Wawanesa opens national headquarters which will bring 1,300 employees to downtown Winnipeg

Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company opened its new national headquarters in downtown Winnipeg on Wednesday.

The new building, located in True North Square, is 21 storeys, environmentally sustainable and features 360,000 square feet of work space.

The exterior of the new Wawanesa building (Jamie Dowsett/CTV News Winnipeg)

The headquarters also features a floor for large meetings, a floor devoted to training and development, an on-site café, a health and wellness floor, and a childcare centre, which will open at a later date. It was developed by True North Real Estate Development and designed by Architecture 49.

“Today we are pleased to welcome Wawanesa and their 5,000 nationwide employees into the True North family with the addition of TNS tower 4, the new national headquarters for Wawanesa,” said Jim Ludlow, president of True North Real Estate Development.

“We like to think of it as a remarkable addition to the impressive new skyline in True North Square and a pivotal project in the revitalization of Winnipeg’s downtown core.”

Wawanesa celebrates the grand opening of its new headquarters in Winnipeg on March 13, 2024. (Jamie Dowsett/CTV News Winnipeg)

Wawanesa also announced that it is investing $500,000 to downtown revitalization. This includes $450,000 over three years to Downtown Winnipeg BIZ and $50,000 to the Downtown Community Safety Partnership.

“We’re bringing 1,300 employees downtown and community is super important to us,” said Jeff Goy, Wawanesa’s president and CEO.

Goy added that Wawanesa is a company that has business across the country, but its home will always be in Manitoba.