St. Vital mall playground remains in time-out

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This article was published 01/10/2019 (2428 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Play time isn’t over at St. Vital Shopping Centre, it’s just in a time-out.

The mall’s children’s play area, which management closed at the beginning of the summer, with hopes of reopening by this point, is still closed as redevelopment of the former Sears store continues metres away.

St. Vital general manager Kyle Waterman said the development had run into some scheduling concerns, meaning the play area has to remain closed for the time being. Waterman said the hope is the area would reopen by summer 2020, however couldn’t provide a definite estimate.

“It will be reopening,” he said. “But we are at the mercy of construction, and, of course, safety is a top priority.”

Even when construction was on a break, Waterman said, it wouldn’t have made sense to open the play area temporarily and then close it again.

In mid-September, Kildonan Place shopping centre shuttered its play area (called Camp KP), in part due to decades of wear and tear.

The pieces of the playground that were deemed still useful were donated to St. Amant Centre and Habitat for Humanity. Kildonan Place general manager Sandra Hagenaars said as the mall continues construction in its west wing, other options for a replacement area are being examined.

“As plans for the mall are still in progress, we have nothing to announce yet, but as soon as we do you can be assured we will be letting our customers know,” she wrote in an email.