“If we succeed, downtown will be a thriving hub with shops, venues and people.
It will have that ‘game-night’ vibe all the time. People will feel safe and at home downtown, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” — Rochelle Squires, CEO of CentreVenture Development Corp., says adding more residents is key to creating a vibrant downtown Winnipeg.
ON a Jets game night, when fans stream toward Canada Life Centre and restaurants and sidewalks fill before puck drop, Winnipeg’s core feels busy, energetic and alive.
CentreVenture Development Corporation wants downtown to feel that way more often—and not only when a game or concert draws thousands of people into the area.
Its new strategic plan sets an ambitious goal: increase downtown Winnipeg’s population from approximately 18,500 today to 36,000 by 2050. That target was developed through research, consultation and discussions with stakeholders, architects, urban-density experts and academics at the University of Manitoba.
“If we succeed, downtown will be a thriving hub with shops, venues and people,” says Rochelle Squires, CEO of CentreVenture. “It will have that ‘game-night’ vibe all the time. People will feel safe and at home downtown, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Squires says 36,000 residents would provide the population needed to create a consistently vibrant, walkable and safe downtown. The goal is not simply to fill residential buildings, but to rebalance a city centre that has historically depended heavily on office workers and visitors.
From office district to neighbourhood
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 80,000 people travelled downtown for work each day, sustaining restaurants, shops and services. When offices emptied, the vulnerability of that model became impossible to ignore.
CentreVenture is now working toward a downtown supported by the people who live there as well as those who commute into the city centre. More residents create a steady customer base for grocery stores, restaurants, cafés, retailers and personal services. They also bring activity to sidewalks and public spaces outside conventional office hours.
As Squires puts it, “retail follows rooftops.”
The opening of a Red River Co-op grocery store at the Portage Place redevelopment in 2029 will help address one of downtown’s most important amenity gaps. Expansions by Red River College Polytechnic and the University of Winnipeg, together with additional student housing, will also bring more students and residents into the area.
A downtown where people can live, learn, work and play is better positioned to sustain businesses and attract companies looking for a lively, amenity-rich place to establish or expand.
“It’s all hands-on deck,” Squires says.
Making difficult projects possible
CentreVenture will not build all the homes needed to reach the population target. Its role is to create conditions that enable private, non-profit and Indigenous developers to build them. CentreVenture’s strategic plan calls for residential incentives, renewed financing tools and targeted support for vacant or underused properties.
One current initiative is the Downtown Heritage Residential Conversion Grant Pilot Program, a collaboration involving CentreVenture, the City of Winnipeg and funding delivered through the federal National Housing Strategy.
The program helps property owners convert vacant or underused heritage buildings into housing. The opportunity is significant in Winnipeg, which has one of Canada’s largest historic districts. CentreVenture estimates approximately 10 per cent of its buildings are vacant or underused.
The Millennium Centre illustrates the potential. Its first floor and mezzanine are in use, but its upper floors remain vacant. Finding new or expanded uses for buildings like it could preserve Winnipeg’s heritage architecture while adding homes and street-level activity.
CentreVenture points to its record as evidence that targeted public support can unlock larger investments. According to the plan, approximately $26 million in City of Winnipeg funding over 26 years enabled CentreVenture to make $84 million in direct investments and helped leverage $1.8 billion in private-sector and community capital. Of the 8,329 downtown homes built, underway or projected between 2003 and 2028, 6,004 are associated with projects that received incentives.
Building a complete community
Reaching the population target will require adding the right housing mix. Most homes being built downtown are one- and two-bedroom units suited to single residents, couples and small households. Some family-sized homes are being developed, but Squires acknowledges that additional amenities will be needed before downtown attracts a significant number of families with children.
CentreVenture wants downtown to include people at every income level and stage of life: students, newcomers, young professionals, single parents, families, retirees, empty nesters and seniors. That will require market, affordable and mixed-income housing.
Squires points to Osborne Village as an example of the social mix CentreVenture would like to encourage—a neighbourhood where different ages, incomes and household types live alongside one another.
“Everybody is welcome,” she says.
Parking also remains a challenge. Downtown has parking, but it is not always free, convenient or easily accessible. At the same time, a denser, more walkable community should allow more residents to complete daily errands without driving.
Creating activity and safety
CentreVenture sees greater residential density and mixed-use development as part of improving downtown safety. More residents mean more people using sidewalks, businesses and public spaces at different hours. A downtown that remains active after offices close can feel safer than one marked by vacant storefronts and empty streets.
Development alone cannot resolve homelessness, addictions, mental-health challenges or poverty. Those issues require coordinated responses from governments, Indigenous organizations, law enforcement, health and social-service providers and community agencies.
CentreVenture’s role is to encourage occupied buildings, active storefronts and a larger permanent population, creating conditions that can support broader safety and social initiatives.
Reimagining Graham Avenue
Graham Avenue is one place where CentreVenture hopes to turn its strategy into visible change.
The avenue lost much of its activity when transit service moved away from the former bus mall. Since then, pilot projects are introducing new planters, lighting, seating, markets and public events. Public-works improvements have also been undertaken.
The newly announced $1.4 million Storefront Success Program will assist with eligible capital improvements, including façades, lighting, signage, windows, entrances, patios, canopies, accessibility upgrades and landscaping. Funding may also support interior improvements visible from the street and professional design services.
Rather than relying on a single transformative project, CentreVenture is trying to build momentum through overlapping residential, commercial and public investments. Its plan ultimately envisions Graham Avenue as a signature corridor and downtown destination.
Restoring the everyday city
Downtown Winnipeg already shows it can attract people. Concerts, festivals, sporting events and cultural institutions regularly bring energy into the core. The challenge is turning that episodic activity into everyday life.
CentreVenture is betting that people are the foundation of a more resilient downtown: enough people, living in enough different kinds of homes, to turn the city centre into a complete community. If the strategy works, downtown’s most energetic evenings will no longer feel exceptional, but a regular day in the life of the city.
