Offices become homes in Winnipeg

September 16, 2019

The Medical Arts office tower in downtown Winnipeg is being transformed into 104 loft-style condo apartments.
Colleen Krempulec, Toronto-based executive director of marketing at Timbercreek Asset Management, which bought the building for $15.5 million in 2017, said she expects to start marketing the building early in 2020.
 “We’re taking it back to the studs,” she said, adding the changes will also include new elevators, new systems and infrastructure.
The building will have the usual apartment building amenities, including a fitness centre, social room and a lobby.
There will be 39 one-bedroom units at an average of 677 square feet each and 65 two-bedroom units averaging 892 square feet plus 14,000 square feet of commercial space. The units have yet to be priced.
The office building was only at about half-occupancy when Timbercreek took it over. There is a trend of office-to-home conversions across the Prairies, with similar projects underway in Edmonton and Calgary, reflecting a relatively high vacancy rate for office buildings.