Officials showed off a Portage Avenue project Tuesday on which many are pinning their hopes for renewal of the city’s troubled downtown core.
Developers turned the long Avenue Building at 265 Portage and the adjoining Hample building into a new apartment and commercial complex. It sits on a stretch of Portage that’s been dominated for years by boarded up buildings and notorious for vagrancy and petty crime.
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The project, led by developers Mark and Rick Hofer, took two years and cost $12.4 million dollars, with $2 million in funding from the province, city and downtown development agency Centre Venture.
The building has 75 units, with 25 rented so far. They range in size from 500 square feet to 100 square feet and rent for $1100 to $1500 per month.
“We want people living downtown, interacting with community and providing a sense of neighborhood,” Premier Greg Selinger said at an opening ceremony.
“For decades, what we are seeing right now was forbidden, there was actually a bylaw that forbid a mix of commercial an residential…but we changed that and this is what the downtown needs,” said Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz.
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