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This article was published 27/2/2015 (2032 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Ideally, Winnipeg would be one of those fast-growing cities where developers compete for downtown space to build highrise residential towers and office buildings.

In reality, Manitoba's capital is a slow-growth city with an oversized and underdeveloped downtown. Since the late 1990s, its revitalization has relied upon a mix of public funding, private investment and repeated rounds of government intervention in the form of megaprojects such as the Centennial Centre complex, Portage Place, The Forks and Manitoba Hydro Place.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The Hudson's Bay Company downtown store

While downtown Winnipeg is healthier today than it was in the ugly 1990s, it still isn't sufficiently dense in every neighbourhood to fuel self-sustaining growth. This is why the city and province continue to create tax incentives for residential housing, support CentreVenture's social engineering and occasionally direct a public entity to build a brand-new edifice downtown.

The next major provincial intervention will be the new Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries headquarters, which must be placed somewhere in or adjacent to downtown's official boundaries, ideally within stumbling distance of the weather-protected walkway system.

Nine proposals have been shortlisted for consideration by the Crown corporation, which isn't going to make a decision until some time after provincial New Democrats decide whether Greg Selinger gets to remain premier.

The problem facing MLL is the demand it build downtown may wind up at odds with the corporation's reason for existence. In 2012, separate provincial liquor and gaming regulators merged to save money for the province, not serve as another downtown-development agency.

Winnipeg is awash with empty office space, most of it relatively cheap Class B and C digs that house ordinary office workers such as call-centre operators or newspaper reporters. The cheapest of these sorts of spaces are not downtown.

Liquor & Lotteries, however, wants to consolidate all its offices in one central location, ideally between McPhillips Street Station and Club Regent Casino. This is a legitimate aim and it means the new HQ must wind up somewhere downtown.

If inexpensive remains the mantra, then the corporation would be expected to wind up somewhere like the former IBM offices on Ellice Avenue or the former Canadian Wheat Board offices on Main Street, where the renovation job is not expected to be onerous, at least in theory.

But if downtown revitalization is the goal, the best place for the new HQ would be within several floors of the flagship Hudson's Bay store, which faces an uncertain future. Sources peg the renovation of the department store around $60 million; the $100-million-plus figure used in a Thursday news story came from an estimate for a condo-renovation plan that involved carving a skylight into the centre of the building.

The Hudson's Bay store is a development priority because it's a highly visible and significant heritage structure. At some point, the province will have to sink a pile of cash into the building. The creation of a new Liquor & Lotteries headquarters presents an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

But it's unlikely this would be the cheapest option. And anything but the best deal will add fuel to accusations the provincial NDP can't manage Manitobans' money. While MLL executives will make the final choice, the corporation's board will approve it -- and those folks are provincial appointees.

Adding to the confusion is the only confirmed bidder for the headquarters is True North Sports & Entertainment, which is believed to covet MLL as an anchor tenant in one of the towers it may build as part of its True North Square development on empty lots on Carlton Street.

The problem for the True North bid is the construction of brand-new, first-class office space would likely constitute the most expensive option for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries. As well, any attempt to justify additional spending as supporting a larger development must be weighed against the pre-existing commitment of new property-tax revenues from at least part of this site to pay for the RBC Convention Centre's $180-million expansion.

Without access to the nine proposals under consideration by the corporation, there's no way to know what the best options are for Liquor & Lotteries. From the outside, the corporation faces a difficult choice.

Go with the cheapest possible space and the Hudson's Bay remains empty. Go with Hudson's Bay and you renege on a commitment for cost savings. Ignore the True North proposal and you run the risk of taking over the bogeyman role from Mayor Brian Bowman.

What Winnipeggers should consider is True North's decision to place its plans on hold may not just involve the 220 Carlton St. debacle at city hall. True North may be waiting to see what MLL decides before it proceeds with a plan that involves a lot more than just 60,000 to 80,000 square feet of corporate office space.

There's a lot riding on where MLL decides to go, in downtown Winnipeg and elsewhere.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca