Creswin pitches retail plan in Vegas

A Winnipeg real estate company is rolling the dice in Las Vegas, courting retailers to a proposed development that is a linchpin in the construction plans of a new Blue Bomber stadium.

Representatives from Creswin Properties Ltd. are taking part in RECon the global retail real estate convention that began Sunday and runs through Tuesday.

Creswin is one of 1,000 exhibitors at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the event, which typically attracts tens of thousands of businesspeople looking for new places to set up shops.

But the event has been pounded by the recessionin recent years. What was once a four-day event was reduced to three.

As well, attendance was expected to be slightly ahead of 30,000 this year, down from a high of 50,000 in 2007.

Creswin is trying to generate the buzz it needs to fill 650,000 square feet of retail space in The Elms, the high-end retail plaza it plans to build near Polo Park, once Canad Inns Stadium is demolished.

Creswin hoped to land at least 40 per cent of the tenants it needs for the development.

While there have been browsers at the company's posh display featuring rich wood paneling, fine furniture, plasma TV screens, and a luminous scale model of The Elms Creswin president and CEO Dan Edwards won't say if anyone committed to leasing space.

"That's something I'm not going to tell you but nice try," he said.

Foot traffic for Creswin was scarce Monday but Edwards said that's to be expected.

"The US economy is still recovering a bit," he said, but was optimistic The Elms will garner interest by word of mouth and deals will be made long after RECon is over.

"A lot of the people we spoke to will talk to people who didn't necessarily come to our booth but will hear of our projectand will contact us."

Mark Mercer, a delegate from Tulsa, OK, who represents Choice Hotels International, said he liked what Creswin was presenting.

"They said, 'Yeah, we've got a location for a hotel at this place.' And I [said], 'We have a brand really fits in with what you're doing,'" Mercer said.

"So, I went and got the director for the brand and brought him back and introduced him. [But] we just met them [Monday], so we'll just keep our fingers crossed that everything works out."

Mercer called The Elms a "neat concept" and said it has made him want to visit Winnipeg to see what else the city has to offer.

Edwards expects The Elms to open by Christmas 2013.

The Elms will fund Bomber stadium

Creswin chairman David Asper needs The Elms project to help him achieve his goal of owning the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

A new stadium is being built on an eight-hectare site at the University of Manitoba campus and will be ready for the 2012 CFL season.

Asper has agreed to pay $100 million towards the project and take ownership of the team.

But the plans hinged on the successful development of The Elms. Once financing was in place for the retail development, the plan called for Canad Inns Stadium to come down and the new one to be built.

But plodding progress on The Elms put the new stadium project in doubt. The groundbreaking was supposed to happen in February 2010 with a projected opening in summer 2011.

Asper was granted a one-year extension on the deal in September after he blamed the bruised economy for impacting his ability to find retailers willing to commit to The Elms.

In March, the provincial government announced it would contribute $90-million in bridge financing to get the stadium construction going. The sod on the new stadium site was turned on May 20.

If Asper fails to pay off the $90 million, the football club will remain community owned and the loan will be paid back by the province and city.

Property taxes generated from The Elms will be used to do that.