City gives $650-M Portage Place project thumbs-up

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This article was published 26/09/2024 (346 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg city council has unanimously approved an agreement Thursday that clears a key hurdle for a $650-million redevelopment of the troubled Portage Place mall.

The 1.2-million-square-foot mixed-use project is poised to meet key social and economic needs in the downtown and help rejuvenate the area, according to its council supporters.

The True North Real Estate Development proposal would create 216 housing units, with up to 40 per cent of them deemed affordable, a health-care services tower, main-floor grocery store, community centres, office space for social agencies and other services.

True North would partner with Southern Chiefs’ Organization to create a non-profit organization called TN-SCO Housing 92 Inc. to deliver and manage the housing component.

“This is a very exciting project. (A total of) $40 million of City of Winnipeg incentives will leverage over $600 million of investment in our downtown from other funders (if approved). It’s a project that we have wanted to see transform our downtown and a key asset within our downtown… This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Scott Gillingham told reporters prior to the vote.

The city would provide $40 million of grants over the next 25 years to support the project, including $10 million in federal housing dollars.

Under the agreement, The Forks North Portage Partnership would sell the land, parking and “air rights” (to build upwards) at the site to True North Real Estate Development for $34.5 million. The company is the real estate arm of True North Sports and Entertainment Ltd., which owns the Winnipeg Jets.

The city is a member of the partnership along with the provincial and federal governments, so the deal would require the approval of all three.

On Friday morning, Dan Vandal, the MP for St. Boniface-St. Vital, and minister responsible for PrairiesCan, will announce federal funding for the project, Vandal’s office confirmed Thursday.

No details about Ottawa’s commitment were provided.

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The Manitoba government has signed a letter of intent to lease the health tower and fund medical services, which it estimates will cost about $77 million per year.

If the entire sale is finalized, the city says construction would take place over the next three to four years. The housing component is expected first, with folks expected to be living in the residential tower by the end of 2027, True North Real Estate Development president Jim Ludlow told council Thursday.

True North is working on a separate deal to buy the mall itself, which is owned by the Vancouver-based Peterson Group.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.