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

Posted on July 23, 2024 by Peggy

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.”

Parking lot an ‘eyesore’

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.

“We’d like to see somebody come in and clean it up.”

While the parking lot had been convenient for his customers, Banting said the lot moved across Osborne Street, behind the strip mall on the northeast corner of the intersection. Banting says the neighbourhood has parking, including nearby loading zones for quick trips, but customers may have to walk a short distance to get to their destination.

The city has faced delays moving the process of selling the property forward, due to the need for the provincial Department of the Environment and Climate Change to conduct an assessment, and then issuing the tender for the remediation work, said Coun. Sherri Rollins, who represents the area and serves as chair of the property and development committee.

Rollins, who moved the motion at council to declare the property surplus in 2020, would also like to see something other than a parking lot at the corner of Stradbrook and Osborne, she said.

“The goal for that property has always been to … bring in more people on the street, including housing or needed services,” she said.

The neighbourhood has faced challenges in recent years, including turnover of businesses, vacant storefronts and concerns about safety. The Winnipeg Police Service recently launched an initiative to beef up its presence in three areas: Osborne Village, the Exchange District and the West End.

Rollins says removing the fencing and developing the property will help improve the perception of the neighbourhood.

“There’s definitely an opportunity to essentially walk the talk and renew the property. [It] took a bit longer than anticipated, for sure … But the goal was always to really walk the talk and be part of the renewal story in Osborne Village.”