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BROOK JONES\/FREE PRESS <\/p>\n
\nCory Bartell (left) and Jennifer Mathieson at the new Cargo Bar location off Markham Road and Sidney Smith Street, near the Princess Auto Stadium.<\/p>\n
He sat at Cargo Bar\u2019s new location in Southwood Circle, which has been touted as the city\u2019s largest infill project. The 112-acre development is advertised to have more than 12 million square feet available for housing, businesses and institutional space. It will consume land formerly home to a golf course.<\/p>\n
Cargo Bar has planted its new shipping-container-turned-bar off Markham Road and Sidney Smith Street, near the Princess Auto Stadium. Much of the land around it is untouched.<\/p>\n
But inside Cargo Bar\u2019s fenced area \u2014 about 15,000 sq. ft. \u2014 workers are making tracks. Lights have been strung, picnic tables unloaded.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bigger space than Cargo Bar\u2019s Assiniboine Park footprint, which has become a summertime staple over the past six years. Some 20,000 people \u2014 including repeat customers \u2014 visit the outdoor patio near the duck pond annually, said co-owner Jennifer Mathieson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel as though we\u2019re the first thing in an exciting development.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t looking to add a new locale \u2014 she runs her own event company and volunteers heavily in the cheerleading community. But Bartell came to her with a pitch: why not open Cargo Bar in Southwood Circle?<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t a co-owner then. He was, however, a cheerleading dad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the only dad that would travel with the team,\u201d Bartell said with a laugh. \u201cMy daughter was young.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d gotten to know Mathieson and her husband Graeme \u2014 also a Cargo Bar co-owner \u2014 through cheer. When he started a brewery during the COVID-19 pandemic, FullGeek BrewLab, Cargo Bar stocked his wares. (He also works in the Free Press mail room.)<\/p>\n
FullGeek BrewLab held a beer garden in the Southwood Circle area years ago. A contact from UM Properties, which owns the land, reached out recently about opening a more permanent hub. So Bartell went to Mathieson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt as though I needed to jump on it,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, we can draw some attention to what\u2019s happening around here and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phase 1 of Southwood Circle has been unrolling. New roads are paved; sewer and water hook-ups have been installed for roughly one-third of the developable land.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t BROOK JONES\/FREE PRESS <\/p>\n
Cargo Bar held three pop-up events last year. Ownership has now signed a five-year lease.<\/p>\n The new space can fit 500 people. There\u2019s room for a VIP area and a stage for bands, Bartell said. Cargo Bar can expand beyond its fence if leadership wants to host festivals and other events, he added.<\/p>\n For now, he\u2019s focused on launching. The bar will stock more FullGeek brews than the park location but will generally have the same menu.<\/p>\n Food truck options will change throughout the summer, Mathieson said. She\u2019s hoping to keep the seasonal bar open until October, for University of Manitoba traffic.<\/p>\n The post-secondary counts around 32,000 students.<\/p>\n As Southwood Circle development ramps up, Mathieson said she\u2019s hoping to draw \u201ceverybody\u201d from the surrounding neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hoping here that we see the same sustainability present itself over the five years.\u201d<\/p>\n Some customers took boats from the Pony Corral Restaurant on Pembina Highway to a Southwood Circle dock, via the Red River, during Cargo Bar\u2019s past pop-ups.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really genuinely enjoy what we do at Assiniboine Park,\u201d Mathieson said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping here that we see the same sustainability present itself over the five years.\u201d<\/p>\n Visions of Southwood Circle have been scaled back since the development\u2019s 2023 announcement.<\/p>\n UM Properties, a company controlled by a University of Manitoba trust, leads the project. It has zoning approval for 11,500 housing units. However, the number built will likely fall to around 8,000 spaces, said president Greg Rogers.<\/p>\n Imagined high-rises may actually be shorter buildings, at least in the upcoming years, he added.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Construction costs rose 4.1 per cent year-over-year at the end of 2025, according to Statistics Canada\u2019s building construction price index. Inflation has been notable over several years.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopers are finding different ways of dealing with that,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n Overall, Southwood Circle development could take 25 years. There will likely be several economic cycles during that period, altering the project\u2019s makeup, Rogers said.<\/p>\n He expects construction of the first apartments and condominiums to begin next year. Tenants could start arriving in 2028, a Southwood Circle website says.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \u201cThe intention and vision of it remaining a walkable, bikeable community where you don\u2019t need your car as much because you can walk to a grocery store \u2026 remains intact,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n Southwood Circle\u2019s parkland, with active transport paths, opened last year. There\u2019s around 30 acres of parkland, Rogers said.<\/p>\n Cargo Bar is the first business to open in Southwood Circle. It\u2019ll operate from noon to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.<\/p>\n Ownership has spent around $100,000 on the new space, Mathieson said.<\/p>\n gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Gabrielle Pich\u00e9 Gabrielle Pich\u00e9 reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\nCory Bartell (left) and Jennifer Mathieson are partners of the new Cargo Bar venture at Southwood Circle. <\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe new location is in the developing area of Southwood Circle.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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