The Air Canada building in Winnipeg.

4 July 2011

CPR Set to Move HQ Out of Core

Winnipeg Manitoba - It's safe to say the Canadian Pacific Railway will be going against the traffic when it relocates more than 200 of its Winnipeg employees next year.
 
The 130-year-old firm, perhaps best known by historians for driving the "last spike" into a cross-Canada rail network in 1885, is planning to move the bulk of its local workforce out of the Air Canada building downtown at 150 Henry Ave. in the North End and into a nearly 93,000-square-foot building in the Fort Garry Industrial Park.
 
CPR spokesman Kevin Hrysak said the company has been exploring its office footprint in Winnipeg "for some time" and plans to make the move around the middle of next year.
 
"The building we have secured on Fultz Boulevard is a better space for our Winnipeg operations. It allows us to consolidate various groups into one building and allow for future growth," he said.
 
Hrysak said the move affects CPR's customer service and IT employees downtown as well as people in its police detachment and control centre on Henry but it won't have any impact on its rail yard operations in Winnipeg. The company's yard is located between Main Street and McPhillips Street north of downtown.
 
He said being downtown, while a benefit to hoteliers, retailers, and restauranteurs looking to capitalize on the arrival of the Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Centre this October, doesn't do nearly as much for a transportation company.
 
"For us, it's more about what (location) best suits our operations. We don't have to be downtown, our operations don't pertain to the Jets," he said.
 
According to a company email obtained by the Free Press, CPR sees a number of benefits to the move, including free parking for employees, a kitchen and cafeteria, an exterior patio, office, training, and tranquility rooms, showers, a loading dock, six bus routes in the immediate area, plus a significant number of amenities, including banks, restaurants, and shopping within two blocks.
 
A spokesman for CB Richard Ellis, which lists the Fultz Boulevard building among its properties for lease, declined to comment on CPR's plans.
 
Geoff Kirbyson