A New Arena for Winnipeg Planned Soon?

The present Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg is not very old. However, it was originally built for an AHL hockey team and not a NHL one. It is the smallest arena in the NHL and even at that, in recent years it has not always sold out. The Winnipeg Jets are trying to increase the corporate seats which has not been a priority when there were so many individuals in the past buying tickets. At just over 15,000 seats, Winnipeg's arena is smallest in the NHL. Most arenas are around 17,000 to 20,000 across North America.

The AHL Moose and the Winnipeg Sea Bears basketball team also share the facility which makes for a pretty full selection of teams calling the arena home. On top of that are concerts and entertainment events. The True North organization has also been building out with real estate. Since 2004, ownership has built out north, west and south of the arena. Across the street, they partnered with others to build restaurants, offices, hotel and parking lots.

The Burton Cummings Theatre is now part of the True North organization. In part, this is to have entry level entertainment in a venue more well suited for some groups and individuals. This builds relationships and street life in the entertainment district. Street parties are held regularly in proximity to the Burton Cummings. This is important as the creation of an entertainment district cannot revolve around one sport and building. This is why True North also does concert/event work as promoter. Not all of it is at the Canada Life Center. In the past, True North has done Cirque du Soleil shows under the big tent on Kenaston. This year they are doing a two day music event at the Princess Auto Stadium. 

The Canada Life Centre has room for more concert/show events on its schedule but clearly there are limits based either on small or larger sizes and whether it can be fit in between the three sports teams that call the arena home. There are also other sports leagues that would like to come to Winnipeg but find there is no facility to host them. In particular, professional women's hockey and basketball. Therein lies the conundrum. It is the downtown arena or nothing. Even a WHL team could not survive in Winnipeg without a facility larger than the Sanford Fleming Arena at the University of Manitoba. 

It is clear Winnipeg needs another arena. But what size? Some say it should be smaller as in the 7,000 seat range. Is that thinking too small? I don't know too many people who thought the Sea Bears would regularly pack in 15,000 people for basketball games. Imagine building a 7,000 seat arena and finding professional women's hockey selling it out and then some. Could they have used a 15,000 seat arena instead?

A scanning of NHL arenas will show Winnipeg's facility is not the oldest. It is nearer to the newer ones as it closes on 25 years having being built in 2004. Many present facilities in the league are from the late 1990s. The average lifespan of an arena is considered to be 25 to 25 years. This would apply to Winnipeg's present facility. 

The next question is the location of a new arena. Some people would love to see it down by the University of Manitoba so that it could benefit Bisons sports programming. There is a good case for that. And there is likely space for it although anyone who knows how much of a crowd Blue Bombers games have and the traffic involved is probably hesitant. The 41 games that say Jets or Moose play and 4the 0,000 university population from fall to spring are considerable numbers in one place. It can be managed but it is worth considering.

The Chipman and Thomson family have put in considerable investments downtown and continue to do so. Their concern just doesn't extend to the bottom line but to the welfare of those living and working downtown. This has been aptly demonstrated in the donations and leadership of the pair over many years. To that end, I'd expect the location on a new arena would be downtown.

There isn't an obvious spot for the new arena to be located. There are quite a lot of surface lots where the beginnings of arena could be. However, it might be like how the Canada Life Center came to be and that was from the demolition of existing buildings such as Eaton's and part of Cityplace.

A big question is on whether the Canada Life Center will be expanded to 17,000+ seats or remain the size it is and another arena built of 17,000 seats. My opinion is the Jets would move to a bigger location as there are changes to what corporations want in terms of season tickets than just box seats. Many businesses are looking for meeting spaces as well attached to entertainment so some new arena designs are reflecting this. Many new arenas are also doing more to become concert friendly and that comes from initial design.

In the picture above, Hamilton's Copp Coliseum is being designed to fulfill a concert mandate in the greater Toronto area. While a single use facility might work in that part of Ontario, in Winnipeg the need is for multi-purpose facilities. There really just isn't a venue of size indoors after the Canada Life Center. An attempt to get a 6000 to 7000 facility for the Winnipeg Ice failed. One of the reasons the Chipmans might go for a new arena is to forestall a competitor such as the University of Manitoba building one.

Another important reason the True North will push for a new arena is that they have an agreement with the province to not fund any new covered facility in Winnipeg for the length of time of the mortgage, This blocked the Bombers from having a covered stadium. When the agreement expires, there is nothing preventing Bombers from going forward with a covered stadium and also getting an agreement preventing anyone from new facilities built with 25 to 30 year terms. This is definitely something the Chipman's won't want.

I don't expect anything in the next two years as True North finishes the work on new asset Portage Place as well as see Sutton Place Hotel built but expect something soon enough. The end of prohibition on government facilities and the desire for more professional teams will drive the timetable.

Canada Water Agency to Be Located in Cityplace

There are times when Winnipeg gets the booby prize in federal spending because we were denied other projects. Case in point when Bristol Aerospace was the chosen company for the billion dollar maintenance contract for the CF-18s but was denied when Brian Mulroney re-directed to Quebec, Winnipeg got the booby prizes of the Microbiology Lab and the Institute for Sustainable Development. Why two things? Well, it is because it took a full 10 years to design and build the $172 million facility between 1987 and 1997. Mulroney was long since retired from politics by then. However, in 1987, he was under all sorts of pressure from his caucus and the electorate for pulling a Lucy with the Football move on the west. Anger was raw. The PM knew that he needed more than a future project to assuage the anger so he announced the Institute for Sustainable Development in 1988 which was able to get underway in 1990 while he was still leader. Jake Epp led the charge for some sort of booby prize for Manitoba when he was Mulroney's Health minister.

Losing a $1 billion contract based on Mulroney's decision cost the Progressive Conservatives the election and divided the party for decades. However, the booby prize has been two federal institutions with annual budgets of about $120 combined. Not all of it in Winnipeg but a great deal of it is. Is that better than the CF-18 contract and the subsequent contracts that went to Quebec and elsewhere after that? I don't know. All told since the 1980s, there has been nearly $3 billion on maintenance on the planes. It still means more money spent on the military than on health and environment.

After the merger of the branches of the military in 1968 and with James Richardson as Defence Minister, Winnipeg got the booby prize of Air Command HQ in 1975. The downsizing in the military was substantial in the years prior. Churchill, Gimli and Portage la Prairie were closed or downsized. Richardson ensured a command center was firmly in place in Winnipeg so today the 1 Canadian Air Division with 600 HQ staff and NORAD responsibilities is as strong as ever.

Sometimes the booby prize is all you get when something is taken away. Or in some cases, it is given out when a number of expensive decisions are made on other policy matters. In 1970, the metric system was adopted in Canada and the official languages policy came into effect. Once again, James Richardson as Supply and Service minister (before he became Defence minister), steered the Royal Canadian Mint to Winnipeg. It became apparent that Ottawa was at capacity and worse, buying material from the U.S. including coins. Alberta was thought to be a better supplier and Winnipeg a better manufacturer. However, a large part of the mint's move came from a rapid growth of departments in Ottawa that did not go unnoticed in other parts of the country.

In later years, it was Lloyd Axworthy taking over the role that Richardson used to have. This time the booby prize was the Core Area Initiative, The Forks and Portage Place. I say booby prize because the federal government had been pouring money into Montreal and Toronto as well as Vancouver. The redevelopment of rail and port lands in the aforementioned cities resulted in money for conventions centres, arenas, stadiums and enormous developments. Meanwhile, Winnipeg paid for its own convention centre and arena without the federal help that seemed to flow to several regions other than ours.

One of the balancing features of Canada's federal cabinet has been at least one strong representative at the inner cabinet. Manitoba has had a strong Liberal or Conservative cabinet member for decades. The last one for Manitoba was Jim Carr who has since passed. There really has not a powerful presence for the inner cabinet from Manitoba in a number of years. Dan Vandal is the only Manitoban at the cabinet and handles prairie economic development and northern affairs. In a nearly 40 member cabinet, it means there are a lot of people fighting for budget and our representative doesn't have the senior ministry to make things happen that Finance, Health, Defence and others areas might otherwise have.

Four Liberal MPs make up the caucus from Manitoba. The rest of the ten MPs are split between Conservative and NDP. Dan Vandal has had Kevin Lamoureux, Terry Duguid and rookie Ben Carr pushing to get projects for Manitoba. If, as an MP, you can't be in cabinet, the next best thing is to be a Parliamentary Secretary. Terry Duguid is the prime minister's special water adviser and parliamentary secretary.  Kevin Lamoureux is parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader. Being close to power and because of the loss of other projects (such as the lithium processing plant) means Manitoba was set for yet another booby prize.

As mentioned, Duguid is the water adviser and because of past cuts during the Harper government to lake research, Winnipeg became the chosen place for the new Canada Water Agency. The chosen place for the offices will be Cityplace where Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation has offices. Perhaps 100 of the nearly 215 staff will be in the office, assuming they are not working from home. This has been a federal issue all this year with many employees seeking to make permanent working from home.

Downtown supporters are chuffed by the new federal workers downtown and the new agency has a lot of work ahead  so looks to be around a while. It certainly is a central location and if indeed more workers are returning to downtown it should provide more vitality to the area. It has been a painful process of worker return. Some places such as the virology lab don't lend themselves to working from home but so many other workplaces have workers who believe that work from home is permanent.

As a start up, the Canada Water Agency might have most workers in the office so that should be a good thing. Once again a booby prize may prove to be a lasting thing in Manitoba. It is good to keep in mind that booby prizes usually come after so many other projects got cancelled, re-directed or never got out of the planning stages. 

Winnipeg's greatest strength is the diversity of its economic base. It is industry, government, culture and agriculture. All of it contributing to the vitality. The weakness of the city is how spread out it is, it's dependency on cars, poverty and addiction and most of all crime. In 2019, the city was in much better shape than it is now in part because there were predictable patterns of commuter travel. Things are slowly improving and more efforts are being made to fill empty buildings with residential conversions. The booby prize of getting a new federal agency is that those employees will become denizens of the city and that a filled building of workers can support a whole lot of other businesses in that area.

Welcome to the new workers.

Kildonan Place in 1980 Original Stores

The anchor stores are all gone but some stores have remained this entire time. Hello Coles Books. Sad to say that Coles Books at Cityolace didn't survive. The both opened within a year of each other.

Portage Place and Parkade for Sale?

Portage Place can stir up some raw emotions in Winnipeg. As a mall it has been barely hanging on. The Vancouver-based owner has few ways to make real money there and no incentive to do anything. Why? Because they don't own the land or the parking lot.

The parking lot and other parts of the land earn the The Forks, owner of the parkade, a whopping $3 million a year. In 1994, The Forks was borrowing money just to pay staff. It is not a stretch to say Portage Place saved The Forks and made it what it is today.

There is 1000 parking spaces at Portage Place and they are used all the time. At Jets and Moose game and concerts, the place is packed and customers pay premium parking. It is a cash cow. And the milk has gone to The Forks. In 2017, The Forks started charging for parking at its parkade and then surface parking lots. The parkade is around 300 cars. Forks Market is around another 100 around meters and Railside has just shy of 600. No recent tally of how much parking brings in at The Forks takes in but let's say it is significant. It may even be more than Portage Place takes in given we're talking about almost the same amount of spaces.

And that is fine. Some people said they will never go to The Forks again if they have to pay for parking. Seems pretty drastic and raises the question of whether their boycott is in effect for sports, concerts and the like where free parking may be difficult to find in proximity to an event. I won't even go into hospital parking and its costs. Suffice to say it is unavoidable if you drive a car. Build 2000 spaces for parking and you will find people park free all day. Like The Forks once had happening.

In any event, The Forks now has two revenue streams...North Portage parking and Forks parking. And life is good. However, they also have two mandates which is to promote and develop not just The Forks but North Portage. To that end, North Portage has been neglected.

The owner of the mall, Peterson Group from Vancouver, bought the mall for around $20 million from Consolidated who bought it for around $45 million from Cadillac Fairview who built it for $92 million. That is quite the depreciation since 1987. Still the mall stumbles along. It has a number or stores that service the businesses in the Monday to Friday day hours. The food court which has been the source of scorn and danger makes money. However, the owner has NO incentive to do more.

There have been some conversion of retail into offices. That has helped. However, the west and east pads atop the mall remain undeveloped because any business or hotel would want to have parking. And that is owned by The Forks. Moreover, the land is not even owned by Portage Place. It is also owned by North Portage/Forks. Portage Place only has a long term lease and agreement to turn everything over for $1 after it expires.

The Forks has no interest in investing in Portage Place as they don't own it. And the present owners are not interested in buying the lease out. They just want out. Winnipeg may only get to know after the weekend what's what as a closed door session with the city in planned with the major principals involved.

It is quite possible that what we'll here is that someone is interested in buying Portage Place, the parking lot and the lease. If this is the case, it is likely to trigger a major investment atop the two pad of Portage Place. A hotel, presumably a new Westin, will go up on the east side and offices or residential units or both will go up on the west side. The food court is toast. A hotel lobby, meeting rooms and ballrooms are likely to take up the first three floors. The overpasses will be preserved as well as the mall corridor. If residential goes up, I suspect we see a grocery store go up. A street presence and patios is no doubt a possibility.

Assuming a hotel goes up, the rear drive behind Portage Place will be the obvious valet pick-up/drop off and check-in space. The whole dynamic behind the building changes to serve two potential towers. A new owner would know that $3 million would be coming in annually just from the parking. That's a lot of lettuce.

How do we know this will work? It works because this is exactly what happened with Winnipeg Square parking. The 900 spaces there made oodles of money for the city. When they sold the parking lot, it was an incentive for a owner to own both the tower, the mall and the parking lot together. Lots of incoming cash. Enough for the owner to completely re-do the building and then plan for Winnipeg's tallest tower, a new gym and a grocery store (if the renderings are accurate) on the two unused pads behind Trizec tower. One can make an argument that CityPlace also was more lucrative for any owner because of the parkade inside.

This looks to be the biggest obstacle to seeing Portage Place be something different than how it is viewed now. A new owner can make money and do things with the property. No, it won't result in the whole building being torn down. No, it won't result in housing for below $1000 a month. But we will see changes that have density, serve new business and public access needs and probably more people living right on site. And very likely a less hostile street presence.

And let's not forget...there will be millions from the sale of the parking lot. Everyone and their dog will want a say on it. Not all of it should be sent to The Forks. It should be well planned out with the goal of bringing self sufficiency and prosperity to both the areas it was created to serve.

Konz: Pizza Cones Coming to Cityplace

Pizza Cones are coming to Winnipeg to the Cityplace food court. The western-based franchise Konz has 10 locations and is presently under construction in Winnipeg. The main menu item is as it sounds: pizza in the form of a cone. Various pizza recipes and toppings in a hand held cone.

The price for this delicacy is $6.99 and is likely to be gobbled up by the hockey and concert crowds. It will also be of interest to the considerable lunchtime crowds Cityplace sees every day as people move from building to building.

Expect an opening very shortly.

Snap Fitness to Open largest Location in Winnipeg

Dayton Building with new condos behind. Picture: Skyscrapers.com

323 Portage Avenue has seen a lot of nightclubs since the 1980s. The building built in 1955 and known as the Dayton building was originally a store and restaurant that lasted till 1983.

The decline on Portage Avenue reached a critical point for retailers on the north side in 1979. This was year that Winnipeg Square and Eaton Place (now Cityplace) opened. It was also the year St. Vital Shopping Centre and a year later Kildonan Place opened.

Portage Avenue became a street where the south side still was successful for retailers whereas the northside was marked by video arcades, an adult theatre and aging hotels.

Still, many people still came downtown for nightlife including movies, live theatre and retailing on the so investors turned the old Dayton's department store into Dayton's nightclub in 1984. Substantial renovations were made to the building to accommodate the specifications of the club including moving the entrance to the side street.

The bar proved a bit posh for Winnipeg and lasted two years during a recession before closing and re-opening as Times Nite Club. That club format lasted quite some time and was less formal. Winnipeg was going through a tough period of decline, however. There is a gap in my knowledge about how long the bar was there. It seems to me that there was another club in that location around 1991-1994 called Richard's American Bar before there was a return to the old name. Any help remember that era would be welcome.

A murder outside Times Nite Club in 1999 kind of affirmed that the area was getting dangerous. Coming in the same year as Eaton's closure, it marked a low point for downtown Winnipeg.

The arrival of the MTS Centre in 2004 assisted in stabilizing some of the restaurants in the area and breathed some life in what had been an angst filled time. The empty Eaton's building was subject to huge debate and ultimately was demolished in 2003 to make way for the new arena. Around 2007, Times Nite Club was renovated for $2 million and became Blush Ultraclub. It attracted a good crowd most weekends but by 2009 was really open weekends. In 2010 it closed.

The Winnipeg Jets arrived in 2011 and the crowds on game nights doubled in size. The Manitoba Moose attracted families whereas the Jets brought an older crowd willing  to spend money before and after games. It seemed a no brainer that a sports bar nearby would work. In 2011 the 4Play sports bar opened in the former Ultraclub space.

The concept lasted till 2012. Why did it fail? The problem was days when hardly anyone came in. And those early Jets days were a learning experience for people on finding before and after places to eat and drink for Jets games. 4Play Sports just wasn't able to get enough traffic throughout the week. The Palomino Club looked at relocating to the old 4Play location in 2015 but ultimately decided they'd better off on Main Street in the old Whisky Dix spot.

For a very long time 323 Portage Avenue's storefront sat empty opposite one of the busiest arenas in North America.

The wait to see what goes into 323 Portage Avenue is over. It has been announced that Snap Fitness is going to occupy just under 12,000 square feet of the front space facing out to MTS Centre. The back area remains unoccupied for the moment but 5,700 square feet awaits a new restaurant or club. Around $1 million in renovations is being done to accommodate the gym. It will include group exercise classes in Zumba and yoga. Weightlifting and boxing instruction will be available as well. And steam showers will be a popular amenity.

The new Snap Fitness will be North America's largest location for the franchise. It will be open 24 hours which is a first for downtown. Goodlife Fitness is already in a office tower at Portage and Main and the YMCA is west on Portage but both have more limited hours. The new Snap will be operated by an owner with three locations in the province already.
Restaurant and bars are a tough business at the best of times and a lot of hope was laid at the MTS Centre (2004) and Manitoba Hydro Place (2009) to generate traffic. They did. However, a true entertainment district was slow in coming. In 2010, the MTS Exhibition Center in the old Portage Village Inn/A&B Sound Building showed that people would go in great numbers to the area with the right attraction such as Bodies and Titanic. The success led to the construction of Centrepoint which will add the last component on their storefront when Brown's Socialhouse opens in 2017.

Downtown Winnipeg is enormous in size relative to the other cities. It is marked by areas of vitality and then along certain streets it is long stretches of surface parking and nothing else. There are more people living downtown in the Avenue building, the student residences at the University of Winnipeg, Red River College and Waterfront Drive. Still, it is hard to get the connectivity that was once Portage Avenue all the way from Portage and Main to the University of Winnipeg.

Snap Fitness fills a niche that makes the city operate beyond regular hours. People feel safer when there are more people in the surrounding area. Empty storefronts are like missing teeth in a smile. The addition of a gym across from the MTS Centre is a good sign that a neighbourhood is forming.

Globe Theatre Winnipeg - Where to Now?

I guess we can't say we didn't see this one coming. The three Globe Theaters in Portage Place are closing. This comes on the heels of the IMAX theater closing earlier on.

At the time of their construction in 1987 the theaters were a posh addition to the downtown theater crowd. Eaton's and the Bay were still going concerns as was the south side of Portage Avenue. The first Silver City was built at St. Vital in 1986 but it was half the size it is now. The big films were still downtown and on a Friday night, it was not unusual to see line ups outside the Northstar, the Capitol, The Met and the Garrick

In 1981, there were two multiplex theatres built downtown with the Towne and the Cineplex Eaton 7 theatres.  Two years earlier in  1979, the Garrick Theatre expanded from the two theatre format to a four theatre format on purchased land next door.

There was alarm about downtown Winnipeg in the 1980s to be certain but there were three malls built from 1979 to 1987 in the area including Winnipeg Square, Eaton Place to Portage Place. The problem was there was even more malls being built in the suburbs in St. Vital, St. James, Kildonan and a doubling of Polo Park.

In little more than ten years, retail had exploded all over the city and with it came movie theatres. The reason suburban malls movie theatres took so long to catch on is that very few of them were very nice. The original Polo Park Cinema was in an awful basement with terrible concessions. It was far nicer to go the King Theater just down the road.

It really took the construction of Silver City St. Vital 6 theatre in 1985 to change people's habits completely. The moment St. Vital built the theatre it represented an improvement on the movie going experience, The woeful Eaton Place 7 screen multiplex from 1981 to 1991 was terrible. The cramped theatres and sound leakage from the food court outside was dreadful and most gave up on the place.  It ended up showing art films till even that was rejected by Winnipeg movie fans. The food court eventually expanded into the old theatres.

The 8 screen Towne built in 1981 and the refurbished 4 screen Garrick of 1979 were much better and people still attend the Towne. It may get renewed life for years to come via proximity to Red River College and a bigger residential component from the Exchange District. The Garrick and the Northstar continued to deliver even when the grand old dames of the Met and Capitol collapsed. They lasted until the suburban malls delivered a crushing blow.

In 1998 and 1999, the nail was hammered in with the expansion of St. Vital Silvercity to 10 screens in 1998 and the newly built 14 screen Silvercity Polo Park in 1999. How can could anyone compete with 18 brand new state of the art movie theatres! The truth was almost no one could. By 2001, it was the end for the Garrick and the Northstar theatres.

Anyway this won't be a dissertation on urban and suburban. I don't think anyone can deny that the sound, the picture quality, the theatre amenities and the concessions compete well with the main enemy of movies...television.

It is sad to see The Globe Theatres go and it is further evidence that Portage Place continues to underwhelm.

But where do we go from here?

The University of Winnipeg has looked on longingly at the theatres as possible lecture halls. This might not be a bad match. The University of Winnipeg does not have many large size theatre halls. One wonders how they might make use of the space. Large classes, special lectures, art performances all come to mind.

The one hitch is that it is a bit of a hike from the university. There is some indication that university is already looking at moving some things over. In the last weeks, they took a 2000 square foot space on the second floor of Portage Place for the Legal Resource Centre, a legal help center for low income clients

The Globe Theatres occupy nearly 28,000 square feet! This is no small bite even for an expansionist university.

There are two other possibilities that could be suggested for Globe Theatre space. The first is that it could be used as a new exhibition hall in the some format as the now demolished MTS Exhibition Hall. At 10,000 square feet larger than the old location and all one level...not to mention gorgeous windows to Portage Avenue, the hall could attract many travelling shows such as Body World and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Perhaps Portage Place could tap on the MTS doors and see what their thoughts on the subject are.

The other suggestion for the space also leverage proximity to the MTS Centre. It would seem one of the best uses might be a sports bar and restaurant for the space. Moxies, Earl's and Milestones are all downtown. The Shark Club has been a runaway success. One more sports bar option for lunch, dinner and late nights might be just what the doctor ordered.

Sad as it is to see the Globe Theatre go, it is sadder to see the space under used. This could be a trigger for a major improvement in the mall much like how cityplace has undergone millions of dollars work after securing the Shark Club. It will be interesting to see what direction the operators of Portage Place go.

Defunct Chain Restaurants in Winnipeg

Mr. Steak circa 1970s

Winnipeg has many restaurants local and chain over the years. We have seen some local institutions hang up the aprons in recent years.

The Beachcomber was one of the non-chain restaurants to close. Even the Carlton Inn is gone as condos are being built.

But what of the chain restaurants?



In the 1970s, we had Mr. Steak which gave Winnipeggers a first taste of a chain restaurant steakhouse. The location on Pembina Highway beyond the University of Manitoba seemed like one of the last stops before the end of town. We have had Swiss Chalet come and go...twice! The first was on Pembina in 1983. The second McDonald's went on on Pembina as well in 1969.

During the heyday of the Winnipeg Jets, Chi-Chi's at Polo Park used to pack them in. A few locations graced the city but fell one by one over the years. Chi Chi's and Finger's stood where Silver City theatres now stand in the mall parking lot.

Above, McDonald's two story location Polo Park, 1988.

The Country Kitchen restaurant was all over the city of Winnipeg. Even when others disappeared across North America, the one on Queen Elizabeth Way kept ticking along. Eventually prolonged bridge construction work killed it off. Want to know where the last Country Kitchen in Canada is: Winkler.

Country Kitchen in Heartland Inn, Winkler

Winnipeg had both Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses in Winnipeg. In the 1980s, Ponderosa retreated from the Canadian market and many locations in Canada were converted to Red Lobster. Bonanza closed their last restaurants in Winnipeg in the 1990s. Below 1979 Ponderosa locations. And 1973 opening of Bonanza.

Below 1973 Ponderosa.

Harvey's, a large Canadian chain, has tried to crack the Winnipeg market a few times. It had a location on Pembina Highway, some in Home Depots and the airport. One remains open on Portage Avenue near the University of Winnipeg.

Longhorn's Texas Steakhouse gave it a go on Leila but they didn't do enough to redecorate and even had the old Brannigan's frosted class in place with a B on it after they opened.

Pete and Marty's was a franchise that closed in Polo Park and is where Moxie's is now. Mr. Greenjean's was an old favourite in Eaton Place, now occupied by  Boston Pizza.

A few Winnipeg franchise restaurants have failed after many years in business. As just mentioned above Branigans used to have locations all over the city and even had one in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Grape's was around for decades but alas, they are all gone now. Schmecker's used to have a few locations. Below was Portage Avenue near Grace Hospital.

Papa George's closed their last location in Osborne Village. Grubee's was Winnipeg's attempt to create a burger chair to compete with the McDonald's of the world. Several locations closed back in the 1970s. Below was 1977. Grubee's had Star Wars merchandise!

Shakeys on Osborne Street in 1975 is no longer there.

Mayor's Katz's Hu's Restaurants are all closed now.

In recent years, we have seen the slow retreat of KFC from Winnipeg. Quizno's has started closing places. Kelsey's had two locations shut the same day.

I am sure I have forgotten some of the chains that have closed. Some will say we are better off but many places were family favourites.

Edit: Just been reminded that Harvey's has returned and opposite the University of Winnipeg. And also at the airport?

Also Mother's Pizza with two locations on Regent and Pembina Highway. A mainstay in the 1980s till they dashed back to Ontario.

Just remembered Chuck-E-Cheese on Pembina Highway and Fuddrucker's on St. James near Polo Park. If my recollection is correct, it was owned by some Winnipeg Jets.

Bombay Bicycle Club circa 1987

The Cityplace Casino

CityPlace with MTS Centre at Right.

CityPlace with Walkway to MTS Centre. Photo by Bryan Scott.

CityPlace

CityPlace was Winnipeg's first downtown mall built in 1979. It emerged from the ashes of the closure of Eaton's catalogue division in 1977 and initially was called Eaton Place.

It would be wrong to say it was not a success at the start. It was. The mall and office portion of the building were a going concern and Eaton's beside it did well.

The opening of several more malls all in a matter of years including Portage Place had an impact on shopping everywhere. However, the writing was on the wall and with the movement of multiplex movie theatres to the suburbs, the younger crowd that inhabited the mall left as well.

In 2001, Eaton's closed for good and it is a wonder we didn't see Eaton Place go as well. However, the newly re-branded Cityplace had the income from its offices to sustain it as well as generous revenue from the parkade and parking lots. The building has increased in value in every decade since it has been open unlike Portage Place.

The mall is a shadow of itself now. The connection to the MTS Centre built in 2004 did not help the mall in a meaningful way other than ensure that the restaurants still had people to come to them. The extended walkway in 2010 also helped in that regard as people from the Winnipeg Convention Centre came over to use restaurants.

The mall continued to serve a very niche local business area but it was not a destination mall nor did it have a huge retail anchor. The prospects for Cityplace all changed when the Winnipeg Jets returned last year.

While the Manitoba Moose were appreciated, they drew a smaller crowd, more of a family crowd and one with a more limited budget.

The arrival of the Jets and some rushed renovations to upgrade from True North drew a commitment from the province of Manitoba for further investment in the MTS Centre in the form of video lottery terminals. At present, those VLTs are in the Tavern United across the street with revenue going to pay off the arena.

Public support from the city and the province will rise to $11 million a year with all the revenue from tax discounts and VLTs added in. I don't know the economics of this. I have to suspect that the province makes a lot of money back on sales tax for liquor and merchandise sales, food and for parking. The city has fewer revenue streams but if the property values around the MTS Centre have risen, it may be worth the investment.

The fact that Longboat and Artis are building a large complex across from the MTS Centre indicates that the investment in MTS Centre is paying off. By my reckoning, the increased tax from off site might well make up for the discount the arena gets. However, I am not a accountant so I can only guess. It would be nice if someone actually did an economic impact study of the subsidy and how it affects government and business for Winnipeg and the province.

Back to the casino though...

I have long advocated a return of a casino to the downtown. I had said it would be a great way to get the Winnipeg Convention Centre the expansion they wanted. In the end though, the three levels of government stepped up and work is being down now.

All that was left was to fulfill the promise the NDP government made to True North about more VLTS to pay for improvements to the arena. The rumour had been that a sports bar was coming and the talk was the Shark Club, a sports chain in every western province except Winnipeg. But wait, we have a Shark Club. Doh, wrong club!

Like the problems we faced with Calgary's Cowboys coming to town, someone has registered and is using the Shark Club name on Lombard. If the Shark Club wanted to come here and use their name, they would likely have to make a deal with the Winnipeg club using the name these last years. Ask the The Brick how they feel that worked out for them when they sued Brick's Fine Furniture.

We finally know some of the details about what the province is planning. We are not just going to see the Tavern United's VLTs combined with new VLTs in a new restaurant. We are going to see a full restaurant and casino with 140 slot machines, 2 poker tables and 4 blackjack tables.

Holy big difference from VLTs, batman!

Some local bloggers have indicated there are a strong gains that can be made to the facility that holds a casino. We can expect this is going to trigger a property value increase as well as help elevate the value of all surrounding property in 2013 and beyond.

Some of the negative comments from bloggers and people posting to Free Press and CBC pages is in regards to gambling.

No argument there. Still, prohibition comes with ill effects too.

Would eliminating gambling and drinking cause more crime than regulating and taxing said vices? I think there is strong evidence to support that it does.

The provinces online gambling site is now love today. I think that might have a bigger impact than the casino.

As more details come available, we will see what the name will be, what the look will be and how the casino will be in relationship to the MTS Centre.

My view is that there is more good in this decision than bad. It will be interesting if in later years what the Jet Effect will actually be.

Eaton Place, cityplace

There was a time when Eaton Place in downtown Winnipeg had 100 stores and actually advertised on TV. Today, as a cityplace, it has about a quarter of that.

Manitoba Pubic Insurance Corporation (Autopac) bought the mall and the offices above in 2009 for $80 million. This reflected confidence in the building but not necessarily the mall. The mall itself has shrunk to serve the local office population for the most part.

The construction of the walkway from the Convention Centre and Delta Hotel will certainly give some help to the remaining businesses in terms of walk-through traffic but the days of being a destination in itself are long gone. Even before Eaton's closed, the mall was having greater difficulty in attracting people. At one time a Cineplex theatre was in the mall and although the postage-sized stamp screens were small, it attracted people interested in smaller niche films. Likewise, several movie theatres in the surrounding area including the North Star, Capitol, Odeon, Garrick and Metropolitan meant that many people were downtown and around the shop or eat before or after attending a movie. Mr. Greenjeans was popular among the school-age set for many years.

The success of Silver City first at St. Vital Mall and and then Polo Park accelerated the closures of the downtown theatres until only Portage Place and the Towne remained.

With the closure of Eaton's, the future looked pretty dim for Eaton Place. After its renaming, the only strong point it had was that it was a well leased building for offices and had lots of parking.

The building of the MTS Centre has not been a huge boon for the mall save for Boston Pizza which has benefited from the amount of events been hosted and people seeking out eating establishments.

The fate of Eaton Place in Winnipeg in its smaller cityplace form is in contrast to Eaton Centre in Toronto. Eaton Centre was built in 1977, two years before Eaton Place. Whereas Eaton Place in Winnipeg was renamed cityplace and fell from its peak, Eaton's Centre kept its name and its place as a top level retailing location. In 2010, Eaton Centre will be renovated. It has been expanded and upgraded twice before in 1990 and 1999.

Winnipeg is not Toronto but one wonders what might have happened if Eaton Place in Winnipeg had been expanded and Portage Place never built. Eaton Centre only has 235 stores now. The combined Portage Place and Eaton Place stores would have been comparable to Eaton Centre Toronto.

All along the initial push for north Portage was for an arena. It is hard not to think how it might have been different. Nothing would have stopped Eaton's department store from failing but the push for a second mall with 100 stores to compete with Eaton Place (cityplace) was probably misguided.

Things will probably go better for cityplace with a walkway but a future of further success might be better directed at complementing the MTS Centre. And by that I mean that given the location of the mall, it might be well suited for additional restaurants and entertainment geared to events next door.

By the way, I am trying to remember all the shops that were in Eaton Place. Any help in that regard would be great.

MPI's Purchase of cityplace

Photo of cityplace (formerly Eaton Place) by buflyer200. North of Cityplace is the MTS Centre.

There has been a lot of noise in regards to the purchase of Cityplace by Manitoba Public Insurance (Autopac).

The building where MPI has leased space for 28 years was owned by another Winnipeg company Huntington which a Arni Thorsteinson entity. As noted from the picture above, the building is nine stories tall and connected to the MTS Centre to the north. There is also an indoor parkade with 1250 spaces.

Conservatives are up in arms about the purchase. The problem is that MPI is mandated to invest money to help keep premiums down. It is allowed to own property under that mandate. Up to this point, it hasn't owned any property and even after this purchase, it will only account for 2.5% of its portfolio.

As some bloggers have pointed out, it is not unusual for pension funds or Crowns to hold investments.

There are a certain amount of risks involved in real estate but that certainly has to be mitigated by the fact the MPI rents 80% of the space already.



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