The sad state of Portage Place

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Official opening of Winnipeg�s Portage Place on September 17 1987.

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Photos by (clockwise, from top left) Ken Gigliotti / winnipeg free press archives; BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Despite the fanfare Portage Place received when it opened in 1987 (top left), the downtown mall has seen a number of businesses leave over the years. Management officials say some retail spaces have been converted to offices and more could follow. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

In what seems like an unwritten rule, every step toward the rejuvenation of downtown Winnipeg must be followed by a partial pace back.

For the first time since the late 1980s, new highrise residential towers are in the works. The Winnipeg Jets have made not one but two messianic returns. The Metropolitan Theatre has reopened, the Exchange District is approaching critical mass and downtown is lurching toward respectability, despite ongoing safety concerns associated with too many surface-parking lots, too much public intoxication and too little pedestrian activity.

But just in case anyone gets tempted to become optimistic, one of the city's earlier plans to save downtown -- the megaproject known as Portage Place -- brings us down to earth.

Back in the 1980s, what eventually became the Forks North Portage Partnership flattened entire blocks to pave the way for Portage Place, which opened on Sept. 17, 1987. The first floor was devoted to retail stores, higher-end tenants set up shop on the second, and the third level was set aside for entertainment.

Within a decade, the mall abandoned its original pretense of being a high-end retail destination. The mall's businesses and services, which include a legal aid office and a forthcoming Service Canada outlet, are squarely aimed at inner-city residents and downtown office workers. But the third-floor entertainment concept has endured.

For 26 years, Prairie Theatre Exchange thrived inside the mall. A trio of movie theatres faltered and then reopened under the Globe brand.

But the Imax Theatre, intended to be the mall's premier attraction, never met expectations. Earlier this week, Forks North Portage marketing director Clare MacKay announced its Imax will close at the end of March after enduring several years of "substantial losses."

Forks North Portage has operated the Imax since 1998, after taking it over from Imax. In recent years, the 276-seat theatre lost market share to new digital 3D theatres, failed to secure first-run openings, saw a drop in business from school groups and finally had to compete with a new 433-seat Imax at Polo Park.

"There's still a place for entertainment in this mall," MacKay said Tuesday. "There's a lot of optimism downtown and there are great things happening around here, so I think it's unfortunate this business and this business model isn't working."

The adaptive reuse of an Imax theatre would cost a lot to tear out concrete floors. Portage Place manager David Stone said he has several ideas for the space, all of which would pose an opportunity for property owner Peterson Operations Management. But for now, the plan calls for the Imax to go dark.

The theatre could be converted into a university lecture hall or specialty space for conferences, mused CentreVenture CEO Ross McGowan, adding he does not believe the closure will impact his agency's plans to develop a sports, hospitality and entertainment district over 11 nearby blocks of downtown.

"I think it's part of the evolution of the downtown," McGowan told reporters Monday, referring to the Imax closure. "We keep making progress forward, and once in a while you're going to take a little bit of a slip."

The Portage Place Imax sits outside CentreVenture's entertainment zone. The agency's "action plan" for Portage Avenue designates the eastern portion of the mall as a retail district.

Contrary to popular belief, Portage Place does OK from a rental perspective. A survey of the mall's storefronts reveals 12 empty spaces, three of which will soon be reoccupied, said Stone, who estimates the mall's retail vacancy rate at half of its historic low. But the mall has converted some retail space to offices and is not averse to making more conversions.

Uncertainty surrounding the future of the Bay -- where the basement Zellers will close in March -- has made second-floor Portage Place spaces between Kennedy and Vaughan streets less attractive to tenants. "We don't envision that changing in the short term," Stone said.

CentreVenture, meanwhile, has designated the western portion of the mall as a potential expansion area for the University of Winnipeg. But the university has no further expansion plans.

Urban planners say top-down efforts to create education, retail or entertainment zones tend to fail. Under this view, successful downtown-revitalization efforts tend to be small-scale, storefront-by-storefront efforts.

Mega-planning efforts, meanwhile, tend to be no more of a solution than megaprojects such as Portage Place. While the mall is not an abject failure, it is nowhere near a success -- as the impending closure of its Imax demonstrates in vivid 3D, 24-frames-per-second quality.

-- with files from Jen Skerritt

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

WHERE THERE'S EMPTY SPACE IN PORTAGE PLACE

Portage Place has 12 empty retail storefronts, for a total vacancy rate of 7.5 per cent of its overall space. Two of those storefronts will soon reopen and a third is expected to follow. Here's the breakdown:

TWO VACANCIES

On the main floor. The former McNally Robinson Booksellers space near the Kennedy Street entrance will reopen later this month as a Service Canada outlet. A vacancy alongside the food court will also be filled shortly, said mall manager David Stone.

FIVE VACANCIES

Second floor, between fountain overlook and west skywalks.

THREE VACANCIES

Second floor, between fountain overlook and centre court.

TWO VACANCIES

Second floor, between centre court and east skywalk. One is under renovation and will house an expansion of a neighbouring dental clinic.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 9, 2013 A3