City of Winnipeg looks to sell parking lot at Osborne and Stradbrook

A city-owned parking lot at the corner of Osborne Street and Stradbrook Avenue could soon have a new owner, potentially paving the way for development on a prominent corner in Osborne Village.

The City of Winnipeg is negotiating with a potential buyer for the property at 145 Osborne St., city spokesperson Deborah Bowers told CBC News in an email.

The parking lot is on the northwest corner, next to a restaurant space where a number of restaurants have operated in recent years, notably the long-running Basil's, which closed in 2008. 

Before the city can sell the parking lot, which previously hosted a gas station, it must remediate the soil. A tender for a contractor to do that work closed on Monday, and states the work must be complete by the end of November. 

The city acquired the lot through an expropriation in 1965. It has been fenced off for nearly two years.

A public listing for the sale of the parking lot listed its price at $800,000. As the city is negotiating with the potential buyer, the property is no longer listed for sale, Bowers said.

Gross revenues for the parking lot were approximately $94,870.00 in 2019.

"Regarding business impact, the city consulted with the Osborne Village Business Improvement Zone in 2020 and they were supportive of the sale," Bowers said.

Zohreh Gervais, executive director of the Osborne Village BIZ, said she doesn't know who the potential buyer is, or what they may have planned for the site.

"I'm sure that it's going to be a fantastic new development, whatever it is there," she said in an interview.

"It's really a prime piece of property on the Osborne strip. And while obviously we will miss the parking, there are so many other uses for that space that will be better for the community."

Security fencing currently surrounds the empty lot, where weeds have pushed up through the cracks.

Across Stradbrook Street, Mark Banting, manager of the cookware store Happy Cooker, called the parking lot an "eyesore" in its current state.

"It doesn't appear that anyone is giving it any kind of love to at least look OK or used," he said in an interview.