Quote:
Originally Posted by Atrial78
Yes, actually having health facilities downtown is beneficial and commonplace in many major cities around the world. A portion of the healthcare workers will likely choose to live in the area and workers will frequent businesses in the area as well. Not to mention, the proposal hopefully will include a full size grocery store and is making some beneficial street changes. This is far better than the previous proposal to develop more retail space and immensely better than doing nothing.
True North’s other developments (True North Square and the Canada Life Centre) have definitely added vibrancy to the city and bring people downtown. What is your alternative idea?
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For those old enough to remember, Medical Arts in downtown used to be a very busy hub for doctors, dentists, etc. So there is definitely presence for it working in Winnipeg. My understanding is the big challenge Medical Arts ran into is similar to the more recent issues with the Manitoba Clinic in that the costs to be in the building v the benefits from being in the building did not support doctors continuing to run their business from there. I also think another factor may have been that at its peak Medical Arts had fairly full occupancy leading many, at the time, younger doctors to seek alternatives for establishing their practices. This lead to many of them setting up in strip malls and similar in communities throughout Winnipeg. When the older doctors started retiring from Medical Arts there was no longer the same demand for space as the patient expectation had changed from travelling to see the doctor to the doctor being close to the patients. Further, of the six different specialists I have needed to see in office only two had offices in downtown Winnipeg. Of those two one retired and the other was in the process of moving their practice out of downtown when I finished my time with their service.
In terms of the "full size grocery store" downtown that continues to be a laughable idea. Locally there are essentially three companies that make up almost 100% of that market, Loblaws/Weston Foods, Empire/Sobeys, and Walmart. Focusing on Walmart first, they do not currently operate their grocery only Neighborhood Market in Canada and there is no publicly announced plans for that. Further, Walmart does not currently have any small format locations and does not appear to have any in the planning stages for Canada or elsewhere.
Empire has a history of operating urban stores in cities such as Calgary and Edmonton but has since closed them all. They also show some signs they are still working through fully integrated their Safeway acquisition into the company with store renovations and conversions still taking place as of last year. This is likely to continue to be their focus for some time unless someone is going to make them a sweetheart deal (ie give them a negative value long term lease). Their recent downgrade of the Sargent Safeway to their No Frills banner also is an indicator of where they see themselves in the Winnipeg market.
That leaves Loblaws. Of the three large players Loblaws is also the furthest on the progression to online grocery ordering and fulfilment. The pandemic pushed their current systems close to a breaking point and they company did a lot to pivot and follow where the market was going including making on the fly pivots to convert large sections of retail floor space into improvised fulfilment staging areas. They learned a lot for their backend and processes over those years. Also their 2013 purchase of Shoppers Drug Mart was in part to secure last mile locations for online grocery pickup and near customer distribution. With a large existing presence already in Portage Place they have the best internal knowledge of the downtown Winnipeg demographic. Their overall strategy appears to be shifting slowly away from "full size grocery stores" that allow customers to shop in person to "staff only fulfilment centers" which allow customer pickup and perhaps delivery. The amount of space needed for a Loblaws pickup fulfilment area that is backended out of an existing location elsewhere in Winnipeg and delivered once a day also is very telling.
Speaking of grocery delivery, that is exactly why the bonus entry, Save-on-Foods, won't be the one to open a full sized grocery store in downtown Winnipeg. Yes their prices might be a little higher and they do have a smaller format operating locally on St James however when they came to Winnipeg they quickly introduced their popular online groceries delivered to your home model. In the 7 years in the Winnipeg market they have only opened two additional stores and this is despite Empire exiting operations from multiple locations. Based on observations they seem very content with their place in the market and are focused on expanding online ordering for home delivery more so than expanding their retail presence.
Of course that leaves a wild card, Red River Co-op. That organization nearly bankrupted themselves operating grocery stores in the past so it was a complete surprise when they got back into that business line 10 years ago. They have passed up opportunities for obvious new stores, like the former Safeway on Ness, and taken risks on others like the brand new build in Seaons area. Reportedly they are running groceries at close to a break even point which is not overly surprising with the overall industry trend of less than 5% return. With the right compensation package they could easily be the one to open a full service grocery store downtown but being honest here they don't have a positive track record in the segment either.
So, for all the "downtown needs a full service grocery store" group, care to show your work on who exactly is going to be opening this theorized store?
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