Portage Place is a

mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

located in

downtown Winnipeg Downtown Winnipeg is an area of Winnipeg located near the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. It is the oldest urban area in Winnipeg, and is home to the city's commercial core, city hall, the ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Covering , it is located on the north side of

Portage Avenue Portage or portaging (Canadian English, CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is ...

, between Vaughan and Carlton Streets and opened in September 1987.

History

In the early 1980s, north

was in decline, due in part to the "flight to the suburbs" and free parking at suburban malls. The federal, provincial, and municipal governments joined together to create the Core Area Initiative in 1981 to counter this decline, and rebuild this part of downtown. One of the proposals in 1983 to "fix" the north side of Portage Avenue was to realign the roadway and build a new arena; however, this proposal was rejected by

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

. In 1983, the North Portage Development Corporation (now the Forks North Portage Partnership) was established as an arms-length government committee to develop residential, commercial, entertainment, and educational facilities in the North Portage region. The following year, the Corporation announced the building of the mall, which included the apartments behind it, known as "The Promenade". Signers included Member of Parliament

Lloyd Axworthy Lloyd Norman Axworthy (born December 21, 1939) is a Canadian politician, elder statesman and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Following his retirement from parliament ...

, and Mayor

Bill Norrie William Norrie (January 21, 1929 – July 6, 2012) was the 39th Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was a onetime Chancellor of the University of Manitoba. Norrie was also involved in various charities, and once chaired the United Way of Winnipeg's ...

. The construction required the demolition of 32 buildings. Among those was a section of buildings on the north side of Portage Avenue that had fallen into disrepair. By the summer of 1985, these buildings within the land area of Portage Place were demolished. Some design elements from those buildings were incorporated into the mall’s façade. Construction took place throughout 1986, being completed the following year, in 1987. The cost total cost of the project was $80 million (equivalent to $157 million in 2019). The mall opened on September 17, 1987. An estimated 200,000 people visited the mall on opening day. The mall opened with 130 retail units. In June of 1988, barely a year after the mall opened, there were doubts about the shopping centre's success. Some store owners in the shopping centre stated that after 5:30 p.m. there was a large drop in customers, and some tenants wanted their rent reduced. Most tenants were required to stay open until 9:30 pm on certain days.

Holt Renfrew Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (Trade name, doing business as Holt Renfrew and Colloquialism, colloquially Holt's) is a Economy of Canada, Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. The original William Ashton ...

, one of the mall’s anchor tenants, began closing at 6:00 pm. In 1997, the City of Winnipeg added more street parking and enlarged the sidewalks in front of the mall. Still, critics argued that Portage Place had actually hindered the downtown revival by removing pedestrians from the streets, particularly on the south side of Portage Avenue. In the same year, Consolidated Properties, which later became Aspen Properties, purchased the mall for 43 million dollars from

Cadillac Fairview The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, branded as Cadillac Fairview, is a Canadian company that invests in, owns, and manages commercial real estate, mainly in Canada and the United States. As of March 2017, the company had 73 properties, enco ...

, the original owner. In 2005, Portage Place was sold by Aspen Properties to Peterson Investment Group. Holt Renfrew closed in August of 2007 and was replaced with

Urban Planet Urban Planet, also known as Urban Behavior, is a unisex apparel retailer in Canada with a focus on clothes for young adults and teenagers. An October 2007

Dominion Bond Rating Service Morningstar DBRS is a global credit rating agency with offices in Toronto, New York, Chicago, London, Frankfurt and Madrid. Morningstar DBRS provides independent credit rating services for financial institutions, corporate and sovereign entities ...

(DBRS) report on Portage Place observed that "the property’s cash flow has continued to be depressed" amid declining average contractual rental rates, and that "the cash flow of the property may therefore not be enough to cover its refinance debt service." DBRS also noted, however, that the owners have "displayed commitment to the property and DBRS doubts that it will be willing to lose control of its investment in lieu of injecting cash equity to reduce the refinance obligation." In 2010, Portage Place converted 13 units of retail space totalling to office space. The change was planned as a result of a 15% vacancy rate. The units chosen for conversion were those in the west wing of the second floor. The

IMAX Theatre IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating, with the ...

in Portage Place closed on March 31, 2013. The 276-seat theatre endured several years of substantial losses before its closure. Globe Cinema closed on June 15, 2014.

Proposed redevelopment

In July 2019,

Starlight Investments Starlight Investments is a privately-held Canadian real estate investment and asset management company based in Toronto, Ontario. As of 2024, Starlight owns 70,000 multi-family units (54,000 in Canada and 10,000 in the United States), 8 million squ ...

announced its intent to acquire Portage Place, paying $22.9 million for the shopping centre and $47 million for the land and underground parkade. Starlight announced an extensive refurbishment of the mall, with new residential, business, and retail units, reconfiguring the existing outdated design. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2021. However, on September 29, 2021, Starlight Developments informed The Forks North Portage Partnership and Winnipeg City Council that they will not proceed with purchasing Portage Place, and asked for their deposit back, hindering any re-development plans. In March 2023, True North Real Estate Development—a division of

True North Sports & Entertainment True North Sports and Entertainment Limited (TNSE or TNS&E) is a Canadian company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that owns and operates Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League. The company also o ...

—received approval from the city executive policy committee, and the provincial and federal governments, for a proposal to acquire Portage Place's land and

air rights In real estate, air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the Earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by oth ...

from Forks North Portage Partnership for at least $34.5 million, pending approval from city council. In May 2023, True North announced aspects of a $500 million redevelopment plan for Portage Place, turning it into a campus including a grocery store, and community, cultural, and recreational functions. Shared Health committed to long-term leases of a 15-storey tower at its east end, which would include the Downtown Winnipeg Health Centre for Excellence and the Pan Am Centre for Advanced Musculoskeletal Medicine. A 16-storey tower at the west end would have affordable housing units. True North chairman

Mark Chipman Mark Chipman (born July 5, 1960) is a Canadian hockey executive, businessman, and lawyer. Chipman is best known as the chairman of True North Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League and Canada Life Ce ...

stated that their proposal would "transform it into a place that connects neighbourhoods, provides access to badly needed services, and has social and economic impact by building a sense of community mindedness."

Layout

Shops in Winnipeg Walkway connecting Portage Place to the Hydro building

Portage Place spans three floors, totalling . The only remaining anchor store is currently

Shoppers Drug Mart Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (colloquially Shoppers; named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories. The company was founded by pharmacist ...

as Staples closed in 2020. Portage Place is also known for being a central hub of the

Winnipeg Walkway The Winnipeg Walkway System, also known as the Winnipeg Skywalk, is a network of pedestrian skyways and Pedestrian tunnels, tunnels connecting a significant portion of downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba. The City of Winnipeg described the Walkway as a s ...

, connecting to Cityplace,

Canada Life Centre Canada Life Centre (formerly Bell MTS Place) is an indoor arena in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the home of the National Hockey League's Winnipeg Jets and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. The arena stand ...

, and to the now empty Hudson's Bay. There are shops located on the skywalks, as well. In 2013,

Service Canada Service Canada is the program operated by Employment and Social Development Canada to serve as a single-point of access for the Government of Canada's largest and most heavily used programs, such as the social insurance number, the Employment I ...

moved their downtown Winnipeg office onto the first floor of Portage Place. The shopping centre includes three glass skylight

atria Atria may refer to: Science *Atrium (heart) (plural: atria), an anatomical structure of the heart *Atria (genus), a flatworm genus in the family Dendrocoelidae * Atria (star) or Alpha Trianguli Australis, a star in the constellation Triangulum Aus ...

, two of which are located at the intersections of both Portage and Kennedy, and Portage and Edmonton. The mall has a fountain which would shoot a 16 metre high stream of water approximately every 3 minutes. This required the use of a fire hose nozzle, which is welded into the base of the fountain. The fountain has not functioned since at least 2022.

Edmonton court clock

The Edmonton atrium is home to a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

, known as the Edmonton Court Clock. Originally unveiled in 1903 to be placed in the dome of City Hall, the clock was unveiled for a second time in Portage Place in 1987 after the old city hall was torn down. The original city hall clock had four clock faces, each in diameter and made of crushed glass. The original weights used to balance the

pendulum A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...

weighed each. With the

Seth Thomas Clock Company The Seth Thomas Clock Company was founded by Seth Thomas in Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut, and began producing clocks in 1813. It was incorporated as the "Seth Thomas Clock Company" in 1853. Plymouth Hollow, a part of the town of Plymouth, was i ...

as the

clockmaker A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly t ...

, the contract to procure and install the clock was awarded to local jeweller George Andrew of Andrew and Co. The city hall building that the clock was built for was demolished in 1961. In the 1980s, parts of the clock were moved to Portage Place. The faces and hands of the current clock are replicas of the originals; the bells are also not from the 1903 clock, and the chimes are now electronic. At Portage Place, the clock was inoperable for a number of years due to damage from a contractor and later due to damage from a member of the public.

References

External links