Tearing down Portage Place to build it up ‘Deconstruction’ project on time, on budget as developers dream of vibrant downtown By: Chris Kitching Posted: 6:05 PM CST Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026

One “bite” at a time, a hulking piece of machinery is dismantling Portage Place’s east block to make way for a new health-care tower that will soon begin to rise.

It’s the most visible stage so far of a $650-million project to transform the slumping downtown mall into a community hub that will also have a highrise apartment building, grocery store and green space.

“This isn’t really demolition. It’s deconstruction,” said David Van Hooren, senior construction manager at PCL Construction, during a tour of work that was happening on the east side of the Portage Avenue site, between Edmonton and Carlton streets, on Tuesday.

“By the end of 2026, people will see visible signs of what this building will look like.”

True North Real Estate Development — an arm of the company that owns the Winnipeg Jets — acquired the mall in 2024. The 1.2-million-square-foot redevelopment, led by PCL Construction, began last year.

The project is on time and on budget, said Sean Kavanagh, senior director of strategic communications with True North Sports and Entertainment.

Recalling more vibrant days of decades past, he said the redevelopment, along with several other projects, will bring thousands of residents and visitors downtown by the end of 2028.

“I really believe we’re going to get back to that kind of level (of vibrancy) with all the increase in activity,” Kavanagh said.

The deconstruction work on Portage Place’s east side is what most people notice when they walk or drive by. The block is being converted into a 12-storey, 300,000-square-foot medical tower — the project’s opening phase — that will include primary care, mental health services and Pan Am Clinic programs.

The glass atrium at Portage and Edmonton was demolished, and its pedestrian bridges removed. In their place, Rakowski Cartage and Wrecking staff are using an ultra-high demolition excavator, with a claw at the end of its arm, to break apart a concrete shell that once contained stores and a food court.

“This equipment breaks the structure into bite-size pieces,” Van Hooren told reporters against the loud hum of the machine, while chunks of concrete and rebar fell to the ground, in biting -20 C cold.

Crews will preserve as much of the low-rise structure as possible, including floor slabs, columns and a stairwell.

“We’re taking this apart very carefully. What’s left is going to be used in the new health-care facility,” Van Hooren said.

About 75 per cent of the material that is removed will be recycled.

The former atrium will become an outdoor pedestrian corridor — linking Portage and Ellice avenues — and a one-way vehicle drop-off zone for the health-care tower.

“I really believe we’re going to get back to that kind of level (of vibrancy) with all the increase in activity.”

The deconstruction is expected to wrap up in about four to five weeks, giving way to construction of the highrise, which is being called a Healthcare Centre of Excellence. A tower crane will go up in the spring.

Construction of the 15-storey, multi-family housing tower, located on the west side of the property at Portage and Vaughan Street, will begin later this winter, Kavanagh said.

The highrise will have more than 200 units, up to 40 per cent of which will be designated affordable.

True North and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization partnered to create a non-profit called TN-SCO 92 Inc., which will manage the units.

Van Hooren said 62 workers were on site Tuesday. The number will rise to more than 300 per day by summer’s end. Thousands of workers will contribute to the project by the time it is complete, he said.

The nearly 123-year-old clock that was displayed in the atrium is in storage. The city asset will be displayed in public again, although it’s too early to disclose the location, said Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg.

“I can assure Winnipeggers it will be preserved,” she said. “It will again be part of the downtown and Exchange (District).”

Portage Place’s centre block, which includes stores, a Service Canada branch and Prairie Theatre Exchange, remains open to the public.

A new wall was built to separate the centre block from construction on the east side. The eastern portion of the parkade, which is off-limits to the public, contains thousands of shoring posts to support the weight of the work taking place above it.

Kavanagh said True North wanted to keep as much of the mall open as possible during the project.

“It was important for us to try to keep the heart pumping. A lot of people use the mall,” he said.

True North hopes to retain as many tenants as possible, Kavanagh added.

“We’re taking this apart very carefully. What’s left is going to be used in the new health-care facility.”

The centre block is in the consultation and design stages. A grocery store is envisioned as one of the project’s anchors. There will also be space for community centres and social agencies.

To make way for the apartment tower, the non-profit Pitikwé skateboard park moved out of a former Staples store on Portage Place’s main floor.

Kavanagh said the skate park is expected to reopen in March in the former Dayton Building, at 323 Portage Ave. (across from Canada Life Centre). It will be a temporary home, thanks to a partnership between True North, the province and Access Credit Union.

“We want a vibrant, healthy downtown. Recreational opportunities for young people are a critical part of that,” Kavanagh said.

The apartment tower will go up across from the former Bay building, which SCO is converting into a mixed-use space, including more than 370 housing units and a child-care centre. Expected to finish in 2028, the $310-million project is also led by Edmonton-based PCL Construction.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said downtown has a lot of exciting momentum, with the Portage Place redevelopment one of the “key anchor projects” currently underway.

“That space is a massive footprint that had been underperforming for years, and was really a drag on our downtown,” he said.

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca