The first new tower to be built in many years in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District is about to be completed.
Co-developers of the property are Concord Projects Ltd., which is also the project’s construction manager, and Alston Properties Ltd.
Alston director Bryce Alston says construction of Moment at 127 Bannatyne, a 10-storey, mixed-use project, began in July 2023 and is expecting completion in May 2025.
“We’re finishing up some of the floors now and safety-testing the fire and life safety systems and their interconnections,” says Alston.
The modern 120,000-square-foot infill in the East Exchange (east of north-south Main Street) features an 80-unit residential tower that rests on a shorter podium.
The developers say the podium’s scale and materiality fit with the heritage streetscape of Bannatyne Avenue, while the tower sits further back from the street.
They also say Moment at 127 Bannatyne contributes to the evolution of the Exchange from an old warehouse and manufacturing district into a diverse, mixed-use neighbourhood near the heart of the city’s downtown.
The building consists of a four-storey podium with a six-storey residential tower. Atop the tower is a terrace with enough room for lounge space, an outdoor barbecue and a rare-in-Winipeg roof-top sauna.
AtLRG Architecture Inc. are the architects on the project.
AtLRG principal Chris Wiebe says the podium’s main floor will be commercial space, the second floor will be office space for Concord Projects and the third and fourth floors will be residential.
He says it was a challenge getting approval from the city for the first tower to be built in decades in the Exchange, which is a National Historic Site.
“The building site is unusual,” he says. “It’s a surface parking lot in a100-foot gap between two heritage buildings.”
The project is notable for having on its north side Winnipeg’s one and only woonerf (a Dutch word for living street, pronounced “vone-airf”).
Formerly the location of a rail spur line that served the manufacturers and warehouses that sprung up in the Exchange District when Winnipeg had aspirations of becoming the Chicago of the North, the line’s right of way was bought by the city and turned it into John Hirsch Place, a space for people, cars, plants and performances to share and enjoy.
In 2018, Alston acquired the surface lot on which Moment at 127 Bannatyne is being built as part of its purchase of an office building on the southeast corner of Main and Bannatyne (433 Main).
In 2022, it converted the top 10 floors of the 14-story structure that had been built in 1974 into a 94-unit residential building.
The building received an envelope upgrade, consisting of glazing the front half of the existing precast panels, and the development of a hung amenity space balcony on the penthouse level.
Many of the heritage buildings that line Bannatyne have been renovated.
For example, 5468976 Architecture was hired by the owners of a business located at 168 Bannatyne.
“We renovated the building and helped the couple who bought it to grow the business,” says 5468976 architect and co-founding partner Sasa Radulovic. “After they outgrew the business, they hired us to help them expand their residence at 181 Bannatyne. We punched a hole in the roof and building a rooftop cabana and a deck.”
One of the more prominent conversions on the street is the six-storey J.H. Ashdown warehouse, which takes up almost half a block at 167 Bannatyne.
Built in 1895, the warehouse was the first structure in the Exchange District to undergo a conversion.
The building was converted to condominiums and retail space in 1988.
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