*rendering of polo park site. rendering: cadillac fairview*

By Mario Toneguzzi

A proposed residential development on land at CF Polo Park in Winnipeg will provide Manitoba’s top shopping centre with an additional boost in traffic over the next few years.

The proposal, however, remains in the City of Winnipeg’s approval process for the time being.

“We’ve made a presentation to the City of Winnipeg to densify the property not unlike what’s been done at (CF) Richmond (Centre). That’s the biggest and most exciting thing we have on the horizon. It is likely a few years out in terms of just getting through the approval and governmental regulations,” said Peter Havens, general manager of Polo Park.

“If that comes to fruition, densifying the Polo Park lands would be an incredible addition to Winnipeg and to certainly Cadillac Fairview.”

Havens said one of the key drivers of the initiative is densification for Cadillac Fairview on its properties. He said Polo Park in Winnipeg is so ripe for densification.

“We sit on a very large site. Pushing some parking underground, putting up some residential, putting up some office, some mixed-use, really densifies that location and it’s very well situated. We have a major bus loop out front and a secondary bus loop on the west side and we’re becoming more of a hub for people that want to live, work and play kind of thing all in the same area. That’s the way cities are going to develop and instead of sprawling out we want to densify that area,” added Havens.

The shopping centre is 1.2 million square feet with about 188 businesses operating in the centre.

Polo Park originally was in an outdoor strip centre which opened in 1954.

“It has had various evolutions over the last 61 years. First enclosing the mall in the 1960s, adding a second storey in 1984, plus numerous other renovations and reconfigurations over the years to arrive at what it is today. It’s quite the institution in Winnipeg,” said Havens.

“It’s actually super regional. We draw basically the whole province of Manitoba and even down into the States. The draw is quite strong for the property.”

In 2019, Havens said productivity for the mall was up about two per cent and traffic was basically flat as there has been competition entering into the Winnipeg retail market.

“Our biggest opportunity that we’re still participating in is the reconfiguration of the Sears box. After Sears went dark, a fairly large Sears, we’ve been working with quite a number of tenants to reconfigure that entire space, open it up. It’s going to be chopped up into quite a number of tenants. There’s really no large majors out there taking a couple of hundred thousand square feet anymore. So we’re going to chop that up and do something really creative with it,” explained Havens.

“We have some deals in place. Unfortunately I can’t speak to them right now. They haven’t been announced publicly. We feel pretty confident in the change that we’re going to make in that building.”

The 220,000-square-feet Sears space, which includes two main levels and a full basement, has been vacant since the Sears store closure a couple of years ago. Havens said the space could be home for six or seven new tenants.

“I think it’s always better to have selection and fulfilling what the market is looking for. If there was a large tenant that made sense economically and demographically I’m sure we would look at that as well but in this market it’s better to have some variety to drive those footsteps,” he said.

The mall is also currently in the middle of a skylight refurbishment project.

“Polo Park is really noted for its very wide main corridor as a result of it being a strip centre back in the day. We have these wonderful beautiful skylights and we’re refurbishing them this year with new panes,” he said.

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com

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