Kildonan Place’s $30M food court redevelopment to add seats, vendors, new mall entryway By: Malak Abas Posted: 5:47 PM CST Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026

A long-awaited, $30-million renovation of Kildonan Place’s food court has finally begun.

The east Winnipeg shopping centre will lose about 30,000 square feet of leasable area after the nearby former Cineplex box is demolished, but construction will add new space to the food court in its place, allowing it to grow its seating capacity to 500 seats from 325 and add two new vendor spots (bringing the number to 10).

A new entryway to the mall will also be built.

The food court was originally built in 1989 and has not been renovated in 20 years, “so it needs a refresh,” Kildonan Place general manager Graham Bialek said Thursday.

“It has been a long time in the making,” Bialek said. “And these projects are very complex, especially when you’re investing $30 million into a food court redevelopment.”

The new space is set to open in early 2027. The food court will remain open and in operation during construction.

The mall hopes to divert 90 per cent or more of food and other waste generated away from landfills through a program that will include installing sorting stations and training staff and vendors, Bialek said.

“Really, the aim is that the only thing that will end up in landfill is is take-out containers or anything from the food court tenants that cannot be recycled or organically composted,” he said.

The 46-year-old shopping hub is co-owned and fully managed by Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust.

Primaris is Canada’s only real estate investment trust focused on enclosed shopping centres. Its portfolio includes 27 sites across the country, including Kildonan Place and Grant Park Shopping Centre in Winnipeg.

Kildonan Place has housed number of big-box stores over the decades, including Zellers, Target and Sears.

Wide-scale renovations began in 2019, and Phase 1 — which transformed the mall’s old Sears department store and brought in Save-on-Foods and Cineplex Junxion — finished in 2022.

In January 2025, Kildonan Place management confirmed the second phase of renovations, including the food court redevelopment, had been delayed.

Some businesses, like Dollarama and Spencer’s, were moved later in the year as part of the renovations, while others, like Primos Toys and Antler World Dog Products, were not offered new storefronts.

Canadian shoe store SoftMoc will open in a new spot in the mall in April; Kildonan Place will also get a Tommy Gun’s Original Barbershop this spring.

Star in Dreamland has specialized in handmade press-on nails from its kiosk at Kildonan Place for two years. Owner Kevin Miao said he was moved from the east end of the mall to the west side two weeks ago to make way for renovations.

“The No. 1 thing, we got relocated, that’s one of the impacts,” Miao said. “Maybe it’s good, I don’t know, it’s really hard to tell right now because we just started in the new location.”

Miao said tenants have known about the proposed renovations for a while, and are hopeful it might bring new life to the mall. He owns a similar kiosk in CF Polo Park and said Kildonan Place is quieter and attracts more families.

“The mall is not very big. It’s more serving the local (shoppers) in this area,” he said. “But we know with more business coming, I think, eventually, it will be better, though, because there’s more options — (that’s) always better.”

Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona) said city council has been “strongly encouraging” further investment into expansions of the mall, including improvements to Winnipeg Transit’s park-and-ride lot, bike storage and walking paths.

“Northeast Winnipeg continues to aggressively expand and grow, and we need our regional shopping mall to grow with us, which is why we are now overjoyed to learn of the food court expansion proceeding,” Wyatt said.

A new 500-unit mixed-use development adjacent to Kildonan Place is also in the works.

While developer Shindico Realty’s website names the development Kildonan Mile, Wyatt said Thursday he had been told it had been renamed Peguis Promenade.

Shindico’s website says the development will include “retail, service, and luxury residential living” and is set to open in the fall.

Wyatt said he hoped Kildonan Place wouldn’t “fall behind” in the race to attract and keep shoppers: “Kildonan Place has got some competition.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca