Downtown residents say Portage Place proposal promising

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This article was published 19/12/2019 (1834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The proposal for Portage Place holds promise, downtown residents and advocates say — as long as developers don’t forget about the people who frequent it now.

Humans of Portage Place documents the downtown cafeteria’s regulars and visitors who do their errands at the shopping centre at 393 Portage Ave. And according to one of the Facebook page’s founders, it highlights the faces who need to be heard in discussions about the downtown hub’s future.

“There is a real lack of real public spaces in the downtown area — probably the closest place to Portage Place is the public library, the Millennium Library, and that has become less accessible due to the security measures. There’s no community centre or rec centre close by,” said Kate Sjoberg, a North Point Douglas resident who often visits the mall.

“People make space… and that, in many ways, is Portage Place.”

Yet, Sjoberg said the mall’s users have yet to be consulted on its redevelopment in any meaningful way.

In the summer, Winnipeg city council unanimously endorsed the sale of the publicly-owned land underneath the mall to Starlight Investments, a Toronto-based real estate management company.

Despite residents’ and local organizations’ pleas for a delayed vote to allow for community consultations, the $47-million deal was approved. The company later offered the owner of the mall $22.9 million for the structure.

Earlier this week, the company unveiled its vision for the downtown mall: a massive redevelopment that would change its current facilities and façade. Starlight’s vision includes two residential towers with a mix of student and family housing options, an elevated skywalk and renewed commercial space.

The proposal also includes a child-care centre and grocery store.

“The new concept is a diverse mixed-use community that integrates live, work, learn, shop and play,” Starlight spokeswoman Marni Larkin said in a statement to the Free Press. The project’s estimated price tag is between $300 million and $400 million. Construction is expected to begin in 2021.

“All of those are positive in theory — as long as they make sense in this community, for this community. A grocery store that people who live around can’t afford to purchase things for… what purpose does it serve? And housing, similarly,” said Mareike Brunelli with Central Neighbourhoods, a downtown community development organization.

Community advocates raised concerns Friday about everything from upgrades making room for an affordable grocery store to gentrification hiking up rent for the low-income tenants downtown to the disappearance of social services located inside the mall. (It currently houses a Service Canada office and legal assistance clinics, among other facilities.)

When asked about the future tenants, Larkin said: “New spaces will be created to provide opportunities that will attract tenants not currently in the downtown or that are right-based on the new retail demand.”

She added community engagement will take place in the coming months.

Brunelli said she’s hopeful there will be discussion about how to create an inclusive downtown guided by principles like restorative justice, rather than criminalizing poverty.

Kerniel Aasland, who co-ordinates the Inner-City Work Study program at the University of Winnipeg, agreed the way to ensure no one gets left behind is to undertake “really extensive” and “detailed” consultations. A much-needed child-care centre could be valuable downtown, as could an adult education centre, since there are so many newcomers who utilize the space, Aasland said.

On Friday afternoon, dozens of people packed the Portage Place food court. Among them, Mohamed Elnour and his friends — familiar faces to the mall who could very well be next featured on Humans of Portage Place.

“It’s a meeting space, a gathering space for people — this is where I meet my friends when I get off work,” said Elnour, a downtown resident who has come to frequent the centre since he moved to Winnipeg from Sudan 17 years ago.

Elnour, 37, said he likes the mall just the way it is. He worries when the redevelopment happens, he might lose his go-to coffee table.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie