New CentreVenture CEO Squires tasked with reviving downtown Winnipeg development agency
CBC
The new CEO of Winnipeg's downtown development agency has been asked to create more affordable housing in Manitoba's capital, and come up with a new vision for Graham Avenue after Winnipeg Transit routes move north to Portage Avenue later this year.
Those are the specific tasks handed to Rochelle Squires, who took over the reins of CentreVenture on Jan. 2.
In a broader sense, the former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister has been asked to reinvigorate the once-powerful city agency, whose effectiveness and relevance have diminished over the past 10 years.
Founded in 1999, CentreVenture effectively created Waterfront Drive during Glen Murray's mayoral administration, and transformed entire blocks of Main Street and the south Portage neighbourhood during Sam Katz's time in office.
But in the aftermath of a dispute with then mayor Brian Bowman over land assembly for True North Square in 2014-15, CentreVenture was effectively placed on the sidelines of urban renewal.
That left current Mayor Scott Gillingham with a choice: dissolve CentreVenture or try to make it relevant again. He opted for the latter, paving the way for the agency's board to bring Squires in.
"CentreVenture has a new mandate thanks to the new administration at city hall," Squires said in a Wednesday interview at the agency's office in the MacKenzie Block, a 122-year-old converted warehouse building on Bannatyne Avenue.
"Having worked on the homelessness strategy and having the housing portfolio for a few years, and really seeing how much we need more housing throughout the entire province … I found that really exciting," she said.
Hiring Squires, one of a dozen PC MLAs who lost Winnipeg seats to the NDP in the 2023 provincial election, sends "a pretty strong signal" that CentreVenture plans to resume an active role in downtown revitalization, said Jim Ludlow, president of True North Real Estate Development and a former CentreVenture board member.
"It's gone through cycles of activity and passivity," Ludlow said. "Maybe Rochelle can be a bit of an engine to bring all the other players back into downtown.… There's a lot of players that need to be involved."
At the start of CentreVenture's mandate, the agency devoted much of its work to developing an inventory of vacant or underutilized city properties, and matching them up with prospective developers.
Squires said she still intends to do that, albeit with a more specific focus on creating new residential housing for people of all incomes.
"I see having a good mix of market rents and affordable rents all in the same complex as part of the solution to the problem of housing and meeting people where they're at," she said.
"We're looking at an entire inventory of these so-called deserts in the downtown, whether they be surface parking lots or underutilized or vacant properties. And we're cataloging that inventory right now, and will be working with our stakeholders to see if there's projects that make sense for those parcels."
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