Abercrombie and Fitch, Uniqlo Coming to Polo Park, Eddie Bauer Closing

Polo Park remains the top mall because it continues to adapt and attract tenants. Having said that, it must be exhausting some of the big retailers like Eaton's, Sears, Zellers, The Bay and others who have collapsed over the years. Even now, the mall and St. Vital are trying to figure out what to do about the empty Bay stores. It is likely we hear more in 2026 but it is unlikely that there is any big retailer is about to grab the whole space. Even Simons would not occupy that much space as seen from their recent expansion from Quebec into Ontario.

This story is not about the anchor stores though. This is about the smaller retailers that make up the corridors between the anchors. After Christmas every year changes are made and there will be periods where some retailers are looking to to downsize or close and others are looking to the opposite. There will be attempts in the mall to move retailers around so they can occupy bigger spaces or to be in an area where each retailer attracts a certain type of customer. For example, jewelry stores like to locate in the middle of the mall where two or more corridors intersect.

Polo Park has kept up as the top mall because it constantly invests in the building and seeks out unique stores no one else has. The Apple store does huge business. However, even having one exclusive store can have it's time and close. Eddie Bauer has been around for years and was part of a huge upgrade in 2014. There is only one in the city and on January 7, it closed. It is unknown whether this is a lease that was not renewed or whether Eddie Bauer itself made the decision. 

In the end, it doesn't matter because the mall has been moving tenants around to accommodate incoming retailers. While it is suggested Gen Zs are not going to the mall, Canada cannot merely assume what is true in the States is true here. There is some evidence to suggest that certain stores can indeed attract young people. And malls have been trying to add attractions and activities that attract families. Ask West Edmonton Mall and Mall of America about those.

Malls are like hotels in that renovations and changes within an existing framework need to be done each decade to keep things fresh. It is worth noting that Polo Park was late to the food court crowd in the 1980s. They had mall restaurants as tenants and in department stores but nothing like the other malls until their late 1980s reno. That was the way to attract young people back in the day and still is.

The constant change in recent years hastened by Covid means just as a mall settles one issue or need, they get bulldozed by new announcements of store closures they perhaps didn't not anticipate. As mentioned, Eddie Bauer is closed. The company has been closing closing locations over the last few years. However, the location closure has given Hollister a chance to re-locate and do a re-fresh. The California-look store has been at Polo Park since 2010. It is unknown if they will restore the video walls of Huntington Beach webcam that the company has broadcast since the early 2000s. Most of the stores have dropped the beach hut like entrance for a brighter, open window look. Apparently, Gen Z likes brighter lights. Also gone in the new design is the heavy scent and loud music.

In Hollister's old location near Zara, sister company Abercrombie and Fitch is set to come to Manitoba for the first time. They have had their ups and downs, CEO problems and the like. The store first started in 1892 so they know something about adapting. As a new store to the province, it will attract a lot of interest from young to mid-range age shoppers. Abercrombie has gone through several iterations as most successful brands have done. The opening of the store in 2026 should cement CF Polo Park's hold as the top mall in Manitoba.

To cap it off, the mall is adding Uniqlo, the Asian-inspire store that has fans across the world. This will be the third in a series of Asian stores to open at Polo Park. It likely won't arrive before St. Vital Center's own Uniqlo arrives. The southeast mall continues to be the main rival to Polo Park. The large Asian population of Winnipeg and those that love Asian fashion and beauty is changing the retail industry.

The goal of any mall is to transform and not leave big empty gaps in the building. To that end, what Polo Park does with the old Bay will be one to watch after these latest stores open.

Home Hardware in Winnipeg Finally Opens 2025

Peavey Mart closed both Winnipeg locations in January of this year. The entire company shut down but in Alberta but is slowly opening locations again. This might not be easy in Winnipeg because their former location at 2860 Pembina Highway has been taken over by the dealer-owned Home Hardware.

The Pembina location was also formerly a Zellers so the hope is that Home Hardware will be the one that find long term success in the 30,000 square foot location. The new owners are an Inuit family that operate the EPLS Group of Companies centered along the western shore of Hudson Bay. Two Home Hardwares in Arviat and Rankin Bay Inlet in Nunavut are owned by the family already. A distribution center in Winnipeg supplies the group.

The relationship between Nunavut and Manitoba has only grown in recent years and is likely to grow more. As for Home Hardware, it is a familiar friend to those in rural Manitoba with 25 locations already in the province. Across Canada, the company has 1000 dealer owned stores. To be sure the Winnipeg location will be very big for their locations. The EPLS Group will be able to use the buying power of their Winnipeg store to get good prices and supplies for their stores up north.

All around this is a good Canadian business story. A Canadian retail outfit opens in an area of Winnipeg in need of a store for renovators and contractors owned by an Inuit business from the north. This is the best kind of story.

Over the last months, there has been some indication that some of the gaps in the economy are starting to fill. The cost of living, housing and have seen some improvement although it has been painfully slow. Supply chains is like turning a ship. It is a slow and long turn. The loss of Peavey Mart hurt several areas of the economy but Home Hardware has been adding steadily over the years and now filling gaps left by the closures across Canada.

Some businesses such Home Hardware are not easily or conveniently replaced by online. The Canada Post strike repeatedly cutting service showed rural areas the weakness of the delivery system for online products. Home Hardware, by contrast, is owned locally, supplied nationally and is located right in communities where needed. For south Winnipeg along Pembina Highway, the new store will bring people in from that area and beyond the Perimeter Highway. 

It may be we have not seen the last of Peavey Mart or Zellers in Manitoba but the ascendance of Home Hardware is undeniable.

The Return of Zellers to Winnipeg

Zellers keeps trying to make a comeback. After the closure of The Bay where Zellers pop-ups were thought to make the department store relevant again, it seemed we'd seen the last the last of attempts to revive the brand. In the 1990s, Zellers numbered 350 stores across Canada. By the time Target came in and bought 220 Zellers, it left and orphaned and unwanted 70 locations that began slowly closing until there was none. As for Target, it was only a few shorts years in Canada and they retreated back across the border. All the old locations now have different stores in them.

As The Bay struggled in post-Covid times, Zellers was brought in to help the store sales with a wave of nostalgia and product lines. However, the American owner of HBC had pretty much sold most things of value and so the oldest company in Canada was liquidated including the Zellers popups in Bay stores across Canada.

In receivership, leases and namesakes and anything of value are being sold off with oversight by the court. Canadian Tire bought The Bay name and key intellectual property for around $30 million. It is believed that they open parts of the business under The Bay name and sell things like Hudson Bay blankets.

But no one knew what was to come of Zellers. No mention was made whether it's name or intellectual property was sold. Now we know the answer. It was. A group associated with retailer Fairweather. The details on the new Zellers are few. It is in Edmonton's Londonderry Mall and around 60,000 square feet. But whether it has a grill, carries certain products and the like is a mystery.

The word is though that the new Zellers is looking at Winnipeg but it unknown whether it will go to St. Vital or Polo Park or neither. A credible owner now has control over Zellers. A lot of eyes will be on the new Edmonton location to see if it will be turning up in Winnipeg in 2026.

Polo Park Billion Dollar Development Stalled

It should come as no surprise that Polo Park developer Cadillac Fairview along with Shindico went to great trouble to change the zoning around Polo Park to allow high rises. The airport opposed and was overruled so the go ahead to proceed to the planning phase began. And then nothing.

I suppose they might be forgiven in that other major priorities have them occupied which they are reluctant to say. For Cadillac Fairview, it has been to fill the second floor with the new London Drugs. The former Zellers site as been a frequent site for changes and London Drugs is an anchor worthy of the mall. The next task is to fill the huge empty space left by the closure of the Hudson Bay Company.

For more than a year, Polo Park and St. Vital Centre has girded themselves for what was to come if and when The Bay closed. They both have filled spots in the former Sears locations but it can't be easy to backfill constantly major retailers that have collapsed. Sears Polo Park was a major anchor and it required some innovative thinking to fill the spot. Likewise, St. Vital Centre also needed so do some thinking to fill the spot left by Sears closing. 

Cadillac Fairview would probably like to develop the properties they own where the old arena and stadium stood but is constantly having to work on the mall itself. While it remains the largest mall in the city, it is has lost some luster to Seasons of Tuxedo which continues to see more stores, restaurants, hotel rooms and and housing built. Presumably, all the things Polo Park wants. St. Vital Centre is pressed to expand anywhere. It is as hemmed in as you can get. Once they find something to fill the HBC spot, it will be interesting to see if they look to something different such as build up.

Polo Park's location along Portage Avenue and next to Route 90 could not be more well positioned for growth. Cadillac Fairview probably has another year or so till get their mall in shape. Once London Drugs is in place and The Bay filled in, I expect they will look at building the multi-unit housing that is in the plans. It is all so painfully slow.

As for Shindico, the actual construction of Costco after years waiting for the announcement is sure to trigger more of the development surrounding the big store through 2026. There are already large blocks of apartments and other residential units going up either side of Winnipeg and Headingley. Nearly all land preparation and traffic lights have been put in to support this development. One can imagine though that it is likely not enough. Already, Coscto has triggered Walmart Unicity to conduct a massive hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrade to their store. It is a huge improvement there.

All this development emphasizes the point that hundreds of millions are being spent on areas that have been waiting for years for work. The Costco in Headingley has been in the planning stages since before the pandemic. Now, it appears they are moving with haste on it as well and at the North Main Street location. The Polo Park location will become a Costco Business Centre.

The developer indicated that the new lower immigration rate, tariffs and other factors were contributing to the stall. There may be some clarity on the tariffs soon but it may be difficult to get to where we were in the last years with tens of thousands arriving each year. The truth is that immigration has been lowered because there was no capacity to house new arrivals. And capacity was a problem long before immigration was increased.

The federal accelerator program is now building affordable homes across the country that are shovel ready. This should be helpful as many projects, such as Polo Park, are more market driven and will not be viable for real affordability unless they receive some part of accelerator program money. The list of applicants is long. It is shocking how long projects take to get done. World War II was won in six years but building an apartment in Winnipeg can take a decade.

So much is happening in 2026. Portage Place becoming Pan Am Clinic, the Downtown Bay conversion, the old BMO Portage and Main becoming a museum, two Costco's being built and apartments all over the city. And Kapyong likely to take the next step on development. If Polo Park waits to long, they are likely to be passed by.

What Should Go in The Bay Spots at Polo Park and St. Vital 2025?

The word is on June 1st, 2025, the Bay as a department store will be closing their doors forever. Polo Park and St. Vital Centre will once again have large spaces to fill. It has happened frequently for Winnipeg's top two shopping malls. They have managed to survive and even thrive. It wasn't easy though and there are examples across North America where malls are decaying after losing anchors.

Polo Park has found new tenants after losing Brettons, Eaton's, Safeway, Zellers and Sears. There are still some big retailers worth looking to attract. London Drugs is moving into the second floor of Polo Park which is a big win for the mall. Likewise, St. Vital Centre has replaced old tenants such as Eaton's, Woolco and Safeway. They will now have to replace The Bay.

When Polo Park lost Sears, there were no obvious choices to fill such a large space. They turned to EQ3, the furniture store that had been in the mall parking lot, to move in The remaining space was on the first floor was taken up by popular store Zara. Even with the expanded space, the second floor was unoccupied so Intouch 24/7 call centre moved in. 

There are no obvious choices for an anchor for the Bay location. Simons, a family owned department store would be ideal but they might only be interested in one floor. They expand very slowly and they are in the middle of an Ontario expansion so might not be able to do. Their expansions have always been slow and self-financed.

Polo Park did have a grocery store for many decades it. Safeway was the last store to be located there. They surprised the landlord when they didn't renew the lease and instead located to a supersized format on Madison. While the mall adjusted and brought in other retailers, a grocery store is a very good way to bring in people seven days a week. Could it be that we see a grocer like T&T or Co-Op move into the ground floor space?

The Shopper's Drug Mart has some grocery in it as does the Dollarama. Some critics on social media have blamed the Dollarama for a spike in undesirable elements at the mall. Some have blamed the conversion of the former Clarion Hotel to a medical stay for the government of Nunavut. Attributing bad things to the Utuutaq Centre where pregnant women come for medical stays seems a bit of a reach. As for the Dollarama, there have been a few in the surrounding area for years.

In the post Covid world so much as moved online. Recent stories on the news have reported that stores are migrating to Internet-only sales. Many have said foot traffic patterns have declined. Costs to run a brick and mortar business have gone up. If commercial streets and malls have more stores migrate to online platforms, what is left? For some malls in North America it has been more entertainment options, food halls and restaurants and in recent years residential units.

Polo Park has already indicated they are looking at residential units going in on their expansive property. These will likely go up in parking areas before anything attached to the mall but that might change with the departure of The Bay. The trick is to find tenants that have customers that come in seven days a week over the course of an entire day. As mentioned, grocery stores and pharmacies meet that criteria. Fitness centers do as well in that category. Polo Park has had a 20 lane five pin bowling alley since 1959. It is things like that which have lasting power.

There has been a rumour that Cadillac Fairview was interested in bringing Cineplex Odeon's Playdium to the mall. In 2024, the company opened their first game arcade in a Toronto location. Something like that occupies about 20,000 square feet so it would not fill 200,000 feet of space of empty Bay store but it could be a start.

And what of St. Vital? There is already a gym and two grocery stores as part of the mall and on the property. It already has a movie theatre. It is possible they too could try for an arcade but it is possible they might pull in retailers such as Old Navy into the store instead of the parking lot. However, they too have a size problem in terms of filling the space. A residential option seems unlikely for St. Vital. However, a hotel option might not be out of the question.

Filling nearly 400,000 square feet of space will require some innovation and patience. It is worth noting that Canada does not have nearly as much retailing space as the United States and top malls like Polo Park and St. Vital have been surprisingly resilient. The real estate value of the malls mean that careful consideration of how space is utilized. Even parking space has become too valuable for it to be empty for large parts of the day. And while some might find comfort in a certain consistency and uniformity in malls, they will have to have something unique that you can't get from online scrolling/

Zellers to Become a Shop-in-Shop Inside The Bay St. Vital

Zellers returns to all of Canada and in Winnipeg, it will open inside the Bay St. Vital Centre. Most of Zellers ended in Canada in 2011 with the arrival of Target which took over most of the locations in the country. Some boutique Zellers have popped up in recent years but this latest push in 2023 are stores ranging from 8000 to 10,000 square feet. It is unknown how big the store in St.Vital's HBC will be.

For St. Vital Centre this can only be thought of as an affirmation that it is a second tier mall in Winnipeg below Polo Park and now Seasons in Tuxedo. A fine mall to be sure but one for the Walmart and Zeller-set. That could change with investment the mall but at the moment, the millions of dollars are being spent elsewhere.

More on this as it comes available.

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.

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.

Polo Park Number 14 Mall in Canada 2017

In 2017, CF Polo Park continued to be one of the top malls in Canada based on sale poor square footage. As expected, Toronto took the top spot along with a few Vancouver malls rounding out the top 3. However, Winnipeg's largest mall came in at number 14 in the listings.

In other categories such as total square footage and most pedestrian traffic, none of Winnipeg's malls ranked in the top 10. Surprisingly, Garden City Shopping Centre had higher sales per square footage than St. Vital Centre. On the face of it, St. Vital has more retailers but obviously more does not equal higher sales.

There were no figures for the Outlet Collection Mall as it just opened this year.

The top four Winnipeg malls will all be dealing with the closure of Sears much like much of Canada. For malls like Polo Park, it represents an opportunity to land Nordstrom's or Simon's. The fully leasing of Polo Park's off campus building in the former Target takes that property off their books. HomeSense/Winners, 24-7 InTouch Call Centre and Cineplex's Odeon's Rec Centre moving in.

It will be interesting to see how replacing Sears in the top malls will affect sales. For some malls who saw Sears leave early on in their woes a few years ago, the sales jumped considerably.

The Retail Council of Canada which conducted the study indicates the Winnipeg has less retail than Alberta but more than Greater Vancouver. It will be interesting to see where the latest building of retails puts the city on the listing next year.

It is believed that Polo Park is looking at a major upgrade being announced soon with the redevelopment of Sears. Sometimes it is lost in the haze of the redevelopment of the old Zellers on the second floor that the mall has had the same decor for some time. It is going to be quite a whirl because four city malls will be in a race to fill their empty Sear space this year.

Sam's Club Fargo-Moorhead to Close

On the heel's of Walmart announcing they were raising all their employees wages, the company announced that they were closing one of the two warehouse Sam's Club in Fargo/Moorhead, North Dakota/Minnesota putting 168 workers out of a job by January 26. The store  closing is along the Interstate heading to Minneapolis close to the Menard's in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Unlike Sam's Club in Grand Forks which was built soon after Walmart, the Sam's Club in Moorhead is distant to the Walmart Supercenter which is deeper into the city. This might have proved too problematic as the two stores feed off each other's customer draw.

Costco entered the Fargo-Moorhead market just a number of years ago but they chose their location in the rapidly expanding south Fargo area down from West Acres Mall. The old gentlemen's agreement to have Costco and Sam's staying out of each other's market appeared to have turned into a war.

Unlike Winnipeg's three Costco's which are always busy, Fargo-Moorhead's warehouse stores often have emptier parking lots. This is true of Sam's and Costco's locations. Truth is the U.S. is more over retailed than Canada is and that's saying a lot. It is also adopting online sales at a greater pace than almost anywhere as well.

Store closures can be seen as an opportunity. While West Acres in Fargo and Columbia Mall in Grand Forks have been greatly bruised with the closures of Sears and J.C. Penny stores, they can re-purpose their malls to smaller and more profitable sized retailers and restaurants. Moreover, stores like Kmart that closed in Moorhead only a short time ago have found new regional players like Runnings move in. The 86,000 square at that location became the 16th in a Minnesota-based Runnings group focused on farm and outdoor sales.

Meanwhile In Winnipeg, the last Target will soon be home to a call centre, Winners/Homesense and Rec Centre. That concludes the leasing of all the former Zellers/Target locations in Winnipeg.

The 63 Sam''s locations closures are sad and in some cases shocking to those that worked or shopped there. Sam's in Moorhead was only built in 2014 and occupied 186,000 square feet by a highway. Alas, it was not enough and for Winnipggers who have Sam's memberships (and there are a few), they will still have Grand Fork and West Fargo's Same to shop at.

Giant Tiger Now Open at Stafford

The closure of Price Chopper brought sadness to many when it happened earlier this year. It was a favourite for restaurateurs and those looking for fresh produce in their regular food purchases. It became an orphan in the Sobey's purchase of Safeway when the federal government ordered the divestiture of some stores for the sake of competition. In Winnipeg that meant four Safeways were sold as well Price Chopper. Red River Co-Op bought four stores getting back into the grocery business after decades on the sidelines and the North West Company bought Price Chopper.

For some time Price Chopper continued operations but it was the odd duck in the North West operation. In Canada the historic company dominates the north with Northern stores. In more recent years, it holds the master franchise agreement for Giant Tiger in Western Canada.

Co-Op stores found out just how aggressive North West Company is on expanding Giant Tiger when they went to re-sign the lease on the newly acquired Main Street store. The owner of the building said no thanks and sent them packing with little in the way of explanation. That was kind of bewildering as a grocer is a prime long term tenant to have. Moreover, Co-Op offered to buy the site which could have proved lucrative as well.

In the end it was Giant Tiger who kicked Co-Op to the curb. The new store there is open and while not completely a grocery, it offers a general merchandiser where there was none. It will be up to residents to decide whether they are better served than they were in the past.

It is difficult for some not to think the fix was in for Price Chopper. It is prime property on Pembina Highway at the entryway to suburban neighbourhoods. As the kind of store it was, it was always going to be kind of a niche. It wasn't surprising that an announcement came saying it was closing. But lo and behold, the owners North West Company has Giant Tiger to salve the wounds. This wasn't announced till later though.

This past Saturday Giant Tiger opened to fanfare at 677 Stafford. Expectations are that it should do great business where it is located. At just under 20,000 square feet, it joins 240 other Giant Tigers in Canada with a growing number in the west.

The neverending underpass construction along Pembina Highway still has a long way to go. However, Giant Tiger should be able to weather the long wait and be successful where it is. They occupy a part of the market that Zellers was just able to hold onto and where Walmart, Superstore or Target wanted to go. They have become a Canadian success story.

Sears Looks to Close Remaining Stores

Sears St. Vital

And then there were none.

Coming on the heels that Polo Park Sears will close is the news that St. Vital Sears and Kildonan Sears are also closing. The three Sears closing with mean the loss of over 350 jobs in Winnipeg and leave large spaces to be filled in the top malls in the province.

Garden City Sears Outlet recently closed with the loss of 81 jobs. More than a year ago Sears closed closed their Home Store on St. James. The Brandon Hometown store around the same time. Liquidation will begin and end before the end of the year.

In 2018, the entire Sears company will cease to exist. The total loss of stores in Canada will cost 15,000 people their jobs will leave massive holes in malls that are still trying to fill space after Target closed. Across Canada Sears as of this week the company has 74 department stores, 8 Sears Home Stores and 49 Sears Hometown stores.

When Sears opened as Simpsons Sears at Polo Park, it once had 600 employees. It was the anchor of the mall and at 260,000 square feet it has a huge footprint. St. Vital Sears is 132,000 square feet and Kildonan Place Sears is 126,000 square feet. The recently closed Garden City Sears Outlet store was 92,000 square feet.

It would appear one company would like to take 50,000 square feet of space of the Garden City Sears location. It is not certain what that company is but the rumours have been that a grocery has been looking around.

Garden City has been in need of a freshening up for sometime and Sears was holding it back. The Northgate Mall nearby had seriously upped its game with Save on Foods and massive work has transformed the mall. In the next year Garden City will probably have the makeover it has needed for a very long time..

When Zellers closed in Polo Park after Target came to Canada, the mall embarked on re-purposing the space to multiple store that had been waiting a long time to get in the mall. The end result was a $49 million horeshoe extension and 22 new stores including a return of the Disney store.

The problem with Sears Polo Park is that is a few floors and one heckuva a lot more space. Rumour has it that Nordstrom's and Simon's have been looking at the space in the event that Sears closed. The owner of the mall will have to decide how they want to configure the mall for maximum effect. It seems impossible that the cost to do this will around the same as the Zellers conversion. Expect a bold and costly change and some exciting announcements.

Kildonan Place just finished re-purposing the closed Target space. They now have an H&M, Home Sense and Marshals store in the old space. Managers of the mall must be thinking: Not again. It is possible that the mall will simply convert the space again and find smaller retailers to come to the mall. However, maybe there is a larger store interested in part of the space.

Of all the malls, it may be that St. Vital is in the best position to use Sears space quickly. The mall went through an extensive re-freshening last year and save for a few spaces here and there, is ripe for certain retailers to move in. Simply put, there is no room in the region for anyone to build in the area. There is no telling what will go in the space but expect a competition from retailers to grocers to movie theatre companies to gyms to put proposals in. One retailer want to use the lease 25,000 square feet of the second floor at the mall. It remains to be seen if they have the inside track.

All in all Manitoba should fare better than other provinces looking to fill space of old Sears. Many small towns still are struggling from closed Zellers and Targets. The only spot in Winnipeg with a still vacant Target is Polo Park but it isn't awaiting a buyer. The mall already owns the spot. However, with the fate of Sears in the mall. That is what the top retailers are looking at. Once that has been decided, the attractiveness of the old Target Polo Park location only grows.

It is tragic that the loss of Sears in Winnipeg will put so many out of work. It has been a while since many people have stepped into a Sears. Bad management killed the company. This province will overcome the loss. It will hurt many others far longer.

Sears Polo Park Closing

Simpsons-Sears in the 1970s

The writing has been on the wall for some time. Sears in Canada has been suffering at the hands of the parent in the U.S. for years now. Every chance to modernize the department store was nixed by head office in the U.S. with ever growing demands to send cash south to bail out Sears/Kmart. Shares of the parent company dropped from 73% in 2006 to 10% today. All attempt to stem the downturn in Sears Canada was met with selfish resistance and the money still flowed south.

Sears joined with Kmart in the U.S. but the brand was old and tired and all investors wanted out of the company was the real estate holdings and credit business. The market was changing to more online sales but any re-investment in the company to other areas was quashed.

In Canada stores closed or leases sold back to the malls. The money was once again sent south rather to get Sears Canada better equipped for the new retailing. In Winnipeg and Brandon  came the closures of Sears Hometown stores and Sears Home stores and then Sears Outlet store at Garden City.

Sears in 2017 was left with three stores at Polo Park, St. Vital and Kildonan. The big whale and once one of the most profitable stores in the country for the department store was the 270,000 square foot Polo Park store. It was the original anchor in the mall and a major funder that got the place built in 1959.

Polo Park has expanded many times since the 1959 opening and Sears has been a major anchor and profitable for decades there. In 1999, Sears operated the old Eaton's as owner for a time making it a double anchor. That Eaton's eventually failed along with the other stores across Canada and HBC became the anchor on the north side.

For a few years now the rumour has been that Sears was going to sell the lease off or go under nationally. Several retailers such as Nordstrom and Simons have sniffed around waiting to see what would happen. It is one of the reasons why new development has not popped up immediately in the recently built Target building north of the mall. Why would a big retailer want to go in there when the 12th largest mall in Canada awaits your arrival?

The last large space to come available Polo Park came as the result of Zellers closure. Rather than looking for a one or two big retailers to take over the spot, the mall reconfigured it into a horseshoe- corridor that added 22 stores including a Disney store.

The Sears location is so enormous covering three times the size. It seems unlikely but not impossible the mall would be convert it to 40 to 60 new stores. Moreover, it is doubtful that Cadillac Fairview wants to leave the space empty for too long into 2018. The competition from Seasons of Tuxedo is not to be taken lightly.

Sears began in 1953 as a collaboration between Simpsons in Canada and Sears, Roebuck. The original sign on Polo Park of the store said Simpsons-Sears for years and was shopped at by many. It was the first credit card many young people ever got. The demise of the store in Canada can be laid at a changing market but hastened by the worst example of branch plant economy management. Selfish, stupid and ultimately self-defeating U.S. demands busted Sears in Canada. In the end it didn't help Sears in the States either.

There will be 159 people who lose their jobs at Sears in Polo Park. Pensions and benefits have been torpedoed as well as vulture strip off the carcass. Pretty shabby treatment from a once great icon of retailing.

Malls are changing for sure in the face of the new economy but Polo Park is probably going to do just fine re-inventing itself. After all, it once was a horse racetrack. They have changed before.

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.

H&M Officially Announce 2nd Store Opening

H&M has officially announced that they will be opening their second store at Kildonan Place in the summer of 2017. This comes on the heels of their 2014 Polo Park store which has met with great success.

The location appears to be across the hall from a large Urban Planet opening in the summer as well. The new wing occupied the old Zellers and Target space in the mall. Also in that wing appears to a Skechers shoe store and a Hakim Optical. HomeSense and Marshalls are the anchor tenants in that section.

This will be H&M's  84th store in Canada and second for Winnipeg. It will employ 35 people.

Kildonan Place - Marshalls, HomeSense Open April 18

Marshalls and HomeSense have set April 18 as the date they open at Kildonan Place. The old Target has been transformed into a new wing of the expanded mall. The new stores will be accessible from inside the mall. A new mall common area being built at the same time as the rest of the mall's renovations..  HomeSense will lease 21,000 square feet and Marshalls has 24,000 square feet. Original draft of the plans listed H&M coming as well but nothing to report on that sore at the moment.

 MasterMind Toys, West 49 and Cutting Edge Cutlery Co. will also be opening in the months ahead.

Nearly all the major malls in Winnipeg have seen major renovations of the past three years. The closure of Zellers, Target, Kmart and some Safeway and Sobey's locations has caused massive changes in the shopping landscape.

Expect a flurry of other mall announcements in the months ahead.

Polo Park Number 16 Mall in Canada

The Retail Council of Canada released their analysis of the Canadian mall market ending in December and one again CF Polo Park ranks high in their top 30 coming in number 16. It is very likely that Sears is the major drag on why Manitoba's biggest mall does not stand higher. The struggling retailer occupied a lot of space but sales, pedestrian traffic and productivity affects Polo park and St. Vital Centre dramatically.

Polo Park is the only mall to rank in the top 30 between Ontario and Alberta. Nearly all the top malls including Polo Park have experienced recent renovations or expansions. In the case of Polo Park, it was the 22 stores added in the old Zellers location in the past 3 years and the several stores added where Safeway once stood. Harry Rosen also had an expensive makeover.

All the top malls were located in urban centers, tourist areas and near mass transit. Polo Park is in the provinces largest city, one of the biggest tourist draws and has a major bus hub. Winnipeg has few high end retailers despite a higher median income than the Vancouver area. This may speak to the city being less of a tourist attraction than the coast.

Polo Park bought the the recently built former Target store north of the Scotiabank movie theatres. Rumour has swirled that Cineplex Odeon has their eyes set on a space in the parking lot for their Rec Centre entertainment complex. The mall seems to be in no hurry to lease the space and a number of retailers have kicked the tires including Nordstrom, Simons and Canadian Tire. In the case of the first two, they might be on Sears deathwatch as the old retailer continues to wheeze to a possible shutdown. The 300,000 stores will be highly sought after.

In all likelihood, Polo Park will rise in the ranks but until the Sears issue is resolved.

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.

Jollibee and Save-On Foods Revitalize Northgate Shopping Center McPhillips

A drive along McPhillips will quickly reveal some opportunities that have come up as a result of grocery store and department store closures. The Northgate Shopping Centre in 2010 had a 98% occupancy rate but the shut down of Zellers a few years back had the place looking a little forlorn.

The 230,000 square foot mall was constructed in 1962 and renovated in 1998 and 2004. In 2010 it was put up for sale for $20 million. It has the last discount movie theatre in Winnipeg with Cinema City.

The arrival of Target initiated the ending of Zellers at Northgate and the big American retailer looked at the site and simply said no. And there it sat empty for the longest time until Jimmy Pattison in Vancouver saw an opportunity to bring his B.C. based grocery business Save-On Foods to Manitoba.

The Save-On Foods sign in now up even while the grocery is still being spruced up with the green colouring of the company. When Pattison announced the store was coming, the neighbourhood turned up in droves and triumphant. While not a grocery desert, recent closures of a Safeway as well as the Zellers hurt competitiveness on the street.

The new construction in front of the Save On Foods will be the home to Winnipeg's second Jollibee's location. The first will be on Ellice north of Polo Park.

The combination of a Save on Foods and Jollibee's at Northgate vaults the down at its heels mall to top attraction on McPhillips. No word on when the grocer opens but it is a good bet sometime in the next several weeks. As for Jollibee's, probably mid-summer.

Goodlife Fitness Coming to Grant Park Shopping Center

In 2015, Goodlife Fitness indicated an interest in all of the Targets that were closing in Canada. Some scoffed at this without realizing how many former Eaton's locations had been taken over by the national gym many years back. Still, at least in Manitoba, the pursuit of four fair sized locations seemed a longshot for a variety of reasons due to size or location.

Grant Park just north of future transit station. High traffic area coming soon

There has been no official announcement but it has been confirmed by sources in the real estate world that Goodlife is about to occupy one of the old Targets. That location is the Grant Parking Shopping Center.

At first it was thought that Canadian Tire would occupy the whole location. However, the renovations underway reveal that the retailer has taken 86,000 square feet of the old space. The part that is left is still a massive 34,000 square feet section immediately behind Pony Coral.

The map included shows how Canadian Tire will share the space with Goodlife. At 34,000 square feet, it will easily be the biggest location in the city surpassing Kenaston

Canadian Tire opens July 1st and Goodlife Fitness, if all the rumours are true, looks to be in the next several months.