City of Winnipeg considers waiving rent to keep some tenants in spaces hit hard by pandemic

Brad Park's restaurant in downtown Winnipeg's underground concourse has survived almost two years of the COVID-19 pandemic — but just barely.

"When I purchased the business, it was OK. I mean, lunchtime was really busy — people walking around. It was packed. People lined up," he said, standing in the empty dining area of Seol Nami Sushi.

"Now, it's quiet down here."

Park is among a group of tenants in city-owned facilities who could get a boost through a City of Winnipeg proposal to waive their rent for a six-month period, from February to July of this year.

Eight businesses are listed in the proposal from the city's public service, including six in the underground concourse. Another is in the downtown skywalk system on Graham Avenue, and one is in the Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex on Sargent Avenue.

A report to the city's property, heritage and development committee says those city facilities had to close at the start of the pandemic.

The underground concourse and the skywalk system partially reopened in June 2020, and reopened fully with regular hours last fall.

Even so, the report says some tenants weren't able to reopen due to a lack of foot traffic.

"I try to stay open. I still stay here, but I don't see the future," said Park. "I can't really see it going back where it was before." 

Some businesses have reopened, but are seeing "revenues at a fraction of previous levels and are not showing signs of recovery," Marc Pittet, the city's manager of real estate and land development, writes in the public service's report.

"Requiring tenants to pay full market rent at a time when revenues are down could lead to small business bankruptcies and long-term vacancy issues within the city's inner-city retail portfolio."

The idea behind the proposal is to keep the tenants the city already has and prevent more downtown space from becoming vacant. 

The city has had challenges in the past getting tenants into the underground concourse and the skywalk areas, the report says.

"Once a city unit is occupied, it is important to retain tenants, supporting short and long-term viability,"  writes Pittet.