A redeveloped Portage Place will include a 12-storey health centre, Premier Web Kinew announced Friday.
True North’s real estate arm unveiled a proposal in May 2023 to build a 15-storey health-care services tower at the site.
Kinew announced the 12-storey tower at a news conference inside the mall Friday. True North Real Estate Development and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization signed a memorandum of understanding to co-ordinate their projects at the mall in December.
A rendering shows the 12-storey tower on the east side (right). (True North)
“Basically, True North and SCO are going to build this new tower, and the province of Manitoba is going to be the long-term tenant for decades to come. We’re going to fill this tower with health-care services to meet the needs of people who live downtown, and live across the city and live across the province,” Kinew said.
“We’re going to bring primary care and addictions medicine to the core area. We’re going to bring dialysis beds closer to the community. We’re going to bring Pan Am Clinic — with enhanced surgical capacity— downtown, in a more centralized location, to meet the needs of Manitobans from all walks of life.”
The province and True North have signed a letter of intent for a 35-year lease agreement. The 300,000-square-foot health-care “centre of excellence” will be located on the Carlton Street side of the mall. Construction is planned to begin next year, with a target for completion in 2028.
Kinew spoke about taking the bus downtown to look at Portage Place’s fountain as a child, when it was “the exciting new mall.”
“Unfortunately, today the Portage Place site has fallen on hard times. And I think all of us have seen what’s been happening with people in the core area and what some of our business leaders have rightly called a humanitarian crisis,” Kinew said.
“The little kid who used to come down here and be awe-inspired by what he saw, I want that for the next generation of Winnipeg kids.”
True North and the SCO also plan to redevelop the former Hudson’s Bay downtown store into a modern building that includes health-care services, affordable and family housing, a grocery store, neighbourhood services and urban green spaces.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca