Dozens of apartment towers could rise on land around Polo Park as developer unveils new plans

A long-planned residential development on vacant land around Polo Park shopping centre may go ahead.

The plan envisions high-rise apartment buildings with six to 12 storeys each replacing the surface parking lots covering much of the area, including the site of the former Canad Inns Stadium.

Property developer Shindico and Cadillac Fairview, the company that owns the shopping centre, unveiled new concept images showing dozens of towers, including thousands of apartments and commercial spaces.

The development will include a wide range of apartments at various prices, from bachelors to three-bedrooms, with around 4,000 units, said Justin Zarnowski, general counsel for Shindico.

"Really you're going to have to have a mixture of people living there. You can't just say we're only going to have luxury apartments," he said.

Most of the space currently serving as parking, as well as commercial spaces separate from the mall, will be taken over by the apartment towers. The plan calls for additional parkades to make up for the lost parking spaces, plus around 1.5 additional parking spaces for every residential unit in the development, Zarnowski said.

The plans also include commercial developments on the main floors of many of the towers. 

"Retail is really important to make it a really high-quality public space, because ultimately the people who are going to be living here aren't just going to spend time in their units or in their buildings, but they're going to want to live here."

Jino Distasio, director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, told CBC that the Polo Park area is "quite a unique environment" due to its mixed-land use for industrial, retail, residential and commercial purposes.

He says the development will be a complex process that will take the next decade to figure out. A next step would be to seek approval from city council, he said.

The 4,000 residential units have the potential to diversify rents and contribute to the overall affordability of Winnipeg, Distasio said, but the development may also be an approach to make retail experiences pop and get people off the screen and into the store.

"I think it's just [part of] this evolution where we want to see more than empty parking lots and/or just the same old kinds of storefronts."

He thinks the development will fit nicely into the area, but "we'll just have to see how the scale of the residential environment … may be compatible with the airport and overhead flights."

Traffic is another issue the city will have to mull over, he said, because proper infrastructure needs to be in place to support the development and existing activities.

"Hopefully, all the partners will be coming with the same idea that to make the site work, it's got to work across the board — people need to be able to come in and leave effectively and efficiently," said Distasio.

"And in the end, maybe we get some more improvements in overall infrastructure in that area that includes both pedestrian uses, cycling, along with the traditional vehicle uses."

He hopes the development will bring a post-pandemic vibrancy to the area, attracting people outside of their pandemic bubbles.

"I think Winnipeggers hopefully will be drawn into a new experience in one of our city's most intensive retail corridors, which is along that Polo Park strip now."

'I've been waiting for this day'

Mayor Scott Gillingham, who previously served as the councillor for St. James, said he has long supported redeveloping the lands around Polo Park.

"I've been calling for it, saying that this is a site that lends itself to multi-family development, and so I'm really looking forward to seeing this application come forward and being able to vote on it," he said.

"In my campaign platform I called for malls to be areas where that would permit multi-family development, as well."

Property and development committee chair Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) said the development would help fill the need for more housing in Winnipeg.

"I've been waiting for this day. I think Winnipeggers have too, and we need more housing. Winnipeggers know that.… I think that there's a lot to get excited about here," she said.

Plans to build apartments in the area have faced obstacles in the past due to regulations preventing development around the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. Last year, the city revised bylaws after the provincial government amended the Airport Vicinity Protection Area Regulation, shrinking the area in which residential development had been prohibited, which previously encompassed the area around Polo Park.

Shindico's new plans have not yet come before council, which must approve them before construction can begin. 

Zarnowski hopes to have rezoning applications approved later this spring, with construction beginning next year. If all goes according to plan, people could start moving in as soon as 2026, he said.