‘This… advances reconciliation’ Grand Chief hails deal with True North, province, to advance transformation of Portage Place, downtown Bay store By: Chris Kitching Posted: 11:59 AM CDT Friday, Apr. 5, 2024 Last Modified: 6:34 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 5, 2024 Updates

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Portage Place will be transformed by 2028 to include new housing and health-care towers in a bid to revitalize downtown and achieve economic reconciliation, the project’s leads announced Friday.

True North Real Estate Development and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization signed a letter of intent to build and co-own a 15-storey block containing more than 200 multi-family units — about 40 per cent of which are targeted to be affordable and accessible.

“Today’s announcement is about catalysts and waterfalls — mechanisms for advancing downtown revitalization efforts through major initiatives in health care and housing,” said Jim Ludlow, president of the real estate division of True North Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Winnipeg Jets.

“Winnipeg has immense potential. Working together, SCO, True North and our partners can help create a thriving downtown,” said SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels. “This is an example of the partnership that advances reconciliation.”

Manitoba’s NDP government, meanwhile, signed a letter of intent to lease the 12-storey health tower for 35 years, which Premier Wab Kinew said will improve access to care and help to “save” Portage Place.

“We’re going to fill this tower with health-care services to meet the needs of people who live downtown, and live across the city and live across the province,” Kinew said during a news conference held next to an empty mall space once occupied by an Imax theatre.

The redevelopment was first announced last May. Construction timelines were among new details revealed Friday.

Work on both towers is slated to begin in 2025. Both are slightly lower than initially proposed.

The residential tower on the west side of the campus, at Portage Avenue and Vaughan Street, is expected to be complete in 2026. The agreement opens the door for SCO to become its sole owner in the future.

The health tower, located on the east side at Portage and Carlton Street, is expected to open in 2028.

Ludlow said it will cost an estimated $650 million to purchase and redevelop Portage Place. The province and city will be asked for tax increment financing, he said, while housing support will be sought from the federal government.

Ludlow signalled True North will exercise options to buy the shopping centre from B.C.-based Peterson Group, and the land, underground parkade and “air rights” (to build upwards) from Forks North Portage Partnership before a June deadline.

Kinew said the health tower lease and medical services will cost the province about $77 million extra per year.

The 300,000-square-foot health tower will include a primary-care clinic, mental-health and addictions treatment, a dialysis unit and an expansion of the private Pan Am Clinic.

“All of this is going to help reduce wait times throughout the city,” said Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara.

“All of this is going to help reduce wait times throughout the city,”–Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara

As for staffing, Kinew said the province will offer jobs to graduating students in health-care fields, and it has put incentives in place to recruit addictions medicine and primary-care teams.

The redevelopment plans include a grocery store, community services, public spaces and an outdoor pedestrian “greenway,” which will cut through the site at Edmonton Street, replacing an existing glass atrium.

Ludlow said True North will sell a skywalk linking Portage Place and the former Hudson’s Bay department store to SCO for $1.

SCO is converting the department store building to include affordable housing, a health centre and retail space. The $200-million project is called Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, or “it is visible.”

Portage Place opened in 1987 with the aim of revitalizing a declining downtown. The mall has several empty storefronts and a noticeable security presence amid safety concerns.

Kinew spoke about visiting “the exciting new mall” as a child.

“Unfortunately, today the Portage Place site has fallen on hard times,” he said. “And I think all of us have seen what’s been happening with people in the core area and what some of our business leaders have rightly called a humanitarian crisis.

“The little kid who used to come down here and be awe-inspired by what he saw, I want that for the next generation of Winnipeg kids.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the transformation will make downtown more livable and inviting.

True North chairman Mark Chipman said the project offers renewed hope and a “new direction” for downtown.

Chipman said construction of the delayed Sutton Place Hotel and Residences on Carlton Street will resume in June.

Kate Fenske, CEO of Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, said the area is finally seeing partnerships and collaborations that are needed to attract visitors and create a “true” neighbourhood.

“It felt like, today, that we’ve got the momentum back,” she told the Free Press.

Jason Whitford, president and CEO of End Homelessness Winnipeg, said additional housing units and efforts to address social issues are desperately needed.

“We need this relief,” he said. “Things are still very tough right now, but these announcements give us a sense that there is a shining light at the end of the dark tunnel that we’re in right now.”

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

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