The Urban Conservation Project could see shovels in the ground by the end of the month

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Plans to build Canada's largest urban reserve in Winnipeg continue to move forward, and officials say shovels could be in the ground on the massive development by the end of this month.

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“Everything is looking good for the first phase of Naavi-Oodena,” Kathleen BlueSky, newly appointed executive director of the Treaty One Development Corporation, said on Monday.

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Last fall, First Nations leaders broke ground on a project that would transform the site of the former Kapyong barracks along Kenaston Boulevard into the largest urban reserve in the country. The site is planned to be Naawi-Oodena, a development agreement that will be a joint venture between one development corporation and the Canada Lands Company, a self-financing Crown corporation.

Urban reserves work by allowing First Nations to commercially develop land in cities, which in turn generates income for their communities.

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BlueSky said plans for what it calls Phase A of the development are progressing well, as it says most of the funding for that first phase is now in place and they expect work to begin in the coming weeks.

“We have mobilized the construction site, we have temporary roads, we have trailers, so we will mobilize the workforce by the end of May, and then we will start building the infrastructure,” BlueSky said.

Once that infrastructure is in place, BlueSky said the first building to be built on the site will be a gas pipeline and car wash, along with plans for a seven-story, 105,000-square-foot commercial building, along with another stand-alone commercial building. building, as well as a two-lane shopping center.

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He said he is encouraged by the City Reserve project's prospects for success, as interested tenants say he hopes to move into the new space once it's up and running.

“We have tenants lined up for almost all the spaces in Block A,” he said. “People have been reaching out for the last four years, and all the people and organizations that have been contacted seem to be very interested.

“We have had several letters of interest from individuals and organizations who are planning the expansion or evolution of their organizations and are hoping to move into the space at Naavi-Oodena.”

In total, approximately 68% of the 168-acre site will be developed and, according to the first agreement, the space is expected to house residential, commercial, educational, cultural, recreational and other community-related facilities.

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The second phase is expected to include 600 residential units and another 400,000 square feet of commercial space, while the third phase is expected to include another 400 residential units and 350,000 square feet of commercial space.

The first phase should be completed in the next four to five years, according to BlueSky, and it added that work on other phases of the project could begin while work on the first phase is underway.

“There will be overlap between phases,” he said. “It all depends on funding, who the investors are and who wants to develop with us.”

The City of Winnipeg will also play a key role in the development, as an agreement signed in 2022 states that the city will provide all municipal services for the Naavi-Oodena Urban Reserve “in a scale and manner consistent with the rest of the city.”

— Dave Baxter is a local journalism initiative reporter based out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Indigenous Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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