Retail resurgence

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This article was published 21/03/2022 (1366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local developer Shindico aims to begin work by next spring on the Shops of Kildonan Mile, a project featuring over 500,000 square feet of luxury apartments and over three million square feet of retail space.

The company touts the development as the “first substantial retail growth in over a decade” at the node of Regent Avenue and Lagimodiere Boulevard.

President Sandy Shindleman said the project has been in the works for the better part of a decade, and that over time, the project’s scope and desires have changed as the market has shifted.

Plans began centred on big-box retail, but Shindleman said there has been less demand for that in the area, which already has its fair share. Now, the idea is to develop residential apartments — about 150 to start, though that could increase, he said — along with retailers who fill “everyday needs.” That includes a mix of food service, clothing and other necessities, and service-based tenants, such as dental clinics or salons.

The plan shows confidence in the city’s retail outlook, which Shindleman says has stayed relatively steady throughout the pandemic, despite fears at the start that the market could falter. “It’s stayed steady,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people succeeding.” A number of tenants have doubled in size, including a pet supplies store and a dental clinic, and some long-vacant properties are beginning to fill up. “It’s busy and people are making deals.”

While the pandemic added complications to retail operations, it didn’t entirely discourage new business owners from starting up, Shindleman said. “There are still people looking to start,” he said, with second-generation (already built and previously occupied) space leasing out at a steady clip. Plus, he said, the nearby Kildonan Place mall has been doing very well, with a good amount of leasing.

“We’re excited about both the land and the concept,” he said.

Shindleman’s inkling that retail has been steady is backed up by the Retail Council of Canada’s most recent Retail by the Numbers reports, which track consumer data from Statistics Canada, both nationally and provincially, of unadjusted sales figures. The 2020-21 comparison numbers are hugely influenced by less spending during the first year of the pandemic, particularly in Manitoba, which was very hard hit by COVID-19 and had relatively strong restrictions on retail in December 2020, says Kate Skipton, a senior policy analyst from the Retail Council.

The February report, which used data up to the end of 2021, said that in Manitoba, total retail sales were up 23 per cent in December 2021, year over year, as compared to 2020. Electronics and appliances sales were up 25 per cent; furniture and home furnishings sales were up 21 per cent; building materials and garden equipment sales were up 17 per cent; and auto parts sales were up 13 per cent.

The highest increase year-over-year was in clothing and accessories, a sector which saw a 177 per cent increase in 2021 as compared to 2020. Meanwhile, sporting goods, hobbies, book and music sales were up 70 per cent. As a whole, general merchandise sales were up 48 per cent.

Nationally, the increase was more muted: unadjusted total retail sales were up about nine per cent, which the report states would likely have been higher had a surge in the Omicron variant not taken hold in December.

Still, the council concluded that nationally, the retail sector ended the year on a strong note, especially compared to a lagging 2020. And since the new year, Manitoba’s numbers fell back to earth: the percentage increase in sales in January 2022 receded to 6.1 per cent over 2021, while nationally, there was a 12 per cent jump over the previous January.

As for the Kildonan Mile development, Shindleman says the company is working on finalizing entitlements, and said that a multimillion-dollar extension of Reenders Drive is complete.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com