New plan is needed for old Brandon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/06/2020 (2123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If the last few years have been wearing on efforts to rejuvenate downtown Brandon, the next few years could be even more problematic.

On Tuesday, no fewer than five provincial MLAs — three of them ministers — decided to fly the Tory government flag for a $22,000 provincial contribution to the renovation of the heritage Fraser Block, part of a $15-million endowment fund created by the province and the Winnipeg Foundation.

The money going to the Fraser Block’s renewal is one of more than 80 grants the province is making from that fund this year.

While we have to wonder why five Tory MLAs decided to show up to a relatively minor funding announcement — perhaps they had COVID-19 cabin fever? — it is, of course, good to see Sneath Group renovating the historic building, one of several such structures that characterize Brandon’s downtown.

But it’s really a drop in the proverbial bucket of what kind of investment and development is actually needed downtown. And you only have to take stock of what has essentially been abandoned and left to rot to see what we mean.

The Town Centre Mall is a shadow of its former self. With few tenants and many empty spaces to lease, it is a rather large and sprawling problem that has no easy fix.

Across from the Sun building on Rosser Avenue, construction of the new beer vendor that will replace the one that burned in 2018 continues apace, but the dilapidated gas bar just down the street remains a constant eyesore that will be expensive to remove.

And in the past year, we have witnessed the TD Bank move out of downtown to a new location on 18th Street, the McKenzie Seeds buildings go back up for sale after years of attempts to develop the aging towers by Resland Development Group, and a continued lack of occupation for the former Westoba Credit Union building at 10th Street and Princess Avenue.

Meanwhile, there is a decided lack of action down at the 70,000-square-foot parcel of land owned by Brandon University, though that’s not for a lack of trying. Back in March 2019, the university announced it would be considering three proposals for downtown development — one from the Sneath Group, one from VBJ Developments and a third from Wheat City Revitalization Partners.

BU issued a request for expressions of interest to private developers in July 2018, after members of the board of governors expressed concerns about the estimated $103 million that would be needed to build the downtown campus.

But there has been no word of a choice made or any plan to move forward, and as it has for several years now, the future of the land and its development remains in limbo.

All of these factors aside, walking down Rosser Avenue can be dispiriting, with many storefronts empty and change for the better inching forward at a snail’s pace, if not at a standstill.

And the COVID-19 situation will not improve the lot of downtown. With the Prairie Firehouse the most high-profile victim of the economic damage being inflicted on our business community by the necessary restrictions placed upon our society, we have to wonder how long the business community can continue in this situation — particularly retail businesses that were already tipping precariously on the edge before the pandemic ever hit.

That there are still government grants being issued for businesses in Westman communities is not a bad thing. There are yet structures and history worth saving in our community, and we hope these kinds of initiatives will continue for worthy projects.

But Canada’s economy is facing strong headwinds in the wake of the pandemic, and they will take a toll on private investment in our community. The private-public partnerships that Sneath Group CEO Robyn Sneath advocated in her prepared speech on Tuesday may be difficult to maintain should businesses start feeling the pinch — not to mention the continued pain of taxpayers who pay for all of these government initiatives.

Government and private dollars need to be used even more wisely and strategically when economic downturns sap investment funds.

We are at a stage now where our city council, our province and our federal government need to make encouraging plans and wise choices to mitigate the deleterious effects of what will at best be a very hard recession.

And if Brandon’s plans for downtown have been slow to show success over the last few years while economic conditions were strong, continuing on with piecemeal solutions under the present economic conditions will only hasten further deterioration.

It may be time for a new plan for old Brandon.