WINNIPEG — There are many conveniences to living downtown — walking to work, all the restaurants, sports and entertainment one could ask for — but something is lacking.
A recent study suggests in order for a downtown grocery store to succeed, it will need financial help from the city or province.
Every day about 90,000 people come and go from downtown, but only 14,000 call it home. Jessica Ehlers is one of them.
“It has a lot of other benefits,” said Ehlers, pushing her three-month-old son in his stroller downtown. “We save money, for example, in transportation.”
But Ehlers said she has to spend more for groceries, because there’s nowhere to stock up.
“The prices are definitely higher at the convenience stores,” said Ehlers.
Getting to a larger grocery store is a challenge for many living in the city centre. A report newly released by CentreVenture Development suggests in order to keep downtown attractive, it needs a 10,000-square-foot grocer to open, and the best location is near Portage Place.
The study was conducted following the closure of the Zellers grocery store in the Bay earlier this year.
“With the market rent price and business environment, which is what the report is talking about, it’s pretty difficult to get the store that we need in the area,” said Coun. Jenny Gerbasi.
The study found even though there are enough people downtown to support a big-box grocery store, it would be tough to make the store successful without help from the province or city in the form of a break on rent or taxes.
And finding a business person to take the risk is the first challenge.
“No one in the industry has come forward and said, ‘Listen, we’d love to locate here if you could help us with our rent,'” said Mayor Sam Katz. “If that happened, we would certainly have that conversation.”
While there’s no immediate solution, city hall is looking at changing a downtown transit route to include a stop at a grocery store.
The Detailed report is available here: http://winnipeg.ca/CLKDMIS/ViewDoc.asp?DocId=12982&SectionId=&InitUrl=
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