Winnipeg’s Portage Place to soon ‘breathe again’ as purchase poised to close

WINNIPEG — A real estate developer says it’s poised to close its purchase of a struggling downtown Winnipeg shopping centre and turn it into affordable housing, health-care services and gathering spaces.

True North Real Estate Development says it has reached an agreement to buy Portage Place and its underlying land and parking, and that work is to begin to finalize the deal in the coming days.

True North, the real estate arm of the company that owns the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets, says the milestone for the $650-million development comes after more than two years of consultations with various orders of government.

True North has partnered with the Southern Chiefs Organization to build a 15-storey residential tower, with 40 per cent of its more than 200 units being rented at affordable rates.

The site is also to include a 265,000-square-foot health-care space, in which the Manitoba government intends to be the main tenant through a 35-year lease.

The federal government announced it is to contribute $10 million toward redeveloping community and public spaces within the complex, with a further $17 million expected from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

True North president Jim Ludlow said work on the site should become visible late this year and early next year, and that by 2026 “Portage Place will start to breathe again,” with the removal of its central clock tower atrium.

“We will move methodically, but we will move quickly,” he said Friday.

Grand Chief Gerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs Organization said many people come to Winnipeg from their First Nations home for school. But he said jobs and housing aren’t always available.

The housing development is to be called Project 92, after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action directed at the corporate sector.

Daniels said the project will create more than employment for Indigenous communities.

“It is a place to live. It creates critical foundation for a good life, whether it be employment or education.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press