^ For what it's worth, the Eaton's Department Store's larger twin, the Eaton's Warehouse, still stands today as an office building. It is a massive building.
source: johndobbin.blogspot.ca
I don't think the demolition of the Eaton's store was a very proud moment for downtown Winnipeg, but preserving it was a tall order. Eaton's closed down in 1999 when downtown was still in some very serious doldrums with little development activity of any kind and zero residential. Repurposing a century old, almost one million square foot department store was a challenge to say the least. Had Eaton's lasted even a decade longer I think things might have turned out differently, but alas.
For what it's worth, the downtown Hudson's Bay store a bit farther down Portage has been dying a slow death for years and there have been many efforts directed at finding another purpose for it, but no one has stepped up yet. Massive old department stores are a real challenge, to say the least.