Winnipeg Jets owner True North considering purchase of Portage Place mall, multiple sources say
CBC
The real estate division of True North Sports and Entertainment is considering a purchase of downtown Winnipeg's beleaguered Portage Place mall, according to multiple city, provincial and non-governmental sources.
City council is poised to publish on Monday a report about a proposed sale of Portage Place that would give True North Real Estate Development, a division of the company that owns the Winnipeg Jets, an option to purchase the 36-year-old property, according to the sources.
The purchase option would only be exercised after a months-long due diligence period as well as community consultations, said several sources familiar with plan.
CBC News has not viewed the report. True North Sports and Entertainment acknowledged a request for comment but did not issue a statement.
Sources familiar with the report said they were not aware what plans True North may have for the mall.
Over the past two decades, True North has made hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment into downtown Winnipeg through the construction of the Canada Life Centre, the Centrepoint development to the north of the hockey arena and the True North Square development to the west.
As well, True North executive chairman Mark Chipman has on several occasions expressed a desire to alleviate homelessness and addictions in downtown Winnipeg.
In 2019, Chipman said he supported a 24/7 addictions drop-in centre in downtown Winnipeg to alleviate what he described as "the most heartbreaking of circumstances."
Two years later, he suggested social conditions in Winnipeg's core had only worsened during the pandemic.
"It's gone long past just being heartbreaking: it's become, in my humble opinion, a humanitarian crisis," Chipman said in 2021 at a downtown safety partnership event.
Chipman also attended a provincial social housing announcement last week. He did not confirm or deny True North's interest in Portage Place, a mall built as one of many downtown Winnipeg revitalization projects.
Portage Place was built in 1987 by the North Portage Development Corporation, a predecessor of today's Forks North Portage Partnership. Entire blocks of downtown were razed to make room for the 440,000-square-foot mall, the centrepiece of an $80-million project funded by all three levels of government.
The mall opened amid hopes the shopping centre would bring more foot traffic downtown. Within a year, some of the mall's tenants departed amid complaints about low sales.
Over the next three decades, most of the original tenants departed, while major amenities closed, including an IMAX theatre and a movie multiplex.
Michael Vandell has been re-elected as chief of Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation in N.W.T., defeating former Dehcho MLA Ronald Bonnetrouge.
A Canadian military counter-intelligence operative, accused of passing sensitive information to a foreign entity, was having conversations with a representative of Ukraine, CBC News has learned.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been called in to investigate an incident at the Dalhousie LRT station in which a Calgary police officer shot a man who was “acting erratically and carrying a knife.”
Around 40 people have been temporarily displaced after a building fire in O’Leary, in P.E.I.'s Prince County.
The price of the benchmark North American crude blend known as West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, slid to a four-year low on Tuesday, dipping to $55 US a barrel after starting the year off around $80.
The young man accused of being impaired and behind the wheel at the time he slammed into a Toronto family’s van, killing three children, has pleaded guilty in the case.
Gavin McKenna knew the haters would be ready to pounce.
Despite a deal to push government bills through their final stages before the House of Commons rose last Thursday, two pieces of priority budget and border legislation, C-4 and C-12, can't become law until at least February.
Skate Canada says it will no longer host major events in Alberta following a review of the province's legislation on the participation of transgender athletes in women's sport.
A surge of influenza among school-aged kids is linked to the recent deaths of multiple Ontario children, prompting calls for Canadian families to get vaccinated as medical experts brace for a worsening wave of infections across all age groups.
A London family doctor is not allowed to practice medicine for 10 months after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
Nearly three weeks after it started, the most complex fire in Toronto's history is finally out, but residents of two buildings in Thorncliffe Park still don't know if they'll be back home for the holidays.
The family of a man with schizophrenia charged with two counts of attempted murder is bracing for an aspect of the criminal justice system that is almost inevitable.