McNally Jackson on Recent Law & Order

McNally Robinson Books started in Winnipeg in 1981 when bookstores were often found in malls such as Coles and WH Smith. Department stores still had large book stores. Many retailers such as Eaton's and The Bay had very active book sections even the 1980s. Some of the independent retailers for books often worked at a place like Eaton's book department before they struck out on their own. 

Mary Scorer was one such person who worked at Eaton's until when in 1959 she started her independent store under own name. Her location in Osborne Village helped kick off an era of independent retail and restaurants in that neighbourhood. She went to be a book publisher and her store went through a variety of hands locally after. The 1980s would kick off a new era of bookstores after Eaton's cut their book department.

Ron Robinson, the Robinson of MacNally Robinson, came via the Eaton's route. He had been a book buyer at Eaton's till they cut their large 25 member staff in 1980. He, and and Holly McNally would start McNally Robinson in the very recently built Kenaston Village strip mall in 1981. Initially, the McNallys scouted the traffic there, thinking about starting a business in a community that was still new to them.  Holly McNally had left her career in 1980 as a social worker to move to Winnipeg where her husband Paul had taken a position as a professor of English at University of Manitoba. The huge hole left by Eaton's cutting the book staff was the impetus for McNally and Robinson to consider going down the same route as Mary Scorer decades earlier: to build an independent bookstore. But where?

The Kenaston Village Mall was built by the Lakeview Group in 1978 on what had been scrub forest land across from the Kapyong Barracks in south River Heights. The Red Baron, built in 1979 and an original IGA grocery store brought in a lot of people. However, it was the Grapes and Peppers restaurants that really took off. Tuxedo and River Heights folks sadly lacked many restaurants in their immediate are so this appealed to many who wanted somewhere to shop as well as eat.

To the McNallys, this looked like the perfect place to start a bookstore and with Robinson in 1981. McNally Robinson Booksellers was born. 

Robinson left after a year later in 1982 and went on to a decades long career in national and local CBC Radio.  He made the initial purchase of books, got everything organized for inventory and established the contacts needed to be make the store sustainable.  The store remained McNally Robinson because it was too expensive to change the name when he left. However, it was successful enough to expand to Osborne Village in 1986 and Portage Place in 1987. Two major renovations took place at Kenaston and staff was built up accordingly.  Holly McNally ran the stores but would eventually be joined by husband Paul and her children. They all had a hand in managing over the years.

By 1988, McNally Robinson's was a must stop for authors to give readings and to visit on tour. It was only natural that the bookstore along with Manitoba Writers Guild would help fund a literary award that was the richest in western Canada. It was heady days for McNally as writers both local and national along with some international would pass through the doors every day.

In 1995, the a children's bookstore on Henderson Highway opened. This was just the beginning of the heyday of bookstores in Canada. In 1994, Cole and W.H. Smith Books were merged and superstore Chapters books began to be built. The move in Canada was to prevent U.S.-based Borders books from crossing into Canada. 

By 1996, McNally could see the writing on the wall seeing the large format stores of just over 20,000 square feet popping up on both sides of the the border. They would consolidate their Kenaston and Osborne locations at a 21,000 square foot location in the Grant Park shopping mall. It would include a restaurant called Cafe au Livre (later Prairie Ink) and a large children's section on the second floor. Enough space was given for book signings and readings. While the other stores closed the Portage Place location continued operations for several years.

The Grant Park location would be a runaway success and McNally would go onto open McNally Saskatoon in 1998. This store instantly caught on with the same format that worked so well at Grant Park. The McPhillips stores closed in favour of a wholesale division for school libraries called Skylight Books. By 2002, McNally opened a store in Calgary in a building they owned and in 2004, they opened a location in the Shops at Don Mills Toronto.

However, it would be a McNally opening outside of Canada that would surprise the most. The daughter of Holly and Paul McNally, Sarah, after schooling at McGill would find work in the New York publishing world. With an inheritance from family and knowledge of bookselling that she was born to, she opened a McNally Robinson in New York City in the Soho district in 2004. She called it McNally Robinson and it was listed as on the main site in Winnipeg as one of their stores.

In 2008, the stock market crash led to a recession throughout North America. McNally's expansion in Toronto turned into a money pit of losses. The Calgary store property was at first sold and rented but then eventually closed in 2008. By 2009/2010, Toronto and Polo Park also closed. The recession's damage dragged everything down and even auto manufacturers had to be bailed out.

After the dust settled, the only two stores to survive were Saskatoon and Winnipeg. However, the location of McNally Robinson in New York also survived. In 2008, Sarah McNally renamed the store McNally Jackson in honour of her son and and now ex-husband. She remained sole owner of the store. It was probably necessary to create some distance between the two companies because while both shared a McNally as owner, they were two different companies.

It was a tough time for the book industry as e-reader were all the rage. Book stores tried to get in the sales of these but paper and print remain the draw in stores. Huge retailers like Indigo-Chapters and Barnes and Noble struggled to stay relevant. In many cases, they resorted to selling things besides books to help with their margins. However, for both McNally Robinson and McNally Jackson, they continued to curate books, in some cases print books with their own printers. They did have other merchandise but the concentrated 

There is no doubt that Prairie Ink restaurants help McNally Robinson attract customers in the days, evenings and weekends. For McNally Jackson, it is the book clubs. Jackson also, spun off Goods for the Study which New Yorkers have taken to create worker spaces and presumably areas to read as well. Robinson created a community classroom to teach those who signed up to study in a variety of interests. Jackson publishes Jackson Editions, a select group of books for discerning readers. Robinson has been a main supporter of the publishing industry and events. Authors depend on McNally for sales and for awards.

In 2012, Holly and Paul McNally indicated they would be selling McNally Robinson in a phased sale that would be final in 2015. Other family members in the McNally family in Canada went on to other projects. Longtime employees Chris Hall and Lori Baker took over the company. The company expanded once more in 2018 with a 1000 foot store at The Forks.

Meanwhile, McNally Jackson under Sarah McNally also was going through changes. No other linked on the website to McNally Robinson, it spun off Goods for the Study, a style shop for personal spaces in 2013. By 2018, it opened a second location at Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 2019, the third location in the South Street Seaport opened in lower Manhattan. Post Covid, they opened fourth location in Downtown Brooklyn in 2022. And finally, in 2023, they opened the largest location in 1 Rockefeller Plaza. That location was 7000 square feet and included a Goods for the Study shop. Along the way, the employees became unionized.

McNally is the third largest buyer of books in the NYC and has become part of the fabric of the city. And this brings us to McNally Jackson appearing in a caption card of NBC's flagship show Law & Order. Most of the time. the show studiously avoids naming businesses and the like. Even universities like Columbia and NYC nary a mention.  Fordham University always gets mentioned because it is not as posh as the other and require donors and money from filming. 

Now it is McNally Jackson that gets a mention. It is right across the street street from 30 Rockefeller Plaza and the Today show streets set. Every NBC reporter, performer and employee knows the store and has likely been in it. The store has become so beloved that it finally got a mention. However, it may only be people in Winnipeg who recognize the link all the way back to Winnipeg. 

So hurah for independent bookstores. May the ones named McNally live forever.

Applebee's and IHOP Combine on Regent

The first Applebee's in Canada was built in 1994 on Pembina Highway. The restaurant was first started in Illinois in 1980 and continues to operate in around the world. It is part of the same company that owns International House of Pancakes IHOP which has been in Manitoba this last few years at Seasons Tuxedo. There have been quite a few restaurant chains in North America that have struggled.

That is not to say that they have struggled in Canada or for that matter in Winnipeg. Red Lobster and Olive Garden do very well in Winnipeg based on location and the fact that there are not dozens of them in Winnipeg. In fact, there is only one Red Lobster left in the city and two Olive Gardens. And so it is with Applebee's. There are two left in areas where their location has lent to their success.

The two Applebee's are at the Grant Park Mall and near the Kildonan Place. The one at Grant Park benefits from a dearth of restaurants in the River Heights area and the the move theatre and book store in the mall. The one in Transcona benefits from the huge amount of traffic along Regent. Could the city support more Applebee's? Possibly. But location is very important. Pembina Highway has had some of the biggest restaurant groups in Canada on it. The Keg, Earls, Swiss Chalet. All of them have closed because traffic, parking and customer base did not match what these popular places needed to continue.

International House of Pancake IHOP came to Seasons Tuxedo in 2017. Until that time, Winnipeg has been home to its own Pancake House for decades and still is. The Tuxedo development has continued for 13 years building up and has seen many new shops and restaurants. However, not to be outdone Kildonan Place and Regent have had their fair share of new and different places compared to other parts of the city.

To that end, the Applebee's location on Reenders Drive by the mall will be converted to Canada's first Applebee's/IHOP location. The new concept is to ensure longer hours for the restaurant with the ever popular breakfast menu. Whereas an IHOP alone might not have the later day crowd of an Applebee's.

The concept started in Texas in March and Winnipeg will be its first Canadian unveiling. It isn't the first time we have seen combos in Canada. When Wendy's owned Tim Horton's, there were some shared sites like on Kenaston. That one still exists even though it is Burger King and Tim Horton's that are part of the same company now. Taco Bell and KFC are frequent partners as they are owed together.

There will be many eyes on this combo to see if it works. But it certainly should see an expansion of hours for this Transcona location and a menu that appeals to those who may want ribs and pancakes.

Crime and Safety in Winnipeg in 2022 Part 1

Crime in Winnipeg in the post pandemic period has been raising concern for many people. It would be a mistake to say it is solely media driven. Despite a news conference from Chief Danny Smyth from the Winnipeg Police Service set to reassure people, many in the city are anything but. Being randomly attacked or being a victim of crime are probably first and foremost of concern for citizens. Simply telling people they are statistically unlikely to be a victim of crime does not change the perception of safety.

One of the reasons why The Forks has generally defied perceptions that downtown is dangerous in the past is because the area is clean, looks cared for and has activities associated with tourism and recreation. The presence of a lot of people and that the area is secure has served The Forks well. The pandemic emptying out nearly all downtown and protests originating or ending up at The Forks has changed the dynamic. Instead of being an area of gathering for trade and celebration, it has become a seat of power to express dissatisfaction. 

Freedom of speech is the hallmark of our society. However, the polarized nature and confrontational style of protest has turned The Forks into a sometime hot spot. It is a kind of messy situation because unauthorized political gatherings are probably not exactly what The Forks had in mind when hosting cultural and musical events.

Why is this important? It is important because while it may not be a crime to gather to protest the government, it may make people wonder about their security. If your intent is to go for dinner at The Forks, go for a walk and browse the stores, a large and vocal government protest might seem something to avoid. The peaceful gathering of many people is what the strength of The Forks is. If people think their safety is at issue, they make different choices. It is why crime and safety blur. Perception that The Forks is safe and that crime is rare cannot only be about words but deeds. More on that later.

As for violent crime, it might be rare but it can't be ignored. The Forks is not the only place in the city experiencing it. Polo Park has had a number of incidents too. It is something that the largest shopping mall in the province has to deal with or risk looking more business to Seasons of Tuxedo. For the first time, it appears that there are no vacancies in the Tuxedo mall. Can Polo Park say the same? With one of the largest property managers in the land as owner of the mall, those that run afoul and cause a disturbance can be banned from the premises. 

Still, multiple bans still can't protect people when they are outside. Grant Park Mall is not a place one would associate with violent crime and yet a carjacking took place there in broad daylight. And then a few days later three people stabbed near the mall in a reported attempted break in. None of the victims knew their attacker. There have been a few of those lately. A stabbing took place at a Charleswood bush party same weekend as the carjacking. Those have been going on for decades and suddenly one turns into a near homicide. And the police shot someone in Osborne Village. It really does seem the summer of discontent. The randomness makes anyone say: Are we safe anywhere?

Unicity Smart Complex in St. James

In 1975 Unicity Fashion Square opened at the end of the city. St. James was still building homes at this time and there were few enclosed malls in the city such as Garden City, Polo Park and Grant Park. Success seemed very likely. With Woolco and The Bay, they had some solid anchors. On opening, they drew good crowds and thereafter but always had a stubborn wing of the mall that had stores come and go. 

Within five years Unicity faced competition from all corners of the city as several malls opened up such as St. Vital Centre, Kildonan and Eaton Place and Winnipeg Square among others.

In 1994 Woolco was taken over by Walmart but this did not help Unicity as the mall was nearly half empty by this point. At the risk of losing Walmart altogether, Unicity Fashion Square was bulldozed in favour of a Smart Centre of big boxes anchored by Walmart. 

Of the original stores in Unicity, the only ones from 1975 remaining at the location are Shopper's Drug Mart, Reitman's and McDonald's. 

The lineup up those first stores is listed above.

Pictures from the Winnipeg Tribune Archives 1975, University of Manitoba.

The old anchors for Unicity were Woolco, The Bay and Dominion. The new anchors are Walmart, Canadian Tire, Sobey's and a solid lineup of Winners, Mark's, Dollar Tree, Valu Village, Staples, Sport Chek and others.

Unicity isn't a particularly attractive. The rules on greening their lot were fairly weak in 2000. As far as successful goes, it is generally fully leased compared to old Unicity Fashion Square.

I have been in a few Dollar Trees but find Dollarama to be better.

Winnipeg has a lot of thrift stores but Valu Village are fairly big.

Most of Unicity is wide parking lots and very little landscape.

I expect at some point Unicity, like a lot of malls, will be approach the city for zoning for housing. They should be forced to green up their property when that happens.

The retail landscape is changing everywhere and big parking spots like this are spots for future mixed development.

Grant Park Shopping Centre in 1969

The land where Grant Park Shopping Centre was near the end of the line for Winnipeg. The Grand Trunk Rail line (later CN) was built in 1908 and was bush country beyond River Heights and Fort Rouge. But it was also Rooster Town and it existed as a Metis community from 1920 to around 1961. It was housing not connected to water or roads and the people were vulnerable. It is difficult to say if any of the people lived or worked nearby thereafter.

In 1962 land was broken to create Grant Park Shopping Centre which was a series of detached stores along what would become Grant Avenue. The entire area was experience post World War II growth at an an accelerated rate. The mall itself opened in 1964.

The stores were originally detached. Safeway, Dominion and Clarke's were some of the original stores. Woolco was added in 1966 and triggered a court case with Clarke's that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The decision went to Woolco and triggered even more work to enclose the mall so that stores were connected together like a true mall.

The above picture is from 1969 and Woolco has been there for three years but this year is the first that is attached to mall. The below picture is also from 1969 and shows the corridor with Pizza Place on the right. The new movie theatre is immediately right in the picture and the corridor to the left leads to the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission (simply called The Commission) and the Imperial Bank. The bank is still there as CIBC and MLCC is now in a different place called the Manitoba Liquor Mart.

Pizza Place lasted through many decades and might have lasted a lot more. The multi-year renovations and store closures of Woolco, Zellers and Target were brutal. Many retailers inside moved a number of times. A few of them failed as a result of so many changes.

Grant Park certainly has gone through a dizzying array of changes from the day is has been built. However, today's Red River Co-op, Canadian Tire and Goodlife additions may represent a time of stability for the mall.

In 1969 the movie theatre opened and the entrance to it was through the mall. It was Winnipeg's first Cinerama theatre with a curved screen. The theatre was a 742 seat hall and was one of the more comfortable places to see a movie in the city.

The first movie was a special effects wonder called Krakatoa and had Winnipggers coming to check out for weeks for both the movie and the theatre.

By 1969 there were many towers surrounding the mall and across the street. South River Heights had filled in. And Woolco was the perfect suburban store with its candy section and Red Grille restaurant.

And in 1969 when the whole mall became enclosed, there was steady traffic down the corridor past the Pizza Place to Woolco.

The parking lot outside Grant Park would be largely just parking till the 1970s when McDonald's among came to town. Today there are restaurants the entire roadside.

The movie theatre became a multiplex in 1989 and has since been re-configured a few times and is now Landmark which could be one of the poshest movie houses in town except for VIP service.

As of the end of 2019 with Red River Co-op grocery store renovations ending, Grant Park is probably going to have some stability after years of renovations. Pizza Place which became Autumnbee's Pizza for a short time remains empty. It remains to be seen if anyone is willing to take a chance on it as a restaurant again.

Grant Park has evolved with suburbia and still remains popular with young and old.

Forever 21 to Close All Stores in Canada

The first store opened in Winnipeg in 2011 at Polo Park. It was a massive 34,000 square feet and crowds lined up at 2 AM to go inside. It was joined by Forever 21 Red at Outlet Collection of Winnipeg at Seasons of Tuxedo in 2017. That store was 26,000 square feet.

Now all 44 stores in Canada will close as the U.S. struggles into bankruptcy. No word on how the Canadian stores were doing but it would not be the first times stores were closed in Canada to save the U.S. stores. Hello, Sears.

For Polo Park this represents a major blow. Both Kildonan Place and St. Vital Mall are going through multi-million developments to fill the Sears closures and re-fresh the malls. Garden City has already addressed their Sears problem and malls like Northgate have worked on the Zellers/Target closures.

Polo Park has done nothing yet and will go another Christmas without filling the spot of a major anchor. Now, another huge store is closing. Three malls in town have added fitness centers generally in the 30,000 square feet range. As far as Sears goes with its 300,000 square feet...who knows.

Retail as we know it is changing fast. Expect housing to go up in malls, on top of malls and on mall parking lots fast.

Bed Bath and Beyond in Grand Forks to Close Thanksgiving

Grand Forks and Fargo have to be wondering when it ends. One retailer after another is closing in their cities at a pace that is breathtaking. And now another has announced it will be closing in Grand Forks. Bed Bath and Beyond has given U.S. Thanksgiving in November as a timetable of its closure.

There will be 20 workers affected by the closure which has been blamed on a failure to renew a lease on land adjacent to Columbia Mall. Stores in Fargo and Bismarck will remain open. The store has been a fixture of Grand Forks and a favourite for Manitoba shopping for 18 years.

Trips by people to North Dakota and Minnesota the most recent long weekends have been greeted with shock at the devastating closures. They don't even come close to what has been happening in Canada.

It would appear that West Acres in Fargo and Columbia Mall in Grand Forks are trying to re-vitalize their malls with with so many store closures, it won't be retail that fills all the spaces.

Meanwhile in Winnipeg Grant Park, Northgate, Garden City and Kildonan Place have all gone through or are going through major upgrades that fill lost retail space from the last three years.

Grant Park Plaza - The Early Days 1967

Grant Park started construction in 1962 and by 1964 it resembled more a big box strip mall than the enclosed mall today. By 1967 it looked like the store directory above. As seen, the mall had two groceries to start: Dominion and Safeway. It was also anchored by two department stores Woolco and Clark's.

But what is Clark's? This store seems to have slipped from the mists of memory for many. It wasn't the only Clark's in town either. There was one on Panet Road at Regent/Nairn.

The above was the Winnipeg location at Panet in 1962. The picture is commonly mistaken for Grant Park and I made it as well.

Clark's was the forerunner of Gambles and was owned by St. Louis-based Gamble-Skogmo which had a stable of stores under many brands. They also owned MacLeod's Hardware of Winnipeg.

Clark's actually went all the way to the Supreme Court and lost to prevent further expansion of Grant Park Plaza in 1967. It was to prevent becoming an enclosed mall as well as stopping Woolco from coming in. Their legal challenge didn't work and eventually the mall was enclosed and Clark's became Gambles.

Eventually Gambles was purchased by Zellers and the Clark's and Gambles names were gone forever from Winnipeg. It would take decades but the Zellers name itself would disappear as owner Hudson's Bay Company would sell it to Target. Some stores remained Zellers but in 2019, HBC will close the final two stores in Ontario.

Grant Park Shopping Centre as one of the oldest malls in Canada has seen tremendous change but was never allowed to simply deteriorate as some malls have in Canada. It was innovative in getting a movie theatre of substance even before places like Polo Park. It became home to the first big box book store in Winnipeg which remains strong today. And it was one of the first to have restaurants in its parking lot.

After its most recent makeover, that added Canadian Tire and Goodlife, it seems the mall has settled into a format that is working for it even where some of its competitors have undone their enclosed concept.

Three New Goodlife Fitness Locations for Winnipeg 2019/2020

Safe to say that Winnipeg is experiencing a building boom when it comes to fitness center across the city. The reasons for this vary but in part it can be explained as community centers not having nearly enough space or resources for a mature market of people wanting exercise centers. After graduating from schools and universities the choices for the adult fitness market are more often than not private fitness places. Moreover, how people keep fit can change as we age out of school and community sports like hockey, football and basketball. It is difficult to keep active with team sports due to work, family commitments or wear and tear.

Fitness is a solo thing save for joining group exercises such as yoga, cycling or dance/weight classes. We can still do our regular stuff such as swimming and biking, gardening and golfing but Canada is a winter country and daylight hours wane away so have created an infrastructure of indoor recreation facilities nation-wide.

Until recently you would really only be able to point to the Y as being the one true national fitness center. However, the Y kind of gives away its mission statement. It skews young and always will. It is a family friendly place and make no apologies for it. And over the years many of their facilities and services have upgraded and they do their job very well.

Goodlife, on the other hand, is a genuine Canadian coast to coast fitness center with a large presence in Winnipeg. That presence is about to get bigger. Goodlife is going to spend $30 million on two new clubs, relocation of one club and renovations on the rest. And by big, that means big. As reported already here on this blog, a 60,000 square foot club is going up on Bishop Grandin between Pembina Highway and Waverley along the north side. It will be double the size of Grant Park and Kenaston locations.

The Bishop Grandin location above will have a women's only section, a pool, a hot yoga studio and meditation space. The fitness center is scheduled to open in December. It would appear to be that it is in a race with the Altea fitness center which looks to be complete about the same time in the Bridgwater area on far south Kenaston. The Altea will be even larger and feature its own exclusive amenities. The continuing residential development and density building along Kenaston and now Bishop Grandin might generate the population to sustain the large facilities. In the case of Bridgwater, this growing area seems to have an anemic public recreation area so Altea might be only place for several years to come. As far as Bishop Grandin, the new bus rapid transit and high rises are right along the route the new Goodlife will stand on.

The Kenaston Goodlife is likely to benefit from a huge residential component in Kapyong and along Sterling Lyon while the Grant Park location is surrounded by apartments and is also adjacent to bus rapid transit. A lot of thought has gone into these multi-million dollar developments. Winnipeg is growing and the competition to serve the city means we are seeing some top notch building taking place.

Goodlife has indicated clubs in existence will be getting renovations. In this heavy competition, fitness centers will have to look to upgrade faster lest people look elsewhere. As far as other fitness centers like Shapes, Planet Fitness, Snap or Anytime Fitness, they will have to compete on price, location and amenities. Big won't always win the race. For those not in a car, the presence of a gym in a place such as the Osborne Village will be the choice they often make.

It is obvious Winnipeg has seen a dramatic increase in fitness centers across every geographic area but one area has been sadly lacking: St. Vital. The rumours have been true all along and Goodlife will be building in St. Vital Mall likely in the old Sears location. The location will be 27,000 square feet and be ready in spring on 2020.

The third new club will be at 330 Main Street in what people still call the Trizec building. It will be part of the residential/commercial component being building above Winnipeg Square and will be ready in summer of 2020. Once it is complete, the old Goodlife in what was the TD/Canwest building will be shut down. The new club will be about 24,000 square feet.

Once complete the new clubs will add about 200 jobs to the market.

The growth of Winnipeg by the tens of thousands in recent years and a desire to get healthy will probably fuel this competition for the next few years. It is interesting to note that malls such as Winnipeg Square, Garden City, Grant Park and now St. Vital Mall are adding fitness centers to drive traffic. It is difficult to imagine it happening 10 years ago in the city.

New Stores for Garden City Shopping Centre

The construction at Garden City Mall continues so everyone should be careful. A pedestrian fatality took place this past week near where work was done and is still being investigated.

As reported in this blog long ago, Seafood City is coming to Winnipeg and is being constructed within the footprint of the old Sears. The Filipino grocer will be complete this summer. It will be accompanied by Bulk Barn and a Michaels store leaving only three other spots left in the old Sears area left to leased.

Garden City is anchored on the other side of the mall by Canadian Tire and Winners. There are a few other vacancies within the mall left but suffice to say it is the biggest investment in the mall in decades and it is the first former Sears to have something built on the market.

After the Northgate Mall upgrade and addition of Save on Foods, Garden City could not afford to be complacent.

The closure of numerous national stores across North America has had landlords scrambling. Garden City and Grant Park malls have added Goodlife Fitness locations to attack crowds earlier and later into their shopping area. At 45 years old. Garden City was in need of an upgrade and looks to make continued improvements in 2019. Bulk Barn and Michaels are to open in the fall of this year.

Fionn MacCool's Closed on Regent

Fionn MacCool's Crossroads Station shopping center is closed today with a notice thanking people for their patronage. The Irish pub has been a fixture of the street since 2014 and is directly across from Kildonan Place. It seems suppliers were not even informed of the quick shutdown.

The notice in the window recommends that patrons go to the Grant Park location which has been open since 2017. It is not known what led to the shutdown of the Regent location. It is interesting to note that Hudson Bay Home behind it is also closing but one probably is not linked to the other.

Kildonan Place across the street is getting a multi-million expansion so the lucrativeness of that location should probably remain.

Will be interesting to see what comes in place of the Irish pub in the months ahead.

Kildonan Place Mall to Expand

The three large Sears locations have remained stubbornly closed at Polo Park, St. Vital and Kildonan Place. It stands to reason that all of them have been looking for a large size replacement or at the very least two retailers to share the holes left by Sears.

For Kildonan Place, it is second time looking for a replacement after Target closed in their mall. This triggered one of their largest and expensive makeovers that added H&M, Marshalls and several others to the space. The closure of Sears must have made them say "not again."

However, with this closure might have come opportunity. The original Kildonan Place built in 1980 had a Dominion grocery store. The stores closed in western Canada leaving malls like Polo Park and Kildonan  scrambling to fill the space. Polo Park got a larger Safeway and Kildonan just replaced with other stores.

Today's malls do not have a large line-up of other large retailers ready to jump in the moment a competitor falters. Heck, with the closures of Payless and HBC Home/Outfitters and others, there are a lack of even mid to small retailers ready in the wings.

The closure of Target and the takeover of Safeway by Sobey's has represented opportunities for grocers to enter the Manitoba market who are new or have been on a long hiatus. Co-Op stores via the Competition Act took over some Safeways and now operate three grocery stores in Winnipeg through Red River Co-Op. The Grant Park location is presently going through a major makeover. The other new entrant is British Columbia-based Save on Foods which took over McPhillips old Zellers location, the old Polo park Future Shop location and built a band new Bridgwater location.

As for the biggies. Extra Foods stores have been converted to franchise-owned No Frills stores and some Safeway/Sobey's stores are being converted Freshco grocery stores. It has all been a bit of a whirl. Suffice to say though that grocery stores still have a bricks and mortar presence even in a delivery world.

Kildonan Place's old Sears is set for a grocery conversion. Best guess by most people is a Save on Foods location based on exterior design although no name appears just yet.

The store would face out to Regent based on the designs being presented to the city this week. As big as the grocer is though, the mall had some extra space as well as ideas left. It would appear the back space facing out to Reenders will be a new space and an upgrade for Cineplex Odeon movie theatres. No word on whether it will be the same six theatres or more.

Another huge improvement will be the food court which has always been undersized given the square footage of the mall.

It will be quite a sizable food court when done and much more of a gathering spot than what presently exists.

The new mall will see changes to the back end parking as well as entrances to street but more landscaping as well.

There are a few other spaces for some larger retailers who now presently known yet. In terms of costs this expansions will be tens of millions and that is on top the millions spent to convert the old Target location. It is a complete affirmation of the owners in the space and the largest refresh done since the mall was built.

This is also a shot across the bow for Polo Park and St. Vital as Kildonan will be the first to fill its space where Sears left while the two larger cousins may enter yet another Christmas with empty retail.

The rumour is that both malls are ready to make announcements soon. In other words, it is game on but we'll see just how retailing is changing in what comes.

Autumnbee's Pizza Closed

After so many years of construction at Grant Park, so many changes, it is not surprising that some businesses inside were just not able to survive. Autumnbee's Pizza in the former Pizza Place location just down from the Landmark Theatre has closed. It might have been inevitable that this would have been the fate. Almost all full service restaurants in malls that don't have their own entrances to the outside are gone now.

It probably was particularly cruel to see Fionn Macool's going up in the parking lot, yes another casual dining competitor so close.

It used to be that the old Pizza Place was one of the few places in the dense neighbourhood where you could get a bite before a movie or the Grant Park arena or in the restaurant desert that was River Heights.

For the first time in a very long while it appears that Grant Park has achieved a final lay-out that should be sustained for a number of years. Winners, Canadian Tire and Goodlife are all in place and should be there for some time to come.

Neighbourhood changes south of the mall are also likely to bring more people to the area and the mall is well positioned now with a complete fresh look.

It is sad to see the longtime pizza joint close down but is just a matter of time that we see the movie theatre become licensed and begin serving more diverse food samplings. They may have closed just in time. It remains to be seen in another restaurant takes over the site or whether it will go retail.

Fionn MacCool's Coming to Grant Park in June

Grant Park Mall continues to see construction as Goodlife Fitness is preparing the remainder of the old Target location for a fall opening. Winners is also under construction beside the Liquor Mart with an opening date of December of this year.

In the parking lot beside Cambrian Credit Union along Grant Avenue construction is taking place. Today we learn it is a Fionn MacCool's restaurant. It is slated to open in June and will be out 4300 square feet. It will feature an outdoor patio. The Irish pub already has a location on Regent since 2014 in the former Kelsey's location and soon for Brandon.

The restaurant started in 1996 in Canada and is now coast to coast. The addition of a location at Grant Park should cap off several years of construction and retail upheaval at the 45 year old mall. By the end of the year the mall is likely to be fully leased with a configuration and anchor businesses will be around for some time.

The De-Malling of the Northgate Mall Winnipeg

The Northgate Shipping Centre on McPhillips owned by a family outside of Manitoba seemed to be content for many years to slowly decline. The closure of the Zellers years earlier left a 120,000 square foot hole. Target snubbed it as a location and there it stood a testimony that the mall had seen better days.

It is difficult to say whether the take-over of the Zellers by Save-On-Foods was the impetus for rehabilitating the mall or whether the owners decided to make a change. Whatever the reason, $20 million has been allocated to de-mall Northgate Mall.

The first step was to find a replacement for the Zellers and that came in the form of the largest Save-On-Foods in Winnipeg. At 65,000 square feet and the added title of International to its names, it carries more products that any of the other stores of that company built thus far.

But that wasn't all.

The next step was to get tenants already on the mall to buy in to the full upgrade and attract new original stores. One of the notable add on will be Jollibee's, a Philippines-based fast food franchise that opens next week in two locations including Northgate. They will be Canada's first.

A new Tim Horton's will also be up to accommodate the coffee lovers of the area.

The enclosed part of the the L-shaped mall comes to an end. In its place will be the first location of Fit 4 Less by Goodlife, the discount arm of Goodlife Fitness. At first it was thought that Winnipeg first location for this division would be the Grant Park Mall but plans have since changed. Grant Park will get a large Goodlife Fitness and the Fit 4 less will occupy 25,000 square feet of Northgate Mall.

The city's only discount theatre Cinema City will continue to be an anchor in the mall and several longtime loyal tenants will get upgrades. Royal Bank, Reider Insurance and Medicine Shoppe pharmacy all factor into the re-furbished mall.

The northeast quadrant of the city has many people living it, lots of traffic down McPhillips but largely absent landlords in the last numbers years. Not a lot of love in terms of investing in the property in compared to Grant Park Mall, Charleswood Mall and along Pembina Highway.

It would seen that Northgate's investment has spurred Garden City Mall to action after years of neglect. Still, it would take quite a bit to beat the millions being spent at Northgate.

It is true that commuters will travel some distance to places like Polo Park but the need of good local grocers, pharmacists and coffee shops is always there. The danger for Northgate was that if they didn't invest, more and more stores and services would have left. Now, they might have the right mix and the un-mall style to rejuvenate retailing in the region. In fact, they have stores now that people will make a special trip for.