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MARCH 2010, Volume
25 Issue 3
What's
Happening in Manitoba
Lifts at Mt. Agassiz
may run once more
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| Mt. Agassiz eyed for restart.
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Mount Agassiz, once the most popular skiing and snowboarding destination in Manitoba, may be brought back from the dead.
It's been 10 years since Agassiz's chairlifts carried anybody to the top, but Parks Canada has given winter enthusiasts hope after announcing plans to do a feasibility study on the ski hill and surrounding area in Riding Mountain National Park.
That's a complete about-face from its position just 18 months ago.
"We have a road, we have parking lots and we have hydro. Those are multimillion-dollars of assets right there," said Roger Schroder, external relations manager for Riding Mountain.
The chair lifts, rope lines and towers at the long-time resort area, located near McCreary in the western part of the province, are still in place and in "good condition" according to a consultant brought in to assess the facilities.
Schroder said there's still a "tremendous" amount of interest in skiing at Mount Agassiz. He said there is also potential for creating biking, hiking and horseback trails at Agassiz during the summer months.
"There is more discussion about a multi-seasonal facility now. That was never part of the discussion three or four years ago when we were discussing our management plan," Schroder said.
Mount Agassiz, the location of the downhill skiing events in the 1979 Canada Winter Games, is close to the town of McCreary.
Credit union
plans expansion
The CEO of Steinbach Credit Union (SCU) figures if he builds it (really big), they will come.
The province's largest credit union is wrapping up construction of its third location, a 42,000-square-foot branch in the northeast part of Winnipeg.
Glenn Friesen, head of SCU, the seventh-largest credit union in the country with $2.8 billion in assets, said although there aren't any official statistics on things like this, he's very confident it's the largest retail banking branch in the province and one of the biggest in the entire country. Most retail banking branches are about 6,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet.
This is SCU's third super-sized location, a strategy Friesen said is preferable and more economical to scattering a bigger number of far smaller outlets around town.
"We feel there are economies of scale [with larger branches]. Ultimately, that's part of our success. We're growing $1 million a day in assets," he said.
Friesen isn't releasing the cost of the new branch yet but he admitted it's an "eight-figure" number. He said in addition to putting its tellers in "teller pods" - stand-alone stations instead of a long row of wickets - the new branch will also feature a fully staffed drive-through teller.
SCU recently topped 75,000 members, one-third of whom have come on board since it opened a 35,500-square-foot branch in Winnipeg's South End in 2003.
Largest tower
changes name
Winnipeg's largest office tower has a new name but did anybody notice?
The 31-storey edifice, officially known as the Commodity Exchange Tower since it opened in 1979, has been rechristened "360 Main Street" in honour of its address. But because of the attention Trizec Canada received when it built the 539,151-square-foot building, many Winnipeggers still call it the Trizec Building.
Frank Sherlock, vice-president of Crown Property Management Ltd., which operates the tower, said the new moniker became necessary because the Commodity Exchange, at one time a major tenant in the building, doesn't exist anymore since the open trading pit was replaced by a computerized system five years ago.
"Nobody called it the Commodity Exchange Tower anyway," he said. "Everybody still called it the Trizec Building. The name Trizec always seemed to stick in the public's view."
"We don't want to be driving people crazy with the naming of the building. People say, 'You're changing it to 360 Main Street, I thought it was called the Trizec Building.' Rather than causing confusion, we'll use the address and let it grow on people."
Law nucleus
forms on Main
Darcy & Deacon LLP knows if it wants to be considered one of Winnipeg's elite law firms, it's got to hang its hat at Portage and Main.
The 42-lawyer firm recently signed a deal to move into two floors of the Richardson Building at the city's most famous intersection, about one kilometre away from its long-time home on St. Mary Avenue.
Now its lawyers grab coffee in the same food court as their counterparts at Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP, Pitblado LLP, Fillmore Riley LLP and Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP.
"All of the larger firms are located in the vicinity. We decided very clearly and early on that we certainly weren't interested in anything outside of the downtown," said Grant Stefanson, one of Darcy & Deacon's managing partners. "I think it's a given that being in the Richardson Building signals an improvement in the status of our firm. It's an A class building. [St. Mary] is a B or B-plus building," he said.
Golden swag
came from locals
A baker's dozen of Manitoba companies rubbed elbows with the Hollywood set at last month's Golden Globe Awards.
Representatives from the 13 companies participated in the Oh Canada Gift Lounge, a gifting suite frequented by actors and other high rollers, including agents, publicists, editors at food and fashion magazines as well as those who do product placement in movies and on TV.
Even though it seems incredulous that suppliers should give away their wares to some of the richest people in the world, that's how the game is played. The hope among the participants was that somebody important would take a shining to one or more of their products and ideally reveal it on television, in a movie or in a glossy magazine.
Heather Stewart, the owner of Lilyfield Cakes who spearheaded Oh Canada, said there's no way of predicting how successful presenters will be in the long run, but the potential is huge.
"Being in a gifting suite at the Country Music Awards in 2004 changed my business. Everything just opened up. There was a story in People magazine [featuring my cakes] and on television programs. It made a significant difference in my business, especially in the U.S.," she said.
- Compiled by Geoff Kirbyson |
