One Canadian real estate developer is optimistic the City of Winnipeg can regain a place among the country’s top major cities.
The co-owner of Focus Equities Kenneth Mariash says building CentrePort Canada Rail Park could be a step in that direction.
The rail park is going ahead at North America’s largest trimodal inland port, the Province of Manitoba announced Friday.
The project that’s estimated to generate $3 billion in economic activity for the province will complete the inland port’s vision of enhancing accessibility via three modes of transportation: air, rail and truck — CentrePort’s president and CEO Diane Gray said.
“Obviously, that’s exciting. Economic growth means job creation. It means opportunity,” Gray told Global News on Tuesday.
The rail park is expected to create about 5,000 jobs over the course of the build-out, which could take between 10 to 20 years, she said.
CentrePort makes up 20,000 acres that fall within the City of Winnipeg and the RM of Rosser, land designated to capitalize on its central geographic location and serve as a logistics, manufacturing and warehousing hub.
CentrePort Canada Rail Park will be nestled northwest of CentrePort Canada Way and south of Canadian Pacific Railway’s main east-west line. Focus Equities is taking on the 665-acre project, which Gray says will help companies move goods more efficiently.
The industrial land is already home to more than 1,000 companies, she said, with CentrePort having attracted more than 100 since its founding in 2008, through The CentrePort Canada Act.
Transport trucks hurtled up and down CentrePort Canada Way on Tuesday — a route with upwards of 10,000 trips a day. Brand-new multi-tenant buildings dotted some of the surrounding landscape, along with patches of freshly overturned earth, signs of bustling construction.