Plans to redevelop Portage Place, former Bay building need to proceed 'essentially in lockstep': True North

The real estate arm of the company that owns the Winnipeg Jets has to stickhandle around some uncertainty as it ponders whether to proceed with a $550-million redevelopment of a mall in the city's downtown.

On Wednesday, True North Real Estate Development asked for six more months to decide whether to proceed with a proposal to purchase Portage Place mall and embark on a multi-year redevelopment that would see a medical tower rise above the mall's east side and a residential tower above the west.

The recent provincial election serves up some of the uncertainty. The former Progressive Conservative government promised to help finance the True North campus by signing long-term leases for Manitoba Shared Health and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority facilities within one of the proposed towers.

While the new premier has made supportive comments about True North Real Estate Development's designs for Portage Place, Wab Kinew's NDP government has yet to announce formal commitments about those leases or property tax incentives the former government also hinted at.

Jim Ludlow, president of True North Real Estate, doesn't appear worried.

"There are many files in front of the new government right now, and there are opportunities to come up to speed on all of these things," Ludlow told reporters on Wednesday.

Federal politics poses a little more uncertainty. While senior Manitoba member of Parliament and Liberal cabinet minister Dan Vandal has made several statements expressing his eagerness for the project, it's unclear how many more months his government will survive.

This could prove to be a greater concern for True North, which is expected to ask Ottawa to help pay for the residential and community-amenity components of its new downtown campus.

In addition to the residential tower, community centres and spaces for community organizations are pencilled in for a low-rise component in the middle of what's now the mall.

"Leaving aside the politics for a moment and just putting Winnipeg out front, I think it's critically important to get this project moving as soon as we can," Ludlow said.

Despite this uncertainty, it's unlikely True North will walk away from the project. At this stage, the prospect of an empty behemoth of a mall in downtown Winnipeg poses more of a risk to True North than the prospect of spending half a billion dollars on health-care infrastructure and affordable housing.

The larger company has already invested hundreds of millions into an NHL team, an arena and downtown real estate developments that already include Centrepoint on the north side of Portage Avenue and True North Square south of Graham Avenue.

Portage Place, Bay redevelopments 'equally important'

And to the immediate southwest of Portage Place, the Southern Chiefs' Organization is working on a parallel redevelopment of the former Bay building, known as Wehwehneh Bagahkinahgohn.

Ludlow confirmed Wednesday True North and SCO are working more closely together on their respective downtown redevelopments in what he describes as an evolving relationship.

"I think both projects are catalysts for the other. We've spent more time since May analyzing and looking at Portage Place, and I think that the more we look at it, the more we see that these projects both have to proceed essentially in lockstep," Ludlow said.

"I think they're equally important and I think both organizations, as we have evolved together in our thinking, would be encouraging the other and then encouraging our respective public partners for joint success."

This statement is no platitude. SCO and True North appear to need each other — and not just because it makes zero sense to spend hundreds of millions redeveloping one massive downtown edifice while another sits empty across the street.

To date, SCO has only announced $110 million worth of financing toward a Wehwehneh project it initially costed out at $130 million. The organization also had plans to place a health clinic within that facility.

Removing some or all of that component from the former Bay building and relying on the clinic True North has proposed for the base of its Portage Place health-care tower instead could free up some SCO funds for the rest of the Wehwehneh project.

Such a partnership would also demonstrate True North's commitment to the health and well-being of First Nations residents of downtown Winnipeg. 

If there are plans for synergies involving the two projects, the Southern Chiefs' Organization isn't ready to discuss it. The organization declined to comment Thursday about its relationship with True North.

Ludlow, however, signalled some sort of announcement is imminent. That implies something more akin to optimism than uncertainty.