Old stadium to become Target

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Bye-bye stadium, hello Target. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

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The 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. An administrative reported released this morning confirmed 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.

The report said the city wants to sell Winnipeg Stadium to Cadillac Fairview/Shindico for $30.25 million, which includes the cost of demolition. The report said Cadillac Fairview/Shindico is actively pursuing an agreement with Target, to comprise eight acres at the northwest corner of the stadium site. Two additional retail buildings, which will be 7,000 square feet apiece, will also be part of the first phase of the new development. Site work is to be completed by fall 2013.

The second phase will include a mixed-use development, and is anticipated to be complete by 2018.

The city received several submissions in response to the expression-of-interest, but Cadillac Fairview/Shindico Realty scored the highest in the overall process, including the purchase price for the site. The report said city administration will likely recommend the net proceeds from the sale will be put towards infrastructure improvements.

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.

On Wednesday, 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 second-largest 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

-with files from Jen Skerritt

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2012 B1