Plans for a new CanWest Global Communications Corporation head office building, complete with giant exterior video panels and generous indoor and outdoor public spaces , will transform the northeast corner of Portage and Main in Winnipeg. Company executive vice-president David Asper said yesterday that while elements of the new $40-million, 10-storey project have yet to be nailed down, construction of the planned 120,000-square-foot building could begin by late this winter.

Asper said the company plans to locate the building on the site of an empty five-storey building at 209 Notre Dame Avenue. The new structure will face southeast towards the existing public square.

Designed by Winnipeg architect, Ray Wan, the new building will be connected by a second-floor walkway to the 33-storey CanWest Global Place, which occupies the northwest corner of Portage and Main. The exterior of the walkway will include a series of electronic video screens that might broadcast everything from Bomber games to art exhibits to news ticker information. The current outdoor public space on street level will remain, and there will be additional public space planned on the third storey.

The intention is for CanWest Global Communications to occupy the entire new building and that it will function as a broadcast centre for Global's Winnipeg television station, the company's digital cable stations, its Winnipeg radio station as well as the CanWest news desk that services its family of Canadian newspapers. The Winnipeg-based international media's corporate head office will also move into the building from its current perch in the penthouse offices of the adjacent CanWest tower.

The $40-million broadcast centre would be developed by the privately owned Asper family real estate company. For the public corporation to sign a lease with the Asper real estate company, it would be considered a related party transaction and Asper said the project would not go ahead until it receives approval from the corporation's board of directors.