After years of debate over the beleaguered downtown Winnipeg mall’s future, Portage Place got a massive shot in the arm Friday with a joint announcement from the province, Shared Health and True North Real Estate Development.
The ambitious, multifaceted plans for the property include a complete overhaul into a three-part campus featuring a healthcare hub, affordable housing, a grocery store, green space, and arts and culture services.
The project comes with a $500 million price tag.
“For decades, Portage Place unintentionally created a barrier between north and south neighbourhoods that make up our downtown,” said True North executive chairman Mark Chipman.
“Our goal is to 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.”
A healthcare hub
The east end of the property, adjacent to Carlton Street, will become home to two separate healthcare centres.
You’ll be able to visit a walk-in clinic and primary care clinic on the ground floor, which government sources say is designed to take the stress off the nearby Health Sciences Centre and Misericordia hospitals.
Dialysis patients will have a 26,000 square-foot facility for their treatment, and others will be able to go their physiotherapy appointments.
The Downtown Winnipeg Health Centre for Excellence will also contain a future Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine (RAAM) clinic.
Rising above it: a 15-storey tower containing the Pan Am Centre for Advanced Musculoskeletal Medicine.
It will contain nearly 50,000 square feet of ambulatory and orthopedic surgery space, a concussion clinic, pain clinic, space for minor injury and sports medicine professionals and more.
The healthcare centres come at a cost of more than $300 million, and the two centres promise more than 220,000 square feet of new healthcare space for the city and province.
Shared Health CEO Lanette Siragusa said the healthcare developments will provide much-needed services to the community.
“This will be built from the ground up with the needs of the community in mind, providing urban Manitobans better access to health care with wraparound supports for the general population,” she said.
“This centre will also play a major role in the city of Winnipeg’s future by providing the ability to expand key services with additional clinical space.”
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) CEO Mike Nader said the plan is to make the downtown health services as accessible as possible.
“The urban health centre of excellence is uniquely located to maximize accessibility with an extended after-hour walk-in clinic and the ability to provide ambulatory care,” Nader said.
“The central location means services will be easily accessible for walk ups, public transit or any other means.”
A place to live, shop, eat, and connect
The space to the west of the new Edmonton Street greenway will be reworked to include community services like a dental office, optometry space, pharmacy and more.
“This is a defining moment for Winnipeg and for Manitobans,” said premier Heather Stefanson Friday.
“With this reimagined space we will connect communities by creating an urban ecosystem that serves and connects communities with supportive programs reaching everyone in Winnipeg.”
The ground floor features space for groups like Service Canada, Newcomer Services, and the Downtown Community Safety Partnership, while the heart of the property will also have plenty of room for a food court and retail stores.
Above it, the existing Prairie Theatre Exchange and YMCA will be joined by a community centre/drop in space complete with a basketball court, and an outdoor community garden overlooking Portage Ave.
The westernmost portion of the property will see another large tower rise above the existing structure – this one full of homes.
And the building contains something the downtown area has been lacking for years.
Adjacent to the lobby near the Portage Ave. entrance: a 20,000 square foot grocery store.
Plans, partners, and a start date
True North’s real estate arm will purchase the mall from the Forks North Portage Partnership, which represents the city, province, and federal government — all of whom have supported the purchase bid by the end of 2023.
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A report sent to city hall earlier this year gave True North a year to do due diligence on the property — and noted the minimum purchase price would be a little more than $34 million.
The ambitious plan will result in 569,000 square feet of floor space being added to the property, more than double the mall’s current amount.
The underground parkade will retain 1,000 existing underground parking stalls.
All three levels of government are expected to be involved in the build, particularly the housing component, and the Richardson family is also a part of the group working to transform the mall.
These plans for Portage Place are just the latest reimagining of downtown Winnipeg. Last spring, the iconic Hudson’s Bay Company store at 450 Portage Ave. was formally gifted — in an act of reconciliation — to the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) to be redeveloped to include almost 300 affordable housing units, as well as a child care centre, a museum, an art gallery and restaurants.
SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said Friday that his organization supports True North’s efforts.
“Through our acquisition of the former Bay building and our Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn project, SCO is pleased to play a key role in revitalizing downtown Winnipeg,” Daniels said in a statement.
“SCO looks forward to working in partnership with True North as we continue to strive towards improving the economic and social
well-being of our Nations, and in fact, all Manitobans.”
With files from 680 CJOB’s Richard Cloutier
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