What’s so special about Neechi Commons???
1. Neechi Commons is a community business complex that is being developed in Winnipeg on a 50,000 sq. ft. lot that straddles north Point Douglas on the east and Lord Selkirk Park on the west. These and other surrounding neighbourhoods in the ‘north-end’ and south of the CPR tracks face tough social and economic challenges. Neechi Commons is deliberately being developed in this part of the city to foster neighbourhood revitalization and to provide economic opportunities for Aboriginal youth and other area residents. At the same time the site is very well situated from a commercial standpoint.
2. About 60 new jobs will be created in the neighbourhood supermarket, restaurant, bakery, produce courtyard, Aboriginal arts store, and specialty boutiques, with hiring priority given to residents of adjoining neighbourhoods.
3. A large percentage of the jobs will go to youth. Neechi Commons will offer a direct alternative to street gangs and to dependency on income assistance.
4. Neechi Commons will include a strong staff development program that will emphasize team building and the enhancement of personal and community self-esteem, as well as job-specific skills.
5. Employment and training opportunities will compliment local high school programs and vocational training institutes.
6. The operation of a neighbourhood supermarket at Neechi Commons will fill a neighbourhood void by restoring and expanding wide-ranging and economical food services.
7. Neechi Commons will promote healthy foods and lifestyles. Neechi Foods Co-Op is already known for promoting healthy eating and healthy living. The existing grocery operation on Dufferin Ave. was the first grocery store in Winnipeg to not sell cigarettes (although providing tobacco for ceremonial purposes) and has been subsidizing fresh fruit for neighbourhood children since it began operations over 22 years ago. The cooperative has been honoured nationally, at a meeting of the Canadian Diabetes Association, and locally, by the Reh-Fit Centre, for its diabetes prevention work.
8. The produce courtyard, farmers’ market, restaurant, and other components of the Commons, will have a strong focus on locally harvested and processed foods in order to promote healthy foods and environmental sustainability and to support farmers, pickers, fishers, ranchers and food processors in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.
9. A specialty foods boutique will promote ethnically diverse foods, local specialty food suppliers, and cross-cultural interest and respect.
10. Neechi Commons will include an Aboriginal arts centre that will serve as both a retail outlet and as a gallery for First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists, artisans, authors, illustrators, singers and musicians. Neighbourhood schools will be invited to showcase their students’ artwork and to participate in workshops, performances and presentations at the Commons.
11. Aboriginal artists and performers of all ages and representatives of diverse ethnic artistic traditions will also be invited to participate in daytime and evening events, as mentors and as performers. Appreciation of cultural diversity will be a constant theme.
12. The planning of Neechi Commons included a formal Integrated Design Process that included a lot of community input.
13. Neighbourhood anticipation of the opening of the complex is very high. The Commons is expected to make a vital contribution to community pride in adjoining neighbourhoods. It also will contribute to positive self-esteem within the wider Aboriginal community and in Winnipeg as a whole.
14. Neechi Foods Co-Op is an owner-operated business incorporated as a worker cooperative. This means that employees have the opportunity to become business owners and entrepreneurs; an opportunity that most of them otherwise would never get.
15. The cooperative membership structure ensures community based ownership whereby neighbourhood families are effectively represented in the control of the enterprise.
16. Investment Shares are being offered to the general public as a means of helping to finance Neechi Commons and as a way of encouraging broad community stakeholder participation. These Investment Shares are not sold for speculative purposes. Modest returns are projected but the big pay-back is community economic development. The cooperative retains the right to redeem shares that are no longer needed.
17. Neechi Commons is expected to be a cornerstone for the revitalization of commerce along Main Street north of the CPR tracks. In recent years this area has descended into ‘skid row’ status. Accordingly, the opening of Neechi Commons is of vital interest to the North-end and to the city of Winnipeg as a whole.
18. The Neechi Commons project has included very deliberate restoration of the heritage character of two attached buildings at Main and Euclid. They were built in 1903 and 1904, respectively, and designed by the prominent local architect, J. H. G. Russell. Historically this site has been a prominent north Main landmark housing a wide variety of commercial businesses.
19. Neechi Commons will build on the fruits and vegetable legacy of the California Fruit Market which operated at the same location in recent decades and on the legacy of the famed North End Farmers Market which operated across the street in earlier decades.
20. The building showcases geo-thermal heating and cooling and has received Greed Globes certification.
21. The governments of Canada and Manitoba have recognized the unique social and economic potential of Neechi Commons by investing in the project with infrastructure stimulus grants that have helped to offset construction costs. Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada and the United Way of Winnipeg have provided funds for the development of staff training and support systems . The Centre for Aboriginal Human Resources Centre, First Peoples Development and the Manitoba Métis Federation have all agreed to contribute to initial staff development costs. The Province of Manitoba is also prepared to help with staff development and has approved Neechi’s Investment Share Offering for inclusion in the Community Enterprise Development Tax Credit program.
22. Some 50 residents of Winnipeg have helped with business planning and development on a volunteer basis through participation in on-going Neechi Commons work groups. In all, well over 9,500 volunteer hours, equivalent to five years of full-time work, has been invested in the project because of its unique social value.
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- For more information about Neechi Commons please go to our ‘Neechi Commons’ and ‘Investment Share Offering’ pages.
