Portage Place

Portage Place is a 439,600 square foot (40,840 m2) mixed-use shopping centre located in Downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is located on the north side of Portage Avenue, between Vaughan and Carlton Streets and opened on September 17, 1987.

As of 2010, Portage Place generated $250 per square foot in monthly sales and charged retailers $15–$40 per square foot in rent, and monthly rent for the food court was $135 per square foot.

In the early 1980s north Portage Avenue was in decline, due in part to the "flight to the suburbs" and free parking at suburban malls. The three levels of government created the Core Area Initiative in 1981 to counter this decline, and rebuild this part of downtown. One of the proposals in 1983 to "fix" the North side of Portage Avenue was to realign the roadway and build a new arena. But this proposal was rejected by City Council.

The North Portage Development Corporation came into being in late 1984, and they announced the Portage Place mall, which included the apartments behind it, known as "The Promenade". Signers included Federal MP for Manitoba Lloyd Axworthy, and Mayor Bill Norrie. By the summer of 1985 buildings within the land area of Portage Place were demolished, and the mall opened in September, 1987.

By the Summer of 1988, barely a year since it opened, there were doubts of the shopping centre's success. Originally The Bay and Eaton's had extended their hours early in the week to encourage people to shop there, but the shoppers stayed away. Instead, it became a hangout for young people. Some store owners in the shopping centre said that after 5:30 p.m. there was a big drop in customers visiting the mall, and some tenants wanted their rent reduced.

An October 2007 Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) report on Portage Place observed that "the property’s cash flow has continued to be depressed" amid declining average contractual rental rates, and that "the cash flow of the property may therefore not be enough to cover its refinance debt service". DBRS also noted, however, that the owners have "displayed [a] commitment to the property and DBRS doubts that it will be willing to lose control of its investment in lieu of injecting cash equity to reduce the refinance obligation."

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