Mayoral candidate Gillingham hopes Portage Place plan will spur development

Plans for the downtown Winnipeg Portage Place mall could spark if the city leads the charge and learns from its past, according to one mayoral hopeful.

"It's just a property that's not living up to its potential, let's put it that way," candidate Scott Gillingham said Wednesday. "There's so much more that could be done there."

Gillingham says if elected on Oct. 26, he would have city staff work with other levels of government, Indigenous leaders and The Forks North Portage Partnership to come up with a financial plan to redevelop Portage Place.

It would include financial contributions and tax support plans, he said. Then, the city would put out a request for tender to developers.

The mall, which opened in 1987, was built through a partnership between the city, provincial and federal governments. It was hoped it would be a cure for downtown decay.

But with the 439,600-square-foot mall losing tenants, the three levels of government signed off in 2019 on a proposed sale to Toronto-based Starlight Investments.

Last September, the developer pulled out of the  almost $70-million deal, which was contingent on the three levels of government organizing a mix of contributions and tax supports. That never came though.

"What didn't happen is from the outset, you know, we as a city — with the province and the federal government — we didn't begin with the conversation," said Gillingham, who is seeking the mayor's seat after serving as a city councillor since 2014.

"So if we begin the conversation together then you know where it will lead us."

Starting with a financial plan among all levels of government would alleviate the issues seen during the failed Starlight Investments deal, Gillingham said.

He says if his plan is put in place, the financing for redevelopment would mostly be sorted out, so a developer bidding on the project would have all the information they'd need from the start.

Gillingham said he also wants to help create more mixed-used buildings on major Winnipeg routes like Pembina Highway and Portage Avenue — one of the key points in the city's main planning document.

To do that, he said he would remove rules that require businesses and apartment buildings to have a certain number of parking spots. He said he'd also get rid of the current rules that require developers to approach city hall every time they want to build something on their land.

Gillingham is among 12 people who have registered mayoral campaigns. The others are Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Shaun Loney, Jenny Motkaluk, Glen Murray, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Jessica Peebles, Rick Shone, Desmond Thomas and Don Woodstock.

Co-operation needed for complicated site: CEO

A site like Portage Place needs all levels of government to work together, says the CEO of The Forks North Portage Partnership, which owns the land the mall sits on and the parkade underneath — but not the building itself.

"Many different parties own or control different pieces of it, so co-ordinated, multilateral work will be necessary to make anything happen here," said Sara Stasiuk.

The land and parkade are also part of the discussion, she said, as well as the property behind it, the private roads nearby and the skywalks that connect Portage Place to other buildings.

Stasiuk said she's not sure why the Starlight deal fell apart, but said all parties realized during that process that the levels of government needed to work together to move ahead with any redevelopment.

Just a few blocks west, a multi-government approach has been taken to another Winnipeg landmark.

The Southern Chiefs' Organization now controls the Hudson's Bay building in downtown Winnipeg, with all three levels of government pitching in to help redevelop it.

With Portage Place, though, "past attempts haven't worked," Stasiuk said.

"So I think we need to go into a development plan with new collaborations with new ideas, creative approaches and ownership routes."