More housing for Winnipeg's Chinatown

Top: Google Street View  Bottom: City Council agenda of Nov. 14, 2012

At Wednesday's city council meeting they will be approving the sale of a two-acre site consisting of vacant land and a parking lot at Paulin Street and Pacific Avenue. It's just outside Chinatown and a block from where the Peace Tower housing complex is being built.

In 2009 Habitat for Humanity conditionally purchased the city-owned property for $1 with the intent to develop it but late last year decided that they would not proceed and the land was returned. In January the Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation, with the blessing of the Centennial Community Improvement Association, made a play for it and an agreement was reached to purchase it for $1.

The WHRC plans to develop "...a medium to high density, mixed income, mixed tenure housing project of approximately 100 units of which half will be rental, half will be condo." The one catch is that a portion of the parking lot is dedicated to police department parking and cannot be developed until they move to the new Public Safety Building on Graham Avenue.

It's part of a flurry of activity in and around Chinatown. The Peace Tower housing is well on its way to completion, the old Salvation Army Citadel and "We Teach" building are being renovated and the Coronation Block is being readied for demolition with plans for an eventual housing complex.

It will be interesting to see if this Paulin Street plan leads to the redevelopment of some of the great underused or vacant buildings in the immediate area such as the old Paulins Biscuits factory, former Genser's Furniture Warehouse and 242 Princess.