Southern Chiefs plan $130M redevelopment of The Bay as symbol of reconciliation

The Hudson's Bay Co., which facilitated the colonization of western Canada 352 years ago, is about to transfer its former flagship department store in downtown Winnipeg to Indigenous ownership.

On Friday morning, The Bay will hand over its six-storey, 655,000-square-foot building at the corner of Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard to the Southern Chiefs' Organization, which represents 34 Anishinaabe and Dakota Nations in southern Manitoba. 

The SCO plans to spend $130 million in the coming years transforming the former Bay building into a mixed-use development called Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn, or "it is visible."

Plans for the project include 300 affordable housing units for members of Southern First Nations, two restaurants, a public atrium, a rooftop garden, a museum and an art gallery.

One of the restaurants, on the main floor, will serve First Nations cuisine. The second will be a reboot of the Bay department store's Paddlewheel restaurant.

The project will also include office space for Indigenous entrepreneurs, a health centre, a childcare facility, a seniors centre, a new seat of government for the SCO and a memorial for residential school victims and survivors.

The SCO plans to transfer two beaver pelts and one elk hide to Richard Baker, the HBC's governor and executive chairman, as a symbolic payment for the building, which has been valued at $0 due to the cost associated with renovating the 92-year-old structure and maintaining its heritage elements.

"What we wanted to do is really to create an opportunity to create reconciliation, to create a real symbol of what the future holds for Indigenous people in this country," Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the SCO said in an interview at The Bay on Thursday.

"This is the most iconic building, I think, in Winnipeg and probably all of Manitoba and we wanted to ensure that if we have the opportunity to acquire the building, that we would do everything we can to address the needs and to create as much opportunity for the Indigenous community and also for Winnipeg broadly."

Baker said in a statement it was important for his company to ensure The Bay is redeveloped sustainably and in a meaningful way.

"We believe [Southern Chiefs] is the right steward for this location, and can create a new community landmark that will help advance reconciliation," he said.

The downtown Bay opened in 1926 as one of the most important commercial structures in downtown Winnipeg at a time when the city's growth had already been stunted by the aftermath of the First World War, the inconclusive result of the Winnipeg General Strike and the reduction of railway subsidies that fuelled the city's initial growth.

The department store fell into decline in the 1990s, as downtown Winnipeg's retail sector lost its lustre, initially to shopping malls in suburban neighbourhoods and later to online retailers.

The Bay's operations were scaled back floor by floor until the building was shuttered in November 2020, when the second wave of COVID-19 hastened a closure initially planned for the following winter.