The Forks grows up

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This article was published 25/11/2017 (2907 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The multimillion-dollar reno of The Forks Market is paying big dividends for the downtown destination and its growing roster of tenants.

“We haven’t necessarily seen a large increase in traffic. What we’ve seen is a large increase in sales,” Chelsea Thomson, manager of marketing and communications for The Forks North Portage Partnership, said in an interview.

Thomson said sales are up 20 to 30 per cent in the past year, as The Forks completed the first phase of a multi-year revamping/remodelling project which has cost about $4 million so far.

She said last summer was the best in The Fork Market’s 28-year history.

“We owe that, in part, to the number of events that took place, with the Canada 150 (celebrations) and the Canada Summer Games,” she admitted. “But we also believe it’s due in large part to the investment we’ve made in the site and the building. That was sort of the point in reinvesting into the building itself. But this has exceeded our expectations, for sure.”

The first phase of the reno, which was completed last year, involved extensively revamping the two-storey building’s main-floor food market and centre court area to create a new food hall and a craft beer-and-wine kiosk called The Common.

The second phase, which is nearing completion, involved the addition of two new food and beverage vendors — Red Ember Common and Passero and Corto. Phase 3, which will unfold early in the new year, involves converting the south-isle area of the building, where Generation Green used to be, into a new seating area, with new lighting, paint and furniture.

Thomson said that may not be the end of the renovations. She likened it to a home renovation project where you think you’re almost done and then you find something else that needs to be addressed.

Officials believe it’s money well spent, and the owner of one of their oldest retail tenants agrees.

Brad Hewlett, who owns two gift shops in The Forks Market — The Forks Trading Company and Two Rivers — said adding a kiosk for craft beer and wine in the food hall and obtaining an expanded liquor licence to cover the entire main floor of the building has helped attract a younger crowd to The Forks,

“This is what millennials want. They want to go and have a glass of wine, carry it around while they shop, and just hang out,” Hewlett said.

“It used to be that January, February and March we couldn’t wait to close the doors at 6:30 p.m. because it was so dead. Now, it’s well worth it for us to be open till 9 p.m. It has completely changed. The Forks is now very much the hip place to go.”

Hewlett said the other smart thing Forks North Portage officials did was to convince a number of successful local food vendors/restaurant operators to open kiosks in the food hall.

“They said, ‘what’s cool, what’s hip, what’s local,’ and they went out and recruited those vendors,” he said, adding they give Winnipeggers even more reasons to come to The Forks.

“It’s (all about) let’s make this unique, and let’s have local independents only,” he said, “and it gives the city of Winnipeg something that is very different.”

Hewlett said he and Forks Trading Company general manager Megan Basaraba have taken a similar approach with The Forks Trading Company gift shop.

There is a heavy emphasis on products made by local artisans, and it’s paying dividends for them, as well.

“We just continue bringing in more and more locally made products. We’re cramming in as much as we can because there’s an enormous demand for it,” Hewlett explained. Particularly from millennials who don’t mind paying more for products if they’re of a high quality, organic and locally made, he said.

One of the new food vendors recruited by Forks North Portage was Nuburger, the local gourmet hamburger restaurant chain that has two other outlets in the city — one in Osborne Village and the other in the Kenaston-McGillivray retail area.

It opened a 300-square-foot kiosk in the food hall last November. Company co-owner Marc Priestley said although the kiosk can only offer about half as many items on its menu as its two full-sized sister outlets, it still does extremely well.

“It’s been really busy. And all of the other vendors and everybody who works there have been wonderful to work with, so we’re really happy to be part of it.”

Priestley admitted he had reservations when The Forks first approached him because it had been a number of years since he’d last been there, and he remembered it as being not very busy during the evening.

So before giving them an answer, he and his partners went to see what it’s like now. They quickly realized things had changed a lot since their last visit.

“The Common is very popular and is growing in popularity,” he said. “That allows businesses to be open later because it is open in the evening and it’s bringing a lot of people there. It’s not just a daytime sort of place to visit anymore.”

Priestley said Nuburger’s customers at The Forks are “a little bit of everything,” including families and millennials. Thomson said that’s the case for The Forks Market in general.

She said it’s encouraging that while The Forks is weather-dependant, it is evolving into a year-round destination.

“Over the last three to five years, we’ve seen that on a mild weekend during the River Trail season, we’ll see just as many people on a Saturday or Sunday as we would during a busy July weekend.”

She said spring and fall seem to be getting shorter and shorter, “which is really great.”

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca