Winnipeg Parking Authority to spend $1.8M to demolish derelict Civic Centre Parkade

The Winnipeg Parking Authority is bracing to absorb a $1.8-million blow next year, when the special operating agency expects to demolish the Civic Centre Parkade.

Once part of an ensemble of modernist buildings, the Princess Street parking structure was shuttered in September 2012, when structural issues forced building inspectors to suddenly order the parkade closed.

That, in turn, sent police, city councillors and senior public servants scrambling to find parking elsewhere — and made the city the owner of a derelict building mere metres away from the mayor's office.

• Downtown parkade stays closed over structural issues
• Winnipeg's Public Safety Building closing to the public​

The uncertain future of the Public Safety Building, which only became vacant this summer, prevented the parking authority from demolishing the parkade sooner. Some of the systems that served Winnipeg's old police headquarters were located in the parkade.

According to the parking authority's annual business plan, published by the city on Monday, Winnipeg's planning, property and development department "has confirmed demolition may be pursued in 2017, pending council approval of the same."

The $1.8-million demolition tab will drive up the parking authority's deficit to a projected $2.2 million in 2017, up from a projection of $254,000 this year, according to the business plan.

The parking authority is also spending $136,000 a year on the parkade through a transfer to municipal accommodations, the city department that manages publicly owned buildings.

The city's planning, property and development department intends to redevelop the Civic Centre Parkade site. The projected proceeds from the sale of the property, if it is in fact sold, have not been disclosed.

The city is planning some form of green space or other public amenity on the footprint of the Public Safety Building, whose land was donated to the city in 1875 under the condition it have a public use.

Overall, the parking authority is expecting revenues of $17 million in 2017 against expenses of $19.2 million. The deficit is expected to draw down the agency's accumulated surplus to $12.2 million.

The parking authority's business plan comes before council's innovation committee on Friday.