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The City of Winnipeg and a local curling club are at loggerheads over whether and under what conditions a new residential highrise should be built on a parking lot that is owned by the city but used by the club.

City council voted recently in favour of an application to build Granite Riverside Commons, an affordable highrise housing project, on a surface parking lot of the Granite Curling Club.

The club is centrally located on the banks of the Assiniboine River, not far from the provincial legislative building.

Lissie Rappaport, manager of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) Housing Accelerator Fund for Winnipeg, says the city has owned and leased the property back to the curling club since 1975.

The development would subdivide the property to build upon the western surface parking lot – taking away some parking spaces from Granite – while leaving the club itself in place.

“Winnipeg needs more housing, and we want the Granite to have a rock-solid future. We are moving forward with a plan that achieves both,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham in a statement. “We are committed to finalizing a new lease and a parking solution that meets the club’s needs, while ensuring this vital housing project proceeds without unnecessary delay.”

The University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation 2.0 (UWCRC 2.0) would develop and manage the project.

The not-for-profit organization has worked on several mixed-use, mixed-income housing projects near the downtown university.

Jeremy Read, CEO of UWCRC 2.0, says the curling club project would be modelled after its nearby West Broadway Commons residential highrise.

“West Broadway is a densely populated neighbourhood with a very diverse population,” says Read. “Most of the people who live there are renters and they need access to affordable housing.”

Granite Riverside Commons will be 11 storeys tall and contain 111 units. Of them, 56 will be affordable, 30 will be rent-to-income supplemented units, and all of the remaining units will be below 69 per cent of CMHC’s mid-market rental figure.

It will also have a gymnasium, a common laundry, multipurpose room and ninth-floor outdoor terrace.

“It’s the West Broadway Commons project on a new site,” says Read. “It was a very successful project. The city’s Urban Design Advisory Committee likes it and it won an award from Heritage Winnipeg in 2023.”

UWCRC 2.0 and the city have worked on other affordable housing projects on city-leased land, such as the Market Lands project near Main Street, on the former site of the Public Safety Building.

The Granite Curling Club, however, does not share the city’s and developer’s enthusiasm for the project.

In fact, it is opposed to the development plan as it now stands.

The club worries the loss of some of its parking spaces and the revenue they generate would threaten its future financial viability.

Christian Pierce, Granite’s secretary, says the club supports building more affordable housing in Winnipeg, but not the city’s current plan.

“There are a number of issues the city hasn’t addressed to the curling club’s satisfaction,” says Pierce.

He says the city needs to:

• Negotiate a new lease agreement with the club for the building and the land;
• clarify the terms of a possible apartment rent revenue-sharing deal with the club;
• make good on its earlier promise to stabilize the river bank; and
• work out an acceptable parking plan.

Pierce says the club has an informal handshake agreement with nearby Canada Life Assurance Company for club members to use the company’s large parking lot at night if it needs more space, but Canada Life won’t sign a formal agreement.

The parties to the dispute have two options, says Pierce.

“One, the city can sit down and negotiate a deal with the curling club, which it hasn’t done so far,” he says.  “Or, two, the club might go to court and ask a judge to determine the legal validity of the just-passed city bylaw.”

In fact, in the third week of December, the club upped the ante by asking the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench to decide if the city can ignore an earlier recommendation by the provincial municipal board to the city and the club to develop a parking plan that both parties were happy with.

A hearing is scheduled to take place in the third week of January.

In the meanwhile, as they wait for an outcome, the curlers can continue to park their cars the same way they have for years.