Closing time Portage la Prairie Mall shutters after 45 years, faces unknown future By: Aaron Epp Posted: 7:08 PM CST Friday, Nov. 29, 2024 Last Modified: 10:32 AM CST Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024 Updates

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PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — Black Friday can mean chaotic crowds streaming through shopping centres, but at Portage la Prairie Mall at lunchtime Friday, Garry Schellenberg had the place to himself.

The shopping centre has been declining in popularity for more than a decade. Earlier this month, Colliers Canada, the company that manages the property, announced its closure, effective Dec. 31.

“It was busy in the ‘80s,” recalled Schellenberg, 86, who started walking laps around the mall six days a week 10 years ago, after he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. “But when I started walking, it wasn’t busy like it used to be.”

According to a prepared statement from Sheri Griffiths, senior property manager at Colliers, the 187,000-square-foot structure is listed for sale by the owner and future plans are unknown at this time.

While the interior mall will be closing, a Tim Hortons restaurant and a Rona home improvement store, located in distinct units on the site, will remain open.

“As the property prepares for redevelopment, we look forward to continuing to serve the community,” Griffiths said in the statement.

When contacted by the Free Press, she declined to name the owner or asking price.

Opened on Saskatchewan Avenue West in 1979, the mall once bustled with activity. Now it’s home to just a handful of businesses, only three of which were open Friday morning.

Parts of the building have fallen into disrepair; numerous tiles were missing from the dropped ceiling and a couple of buckets were set up to collect dripping water.

At JS Furniture Gallery, just about everything in the showroom is marked down as part of a liquidation sale. Store manager Daniel Monteverde is hoping to sell as many items on the floor as he can before the business moves to an as-yet-undetermined new location.

He said he found out about the mall’s closure Nov. 8, a week before Colliers made the news public.

“It was a shock,” Monteverde said. “It’s unfortunate, but honestly when I heard the news, immediately I was just thinking about finding a new space, just having to adapt.

“There was no point in complaining — they already made a decision.”

Like Monteverde, management at Prairie Health are busy looking for a new location. They have yet to find something desirable, said longtime employee David Nickel, whose parents own the business.

“We had a lot of amazing times here,” Nickel said of the business, which has been in the mall since 1994. “Even though the mall has slowed down, we’re still busy.”

According to Nickel, the mall started to decline when it lost two anchor tenants: Walmart and Safeway.

“In the early 2000s, it was still nice and busy, but after that — when Safeway moved out — there started to be complications,” he said.

Lyle Tully, who has lived in the area for much of his life, echoed that sentiment. He recalls what the mall was like in the 1980s.

“It was very active,” he said. “If people didn’t have something to do, they would go to the mall. Stores were quite busy at the time … It was well-supported by the community.”

Tully has been a member of the mall’s three-person cleaning staff for the last 6 1/2 years. He says he wasn’t surprised when management informed him of the upcoming closure.

“I feel that it was in the cards,” Tully said. “I know the public sure would like to see it up and going again, but it so far hasn’t had the opportunity.”

Eve O’Leary, director of economic development at Portage Regional Economic Development, said her heart goes out to mall tenants who are now figuring out what to do.

“We’re very deeply concerned about hearing that the mall will close at the end of 2024,” O’Leary said. “It’s certainly a difficult time for business owners at the mall who have invested so much time and energy … It’s disheartening to see.”

Portage Regional Economic Development will undertake an economic impact analysis down the road, she added, but its main priority right now is supporting businesses as they figure out their next steps. O’Leary said she and a colleague visited the mall Thursday to start connecting with business owners and determining what their needs are.

“After we’ve done that, we’ll have a better picture of the economic impact to the city,” she said.

The mall has been a cornerstone of the community, according to O’Leary, serving as not only an economic driver but a place that contributed to the social cohesion in the southern Manitoba city of 13,270. “We’re very heavily focused on making sure that area remains a hub of economic activity in our community,” she said.

As for Schellenberg, come the new year he’ll go to Stride Place, the city’s multipurpose sports and recreation complex, to get his steps in.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca