Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Jets setting pace
New restaurant chains rushing to feed fans downtown
By: Murray McNeill
Posted: 12/1/2011
"The downtown sports, hospitality and entertainment district (SHED) forming around the MTS Centre is starting to catch fire, with new restaurant chains clamouring to set up shop and eateries already there reporting a surge in business tied to the Winnipeg Jets.
Retail leasing specialist Ken Yee of Cushman & Wakefield said five national restaurant chains have approached the firm about leasing one of the two restaurant spaces in the Longboat Development Corp. complex being built next year on the north side of Portage Avenue across from the MTS Centre.
One of them is the Edmonton-based Hudsons Canadian Tap House chain, which is looking at three or four prospective locations in the SHED, including the Longboat development and nearby Cityplace, said company principal Mike Yasinski.
"Winnipeg is certainly a city we'd love to open in. It has a lot of similarities with our Edmonton market and obviously with the addition of the team (the Jets) and the revitalization of the downtown, it seems like a natural fit for us."
Yasinski said he spent three or four days in October scouting out sites with retail leasing specialist Rennie Zegalski of CB Richard Ellice. And he liked what he saw.
"There just seems to be a lot of great energy and good action downtown."
Industry sources said the Shark Club Bar & Grill chain, which is billed as Western Canada's premier sports bar and grill -- is also close to completing a deal to lease space on the second floor of Cityplace.
The Shark Club, with locations in Grande Prairie, Langley, Lethbridge, Quesnel, Richmond, Saskatoon, Vancouver and Victoria, is part of Northland Properties, which also owns Moxie's, Chop, Denny's and the Sandman Hotels, Inns & Suites."
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