Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 28, 2012, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 * Annual Percentage Rate. ? OAC. Subject to change. Mortgages Starting at ( APR*) 2.24 happily mortgaged? Are you $ 1 50 STARTING FROM Offer valid until September 28, 2012. Additional charges for extras. Valid at participating restaurants. Prepared fresh. � 2012 Doctor's Associates Inc. SUBWAY � is a registered trademark of Doctor's Associates Inc. Printed in Canada. Canadian version CHOOSE ONE OF OUR HUNGER- FIGHTING SNACKS! CITY & BUSINESS CITY EDITOR: PAUL SAMYN 697- 7292 city. desk@ freepress. mb. ca I winnipegfreepress. com THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2012 B 1 T HE City of Winnipeg is expected today to unveil Target as the anchor tenant for the redevelopment of Canad Inns Stadium. At a news conference scheduled at the stadium this morning, officials will announce the sale of the stadium site to Cadillac Fairview and Shindico. Sources say Target will anchor the development and other retail and residential components will be part of the plan for the 26- acre site at Polo Park. In 2011, the city invited developers to come forward with proposals to convert the Polo Park site into a mixed- use development, ideally with both residential and commercial components. Talks were underway with at least one developer earlier this year, the city confirmed, while refusing to disclose how many responses it had received to the expression- of- interest document. Members of council have been invited to a news conference today to hear which proposal the city has selected, Mayor Sam Katz confirmed. The mayor did not identify the proponent, the nature of the development or the sale price for the land, whose market value has been estimated at anywhere from $ 25 million to $ 35 million. " Thank you for asking, but you'll hear who it is there," Katz said following Wednesday's city council meeting. Target is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn. It is the secondlargest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The Winnipeg Football Club's lease allows the Canadian Football League club to remain in Canad Inns Stadium as long as it needs a place to play. Investors Group Field, the club's $ 190- million new home at the University of Manitoba, is not expected to be ready until the 2013 football season, officials with the team finally confirmed earlier this month after months of speculation. In March, city officials expressed concerns to the Winnipeg Football Club's board of directors the delay in completing the new building could jeopardize a deal to sell the Canad Inns Stadium site. As well, the delay in redeveloping the Polo Park site affects the funding of the new stadium. Right now, the Winnipeg Football Club does not pay property taxes on the Canad Inns Stadium site. The deal to build the new stadium calls for $ 75 million worth of property taxes to flow from whatever replaces the old barn to help repay a provincial loan that covers the $ 190- million construction job. Katz has said repeatedly the new development would ideally include a residential component, although the height of any new Polo Park condominium or apartment complex would be restricted due to flight paths approaching Richardson International Airport. Any new commercial development, however, is expected to face competition from the Seasons of Tuxedo, the retail development planned for Kenaston Boulevard, where furniture store Ikea will serve as an anchor tenant. The plan will come before council's property committee but will not proceed to council as a whole for a vote. Council declared the land surplus in December 2010 when it approved the deal to build the new stadium. bartley. kives@ freepress. mb. ca I MET Jane on Monday afternoon at her workplace, a nasty stretch of street just north of the CPR mainline commonly known as the low track. Earlier that day, the Winnipeg Police Service had announced the arrest of a suspected serial killer and career criminal with a surname that is disarmingly gentle. Lamb. Jane - the name she wanted to use - agreed to talk about her reaction to the news, which is how I came to tell you in Tuesday's column about the tribute stone she'd laid in the nearby Vineyard Church memorial garden that honours so many of Winnipeg's slain and missing aboriginal women. A place that might have had a plaque for Jane, too, had it not been for the good people at the Vineyard Church who answered her call for help several years ago when she crawled to their door after a " bad date" butchered her belly with a knife. There's much more to Jane's story, though, which I only learned after deadline Monday evening, when my lady of the low track called back. Jane's voice had an urgent edge. She said she had just seen Shawn Cameron Lamb's photo on TV, and we needed to talk again. It was about her run- in with a man she suspects was Lamb. So it was that late Monday night we ended up at a Main Street bar of her choice, where Jane talked about the man accused of killing three aboriginal women like her. Well, perhaps not exactly like her. Jane was born a John. Jane said her encounter happened about three weeks ago in front of the Point Douglas flophouse where she lives, which is in the same neighbourhood where Lamb lived. " I was all sexified up, going to work," Jane recalled. " He was just walking by. He said, ' Do you know where to score some crack?' " There was nothing unusual about that, or threatening about him. Quite the opposite. " He was very charming." As Jane told it, they went to his place to get high, and in Jane's case, even higher. It was about an hour- and- a- half later when his charming manner changed. " Totally changed," Jane said. " He was very mean after a while. " He was getting really, really, really aggressive." And forceful. " He had a grip on my head..." She remembers them both ending up naked and him paying, partly in crack and partly in cash that he ended up taking back. The sun was just coming up when she got up to leave. Escape might be a better word for it, because she said he ripped her clothes off as she was trying to go. " I walked home in my panties and bra," Jane said. " I kind of ran home, actually." Which was obvious, because as Jane was reliving that night, it felt more like a post- traumatic debriefing than a newspaper interview. And there was a moment - between the time the pizza arrived and when she wanted another vodka - that Jane asked if we could stop. Although she really couldn't. She started talking instead about how her eyes teared up when she watched the television report on Lamb's arrest. " I can't even count on both hands how many friends I've lost." Then, ever so briefly, she began to count. There was the friend whose remains were found decomposed. The body of a friend that was recovered from the river. And another friend who still hasn't been found. " I've got a gazillion friends," Jane said, in another reflective moment. " I don't know how many are real friends or fake friends." Given that sex- trade workers on the streets are supposed to watch out for each other - to help protect one another from those who would harm them - Jane's doubts about her friends is troubling. As is her conclusion. " All I've got is myself, which gets lonely sometimes. But for some reason, I manage to get through. Suicide is the last thing on my mind." That, Jane suggested, is because of what she remembers her church- going grandparents telling her. " They told me I'd go to hell," Jane said. " But then again, I probably am already." gordon. sinclair@ freepress. mb. ca GORDON SINCLAIR JR. Query about crack led to ' date ' with accused killer Old stadium to become Target U. S. retailing giant anchor of 26- acre site By Bartley Kives A FAMILY'S PLEA TO ACCUSED / B2 JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Splendour in the grass Geese take cover from the heat in long grass in the Tuxedo Business Park near Route 90 on Wednesday. See winnipegfreepress. com for Joe Bryksa's slide show: The goose- a day challenge. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Bye- bye stadium, hello Target. B_ 01_ Jun- 28- 12_ FP_ 01. indd B1 6/ 27/ 12 9: 49: 05 PM ;