While I was passing through downtown, I decided to check out the progress being made on renovating the Avenue Building on 265 Portage Ave, just west of Portage and Main. I was pleasantly surprised to see how the future residential building is shaping up. As you may or may not know, it was announced last summer that the long abandoned building would be turned into residential units.
I can still remember going into the Avenue building when I was a teenager in the mid 90's. I was honestly surprised it had not been condemned, due to the dust and mold of the unkempt building. There may have been a couple of tenants inside the multiple story building at the time. Soon afterward, Dominion News, the last tenant of the Avenue, moved across Portage, leaving the building completely vacant.
This is great news for the city. I always thought the key to downtown revitalization was to build more residential units downtown, making the core area more vibrant. Hopefully this is just the beginning, as I would also love to see the St.Charles Hotel turned into residential suites. It's also nice to see the Downtown Red River Campus renovating the Union Bank Tower.
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