1950 picture of Mitchell Copp building and former A & B Sound building
Mitchell Copp Building
Avenue Building
Downtown Winnipeg covers such a large area compared to other cities. Subsequently, this has meant that development has taken place in a scatter-gun approach where one moment there is a focus on Main Street and then that focus shifts and then shifts again.
There were no geographic blocks such as the Red River and Assiniboine River that limited the downtown from spreading north and west. Retailing along Portage Avenue essentially stretched to the city limits. The Bay and Eaton's were separated by a couple of blocks walking. From very early on, Winnipeg lacked a Herald Square such as New York where Macy's and Gimbels faced off across the street from one another in New York.
South Portage Avenue managed to have a fairly vital retail sector even through the 1980s while alarm was being raised much earlier on about how the northside seemed to be struggling and in fact, had a few properties that were either vacant or had been demolished altogether. To be sure there were a few areas which were bright spots such as Kennedy Street where StageWest Dinner Theatre did well. The Free Press building was still very active and most people still went to downtown movie theatres such as the Capitol and the Garrick.
North Portage though remained a seedier and emptier counterpart to the southside and was one of the main factors in the tri-partite effort of the three levels of governments to change the dynamic.
Portage Place was deemed the answer and while it had some good aspects such an Imax Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exchange and some movie theatres, the retail component turned inwards rather than outwards to Portage. Aside from having more stores open to the street, it appears that there is little to do about mall now. It will remain a challenge barring any major renovation.
It is hoped that the Manitoba Hydro building will help the mall and surrounding area. It is hard to say just how much that will happen during working hours. It probably won't hurt. It is something that will have to be judged over the next year.
At the moment though, now that the Hydro building has been completed, the attention is now on private investors and what they might do along Portage. The announcement on the Boyd Building which came in very late 2008 and still not been fully realized. While the investors in the Boyd indicated that they had fully leased it, they have fallen short of their million dollar renovation that was to include a parking lot.
It is not the first time that private investors have announced plans for Portage and then backed off. For a time, a hotel was planned for atop Portage Place and some prep work begun before the whole process fell apart.
In recent months, a few announcements have been made a few tangible investments made on the northside of Portage. Probably the most welcome addition is a sports bar across the street in the old Blush Ultra Club location. Unlike the old nightclub, 4play Sports Bar and Entertainment Zone is open every day at of the week from lunch till late.
At 19,000 feet of space, 4play is well suited to attract a good number of people who might gather for MTS events. It is also well positioned to be an attractive destination for World Cup soccer or any other sports such as NHL games and play-offs.
More in Part 7....
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2 comments:
so what happens to 4play now that the whole block is going to be razed. Mitchell Coop entrance about the only thing worth saving.\
As for the Avenue building, even in its glory, was fairly plain Jane and not worth saving. Now if it looked like the paris building, that would be a different story.
I wasn't sure that the 4Play bar was part of the land that was being acquired.
The Avenue Building inside is fairly solid. The outside can be restored in much the same way as the Big Four Sales building was lovingly restored back to its look as the Main Street location of Ashdown Warehouse. As the Crocus building, it looks amazing.
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