Winnipeg Free Press
August 23, 2004
Massive complex faced early opposition, developer recalls
By Martin Cash - Business Reporter
THE first thing Martin Bergen said when asked to reminisce about the massive Fort Garry Place complex he built in the late 1980s, was, "Everybody said I was crazy."
But he said it with a big smile, suggesting that he didn't really mind the accusation. As for being crazy... crazy like a fox, perhaps.
With rental apartment vacancy rates at around one per cent and interest in downtown condominiums starting to translate into actual construction of downtown condo units, Bergen looks downright prescient now.
The three-tower development, which features nearly 950 rental units, about 300,000 square feet of commercial space and a revolving restaurant on the 30th floor of one of the buildings, is now entirely leased. The apartments have been full for five years, and while the unusually cavernous commercial area never did take off as retail space, it has slowly been leased for office and other commercial use.
Built in the late 1980s when the Forks and North Portage Development Corp. were still being developed, Bergen was largely seen as an interloper. On top of that, many believed the quirky, old-world design of the project, which features six-foot-high statues of Greek gods and goddesses at eye level around the outside of the complex, did not suit the location. One architect even branded it "visual vandalism."
But now it's probably safe to say that while it was once scorned as over-sized, unattractive and in the way, Fort Garry Place is now seen as a real estate development whose size and significance in downtown Winnipeg remains unmatched after more than 15 years.
It's also somewhat ironic that the city's own planning department now operates out of offices in Fort Garry Place.
"Fort Garry Place got people living downtown," said Harry Finnigan, director of the city's planning, property and development department. "It is really important. It adds to the vibrancy of downtown Winnipeg. Some like the architecture, others don't. The statues are a conversation piece."
Although it was once seen as competition to new housing being developed by the government-owned North Portage Development Corp., Fort Garry Place has proven to be a godsend to apartment renters in a city starved for new product.
The current flurry of condo projects in and around the centre of the city is testimony to the dearth of new construction during the last decade and half.
Bergen's company, Marlborough Developments, has built 6,200 apartment units in Winnipeg since the early 1960s and his management company, Edison Rental Agency, still manages about 4,400 of those suites.
Bergen, now 77, has no interest in the goings-on at city hall. Nor is he interested in doing any more developments, although he still goes every day to his cramped office in a nondescript strip mall on Henderson Highway.
Having accomplished as much as he has, Bergen doesn't need to explain to anyone why he no longer follows the development scene. But clearly he is still not a fan of the regulator.
"It seemed like every time I wanted to build something, people would say 'it's very nice, but maybe I should do it in another district,' " he said recently in that thick European accent that he has retained more than 50 years after emigrating to Canada from Ukraine.
But it wasn't always that way, he added.
"I remember the days when I would meet with mayor Joe Guay (of St. Boniface) and would tell him what I wanted to do. One time he asked me how much property tax the city would make on an apartment project I wanted to build, and I told him probably about $50,000. He told me to attend a council meeting where he unrolled the drawings, and said, 'Mr. Bergen is going to build this beautiful apartment building and will pay $50,000 in annual property taxes. Isn't it nice.... All in favour... carried.' "