is important to downtown and they were designed to meet the demand of the young professionals who have moved in. Also an accessible price point for first time buyers was extremely important in this project. We will continue to look for similar development opportunities as we enter 2007.
  • Next door to the Webbsite condos, the sale of Raleigh Apartments to Morningside Properties’ Doug Sneath and his team is bringing new life to a great old apartment block with minimum disruption to the existing tenants. It is going to be an outstanding renovation carried, out with vision and a passion for heritage restoration.
  • Summer weather treated the tenants in The Forks Market well in ‘06. The Riverwalk stayed accessible for the entire summer following the usual spring challenges and this meant the Splash Dash Water Taxi service stayed active all summer long. More and more visitors rode their bicycles or walked to the site, so in spite of the volume of visitors we had very few parking complaints (and that’s how we like it). And prior to the great summer we had a fabulous winter that resulted in increased visits to the site. Our summer survey told us that the majority of our summer visitors also come to the site during the winter months, meaning that all the time and effort and terrific private sector sponsorship, is paying off for all to enjoy.
  • IMAX 3D arrived and was fully operational for January 1, 2006. It really has the ‘Wow’ factor that I have heard about and it has had a positive impact on the levels of attendance at the Theatre. As we look to the future we are seeing a lot of new 3D product being developed and are excited and cautiously optimistic that Winnipeg’s IMAX Theatre will grow its audience to a profitable position. Our school and group programs have been very good and we do see continued interest in this market.

On the corporate front we have also had some changes:

  • We have a new board chair, Rick Bel, who took over from Bill Norrie in June 2006. Bill had been in place for six years and I believe that he is the longest serving chair since the inception of The Forks or North Portage corporations. Bill served with his usual grace and professionalism and I learned a lot from him as we picked up our relationship from the Core Area Initiative days (1980’s). Bill has moved on to being a director of The Forks Foundation. Rick Bel has taken on the position with vigor and he brings his entrepreneurial spirit, leadership and visionary skills to the organization as we begin to look at new opportunities.
  • We have been working closely with University of Winnipeg and are pleased to be providing some back-office financial assistance for the U of W Community Renewal Corporation. As well, as a member of the corporation board, I am pleased to see some of the exciting projects recently announced receive the level of financial commitment they deserve from both the private and public sector.
  • We have been working more closely with CentreVenture as they go through their planning process at the board level and I envision increased collaboration between the two downtown corporations as we enter the New Year.
  • We are in the midst of a strategic planning exercise that should be completed over the next couple of months that will outline our course of action for the next 3 to 5 years. This is always an exciting and challenging time as we review our activities over the previous number of years and identify new strategies and priority projects. I will be discussing this in greater detail as the plan emerges.

To all those that read my comments and are interested in what is occurring in the downtown I wish you a very happy and healthy 2007.

Jim August

Chief Executive Officer 

Back

Sorry, comments are now closed.