A historic Winnipeg landmark will shut its doors next year, but it might not be at risk of meeting the wrecking ball just yet.The Hudson's Bay Company confirmed in a statement Friday that its nearly century-old downtown Winnipeg location will close in February 2021.
"With shifting consumer behaviour and changes to how and where customers are shopping, after careful consideration Hudson's Bay has determined it will close its downtown Winnipeg location in February 2021," company spokesperson Tiffany Bourré said in a statement emailed to CBC on Friday.
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Last November, when HBC appraised all of its 89 properties, the Portage Avenue building was given a market value of $0 by real estate evaluator Cushman & Wakefield — because the costs involved in redevelopment would essentially erase its worth in a sale.
Technically, the building was worth even less than that because of a tax liability of $302,298.
The Bay's other Winnipeg stores, at the Polo Park and St. Vital shopping centres, will remain open.
The article also mentions the demolition of the former Eaton's building, in order to make way for the MTS Centre arena. How ironic now that the pandemic has closed that venue down. Even beforehand, aside from a few large events, for the vast majority of the time the arena was used mainly as part of the covered walkway system to shelter people away from cold weather. I'm not even sure if that walkway is fully open these days. The irony is that had the Eaton's building been saved and been put to use (for example, apartments or condos, maybe a restaurant or bar or some other suitable use in the main floor) that might have stabilized the downtown, brought in even more activity, and provided a more stable customer base for area businesses including the Bay store.