Winnipeg Retail

[horrorbro123]

Something Going On Former Hallmark Next To Hudson Bay In Polo Park

[AccordTR]

Originally Posted by horrorbro123

Something Going On Former Hallmark Next To Hudson Bay In Polo Park

Aura needs to move due to some American company apparently taking the rest of old Sears. I think Aura might be going to Hallmart spot.

[horrorbro123]

Changes Going On At Polo Park Below The Belt Sunrise Records Is Leaving Polo Park and Going On Former Store Next Between Spencer’s and Levi’s

[wags_in_the_peg]

"Maison Birks" on Lombard @ Main is closed. they tell you can get Birks goods at Independent Jewelers or online. another "old school" store done in Winnipeg

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...arkle-downtown

[WinCitySparky]

Nothing lasts forever.

[Biff]

My thoughts almost every day as I drove past - " I wonder how they are doing at that location?"

[optimusREIM]

It’s honestly sad how we’ve abandoned all of our community nodes in favour of shitty suburban carpaloozas. Downtown should be the beating heart of the city, a place where it’s practically impossible to get a lease, not a place dying a slow anemic death.

Same goes for other communities in the city. Would be nice if we could design stuff properly….

[BAKGUY]

Winnipeggers (about half) love to hate their city but that all begins with little to be proud of any longer downtown.
Lack of a vibrant, flourishing downtown has serious consequences.
What people here forget is, Your city centre is how any tourist, prospective investor or people considering a move here will judge the entire CMA area.
Losing Birks is like the final nail in the coffin now after The Bay closed.
We as a city now have to start from literally nothing, ground zero.
Portage Avenue CRU's are almost empty from Fort to Langside.
If not for Govt offices, dollar stores & a couple of bridal shops, there would be near nothing.
Safety by opportunistic repeat offenders & criminals released on undertakings while the victim waits 17 hours in emergency are not helping bring investment there
I am , wsa a huge supporter of downtown but as of late, even I am very discouraged.
So, other than Canada Life Centre, Baseball if you are a fan, what is going to be the draw?
No cinemas, barely a store let alone a decent grocer around.Go to the occasional remaining store, 4 people assaulted on one friday alone.
The issue of poverty, while real, has existed in this city well before World War 1.
There is no quick resolve we hear....but time is running out.
We all better collectively think of what we can do for our community and buy into it, sooner than later since little has worked so far.
Almost every thriving, exciting city has a successful downtown.

[CoryB]

We need to be real about downtown Winnipeg.

I am literally not old enough to know when the problems with downtown Winnipeg started but it goes back over 40 years and based on the dates of some of the "Make Downtown Great Again" projects I think it is reasonable that the issues go back 60 or more years.

Speaking of those "Make Downtown Great Again" projects there are at least ten I can identify and possibly more and every single one of them as failed.

1. The Concert Hall, et all centennial projects on Main St.
2. The original convention center, hotel, and Cartlon Square.
3. Portage and Main circus/Winnipeg Square
4. Eaton's (City) Place
5. Portage Place et all.
6. The Forks in all its phases.
7. "Save the Jets" arena at The Forks (not built) and Goldeyes.
8. Canada Life Center
9. Convention Center expansion
10. True North Square/Sports and Hospitality zone.

I am sure I have actually missed mega projects for downtown on the list.

The reality at play is for 4+ months of the year Winnipeg has some very nasty weather and people are not going to walk 1-2 blocks downtown to go to a store v a mall or online shopping. Back in the 50s or 60s when there were less options, maybe, but the reality is even back then the giant Eaton's and Bay stores were effectively their own indoor malls.

Take for example a niche bag company I like that has a design/manufacturer operation out of San Francisco. If we go back 25+ years to get their product I would have to know they exist and perhaps get a mail order catalog from them and go about ordering that way or alternatively they make hundreds of copies of their products on speculation and get someone like the Bay to stock them where they may or may not sell and the staff may or may not promote them to customers. Under the current model that same company has literally a global reach from their base of operations and removes the added layers between the company and their customer. And well that is just one example the reality is there are lots of niche brands like this out there now that couldn't exist in the formally idealized model. The same is true for much larger higher end brands "luxury" brands that still mass produce products and has retail stores. Reality is Winnipeg lacks the concentration of those customers to make those stores viable. Reality is those brands are selling product into the Winnipeg market and tracking customer demographics like postal codes and how much revenue they bring in over a fixed period of time. They have complex data models that tell them when and where they can open new stores.

So the reality is downtown Winnipeg is unlikely to ever see retail like it did at the height of the 80s and that more dollar stores and similar where having a presence in the last mile is what we will continue to see. And this isn't just a Winnipeg problem.

[WinCitySparky]

^ Great points, and why the focus should be fully shifted to medium-high density residential, where whatever retail does manage to succeed is built off the consuming population that lives there.

[Biff]

The City/Province needs to incentivize all relevant spaces - surface lots and 1 and 2 storey buildings downtown to build multi-family. I think all these spaces should have 4 to 6 storey buildings on them (40-80 units each)....even if they are the dreaded wood frame construction. Fill in all the spaces then we can start talking about higher density, taller construction and better retail.

Downtown Fargo and Minneapolis are full of them. Start small instead of trying to hit the home run.

[rivercity]

https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.97866...7i16384!8i8192

Stuff like these around the city would be amazing.. so long as they dont end up EIFS or hardie board. Buildings like these in Minneapolis were all over the place and blended in so well.

[WinCitySparky]

Bingo Biff

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Speaking of those "Make Downtown Great Again" projects there are at least ten I can identify and possibly more and every single one of them as failed.

1. The Concert Hall, et all centennial projects on Main St.
2. The original convention center, hotel, and Cartlon Square.
3. Portage and Main circus/Winnipeg Square
4. Eaton's (City) Place
5. Portage Place et all.
6. The Forks in all its phases.
7. "Save the Jets" arena at The Forks (not built) and Goldeyes.
8. Canada Life Center
9. Convention Center expansion
10. True North Square/Sports and Hospitality zone.

I am sure I have actually missed mega projects for downtown on the list.

The reality at play is for 4+ months of the year Winnipeg has some very nasty weather and people are not going to walk 1-2 blocks downtown to go to a store v a mall or online shopping. Back in the 50s or 60s when there were less options, maybe, but the reality is even back then the giant Eaton's and Bay stores were effectively their own indoor malls.

I take it to mean that they failed to tilt the scales in favour of downtown revitalization. Many of those are plenty successful in their own right. The Forks and convention center are busy, CLC is busy, TNS is busy. Downtown suffers mostly from cultural decay unfortunately. No amount of shiny mega projects will turn it around.

I reject the nasty weather argument on the basis that there are places that get fairly cold weather in central Europe that have thriving downtowns. I attribute the difference to culture. Fricken Irkutskt has more pedestrian activity than Winnipeg, and it gets plenty damned cold there. So culture is a big factor. We also have poor planning and zoning. Every street downtown is essentially a stroad. Downtown isn't all that walkable (heck even the exchange isn't aside from smaller segments of it). There are more and more residents, but somehow things seem shittier and shittier. Planning is atrocious.

I think we also suffer from a terrible lack of vision and ambition. So much potential...

[Biff]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

We also have poor planning and zoning. Every street downtown is essentially a stroad.

I my opinion regarding the core downtown - Ellice, Portage and Broadway are the East West through streets and Main, Smith, Kennedy and Osborne are the North South through streets. These through streets and the one way Smith and Donald streets should remain as is (obviously you could still improve upon them).

All other streets should be returned to two way streets.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by Biff

I my opinion regarding the core downtown - Ellice, Portage and Broadway are the East West through streets and Main, Smith, Kennedy and Osborne are the North South through streets. These through streets and the one way Smith and Donald streets should remain as is (obviously you could still improve upon them).

All other streets should be returned to two way streets.

I had contacted Rollins, my councillor, a while ago asking about plans for protected bike lanes downtown. She sent me this document as part of her reply. It also has this tidbit:

(xii) provide conceptual design options for the potential conversion of the following one-
way streets into two-way streets:

(i) Edmonton Street (NB) and Kennedy Street (SB) between Portage and Main
Street;

(ii) Hargrave Street (NB) and Carlton Street/Ellen Street (SB) between William
Avenue and Broadway;

(iii) James Avenue (EB) and Rupert Avenue (WB) between Main Street and
Princess Street; and

(iv) Up to two other streets to be determined during the course of the project and to
be determined through consultation.

[Biff]

The government has mind reading capabilities - that is scary.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by Biff

The government has mind reading capabilities - that is scary.

The call is coming from inside the house

[Labroco]

After 115 years Birks departs Winnipeg…

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by timefadesaway

the call is coming from inside the house

lol