The Southern Chiefs’ Organization and True North Real Estate Development plan to work together to build a residential tower at Portage Place, they said at a news conference at the downtown Winnipeg mall on Friday.
The two organizations and the provincial government held the news conference to announce more details of plans to redevelop the mall, which retail stores have largely abandoned since its glory days in the late 1980s, when it opened in an effort to revitalize downtown Winnipeg.
True North has until June 30 to decide whether to exercise an option to purchase the mall.
New information released Friday includes a planned timeline to start building a downtown health-care centre at the Portage Place site. Construction would start in 2025 and finish by 2028, with the province signing a letter of intent to enter a 35-year lease agreement, the province said.
The residential tower will include affordable and accessible one-, two- and three-bedroom units. It will rise 15 storeys above the west end of the existing two-storey mall, kitty-corner from the former Hudson’s Bay Co. building, which the Southern Chiefs’ Organization now owns.
Southern Chiefs’ will have an option to purchase the residential tower over time.
True North Real Estate Development president Jim Ludlow also announced that the company will give the walkway connecting Portage Place to the former Bay building to SCO for $1.
The east end of the mall will be the location of the health centre, which was first announced under the previous Progressive Conservative Manitoba government.
The 300,000-square-foot health-care centre will include a primary care clinic, mental health and addictions support services, renal dialysis and an expansion of the private Pan Am Clinic.