More changes coming to The Forks as long-term leases end, CEO says

Winnipeggers can expect more change at The Forks Market as long-term leases expire — including some with tenants present since the building first opened its doors.

When the Market opened in 1989, administrators at what is now called Forks North Portage (formerly The Forks North Portage Partnership) signed lengthy leases at favourable rates to ensure the amenity was occupied.

Thirty years later, The Forks is still subsidizing its tenants to some degree. But rental rates have risen, the Market now enjoys far more year-round traffic and Forks management has become more selective about the tenants in the building.

"You've got to remember the No. 1 criticism we were getting five years ago, maybe, was that this place never changes, and that it's old and stale," CEO Paul Jordan said Friday, following The Forks North Portage's annual public meeting.

"The only way to change is to change, so that's what we're doing."

What this means is some long-standing tenants — including hotdog vendor Skinner's, whose lease expired this week — are no longer operating at The Forks.

Clare MacKay, vice-president of strategic initiatives at The Forks, would not say whether longtime tenants were paying rents below current market rates. Existing tenants at the Market are all paying the same rate now, she said, adding new leases are all of shorter duration.

'Market idea never worked'

Jordan said the corporation is in no rush to fill some of the empty spaces in the building, which has morphed into a higher-end gathering spot for Winnipeggers and tourists.

"The market idea never worked. It was based on a Granville Island model," said Jordan, referring to a successful redevelopment in Vancouver.

"Granville Island works because there's 100,000 people living there. There's nobody living here," Jordan said, referring to the immediate vicinity of The Forks.

"Nobody is going to [pass] by Sobeys and Safeway to come here and do their shopping, so we were subsidizing this market feel for years and years and years. Winnipeg's not ready for it. Until we get people living around here, this is the way it's going to go."

The Forks has residential development in its future plans. Apartments or condos are part of the mixed-use development planned for the RailSide lands, the two gravel surface parking lots that now stand as the only empty parcels of land in the greater Forks neighbourhood.

Jordan said he expects to be able to announce some form of progress on the RailSide project before the end of this year. Housing was part of the initial plans for The Forks when it was reclaimed from a railyard in the 1980s.

"The original plan there was to be this residential component. We've never been able to do it. The citizens wouldn't let us," he said, referring to past opposition to further development at The Forks. 

"Things have changed. Fifteen hundred people living here could change everything."

Jordan also said The Forks will soon announce changes to the area outside The Forks Market.

In the short term, plans for the river trail this winter are up in the air due to high water on the Red and Assiniboine rivers, which experienced unprecedented fall flooding this year.

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The Red in Winnipeg crested in October at 17.2 feet above normal winter ice level at James Avenue and had only dropped to 16.6 feet James as of Friday. 

The last time river levels were anywhere near this high in the fall — in 2010, when the Red crested at 13.4 feet James — the start of the river trail had to be delayed until January.

"We are always watching the river here," MacKay said.