Square root of new ‘village’

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This article was published 22/01/2016 (3581 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s downtown development agency hopes to use the game-changing True North Square project as a springboard for turning the Portage and Graham retail district into the city’s next new retail “village.”

CentreVenture Development Corp. president and CEO Angela Mathieson told a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday True North Square — with its two office towers, five-star hotel/condominium tower, ground-floor retail tenants and outdoor public gathering/event spaces — will be the focal point of activity in the sports, hospitality and entertainment district (SHED).

“But we don’t see the work of the SHED stopping there,” she said, adding over the coming year, CentreVenture will be ramping up its efforts to attract more unique retailers to the adjacent Portage Avenue/Graham Avenue retail district.

She said there are a lot of smaller-scale, pedestrian-oriented retail spaces in the area that are underutilized and could benefit from an infusion of new retailers not found anywhere else in the city — the kind that would give Winnipeggers another reason to go downtown.

“I really think of it as the last village opportunity we have in the centre of our downtown.

“And we believe the shops along Graham and Portage and the intersecting side streets can be reinvigorated to capitalize on the opportunities brought by this new, denser development in the SHED,” she said.

In a later scrum with reporters, Mathieson noted some of the buildings in the area have been used for other purposes in the past, and CentreVenture officials will be meeting with building owners on Graham to see how it can help them retrofit their buildings to create inviting, pedestrian-friendly retail spaces.

She said the kinds of retailers she envisions are locally owned, independent retailers and ones that have successful online operations and now want to add a downtown storefront presence.

Examples she cited were the new Thom Bargen coffee shop on Graham, the new Oak + oar casual-clothing shop on Vaughan Street and the new Lennard Taylor clothing and accessories shop in the West Exchange District.

‘I really think of it as the last

village opportunity we have in the

centre of our downtown’

— CentreVenture Development Corp. president and CEO Angela Mathieson

The development of the SHED and the revitalization of the Portage and Graham retail district were among a number of projects Mathiesen discussed during her lengthy address.

Others on CentreVenture’s radar include the redevelopment of the iconic downtown Bay store, the revitalization of south Main Street and the redevelopment of the former Public Safety Building and city parkade properties on Princess Street.

Mathison said she’d like the redevelopment of the PSB/parkade properties to include a new pedestrian corridor that will give pedestrians on Main a clear view of Red River College’s downtown campus on Princess.

“These lands, we believe, have the opportunity through good urban design to reconnect the east and west Districts…,” she said.

She told the luncheon crowd while a lot has been accomplished in the downtown over the last 15 years, there is much still to be done.

“The state of the downtown is good, but it can be better,” she said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca