Hold off on Public Safety Building wrecking ball, Winnipeg city councillor says

Winnipeg Coun. Jeff Browaty wants the city to reconsider its plan to demolish the Public Safety Building, given the projected $11-million cost of redeveloping the former police headquarters and its adjacent parkade.

In 2016, city council voted to demolish the Public Safety Building, a six-storey Princess Street structure that served as the home of the Winnipeg Police Service from 1965 to June of last year, when the police moved into their new headquarters on Graham Avenue.

Council based its decision on a report by the consulting firm Deloitte, which determined the cost of redeveloping the Brutalist building — part of an ensemble of modernist structures around city hall — would be too high.

Downtown development agency CentreVenture then embarked on a public-consultation process for redeveloping both the PSB and the adjoining Civic Centre Parkade, which was shuttered in 2012 due to structural concerns.​

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• Cost of demolishing old police HQ and parkade 6 times more than previously disclosed

In a report published June 30, the city has projected the redevelopment costs for the site to be nearly $11 million, including the cost of decommissioning both structures, demolishing them and preparing them for new uses.

Browaty said this raises questions about the city's decision to demolish the old police station, which remains structurally sound. Most of the building's footprint sits on land donated to city in 1875 on the condition it retain some form of public use.

"Now that we know the costs of demolition are very substantial, ​I think it's worth revisiting the idea of redeveloping it, perhaps even for city use," Browaty (North Kildonan) said Tuesday in an interview. 

"We know we can't sell the land at the southern end of the property because it was gifted to the city. I think we need to look at the cost-benefit analysis again and make sure we're not throwing away an asset that has value still."

Council property chair John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) said last week the city has already examined the idea of reusing the PSB as city office space but concluded existing leases in other buildings, including Fort Garry Place, offer the city a better deal.

Mayor Brian Bowman is also sticking behind the city's decision to demolish the PSB, which upset its architect and other members of the city's design community.

"The Deloitte report clearly identifies that the PSB has certain architectural and historical significance and that demolition is not a sustainable approach to deal with heritage buildings. The mayor has also identified and recognized the value historical architecture provides the city," the mayor's communications director, Jonathan Hildebrand, said in a statement.

"However, the Deloitte report concludes the current state of the PSB, as well as the limitations of the structure and exterior cladding, make it unsuitable for a significant and costly restoration project. The Deloitte report clearly outlines the many different and significant challenges posed by the design of the building."

University of Winnipeg art history professor Serena Keshavjee, who tried to lobby council to save the PSB, said there are challenges involved in demolishing the building, as well.

"Brutalist buildings are not easy to take down. They're basically bunkers," she said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

"Brutalist buildings were meant to last 100 years, if not 200. We knew the bones of the building were good."

The original impetus for moving out of the PSB came in 2007, when the cost of replacing the crumbling Tyndall-stone facade on the building and housing police in temporary offices was pegged at no less than $22 million.

Council voted in 2009 to purchase and renovate the former Canada Post complex on Graham Avenue instead. That project wound up costing $214 million, was the subject of a scathing external audit and has been under RCMP investigation since 2014.