Downtown 50's and 60's Retail Hub, No More, But....

....Unique Retail Hubs Bring People Downtown

Under current market conditions, downtown Winnipeg will never be the premier and exclusive place to shop as it was in the 60s and 70s and with the advent of the suburbs, downtowns have been forced to reinvent themselves.

Yet, Retail outlets are what hip urban city centres are judged upon, and help in attracting a variety of people to shop, play and hangout. Knowing this, it seems our downtown has a lot of work to do.

Downtowns today are becoming places where you go to find things you can't find in the suburbs – from warehouse lofts and cool pads, to fancy restaurants and cool pubs, to art galleries and sports/entertainment venues and events. Our new and emerging downtown is unique and different.

In and around the MTS Centre and the expanded Winnipeg Convention Centre, we are seeing a growing number of restaurants opening up one or two blocks away from each other. Imagine if premier retailers were added to this mix.

Retailers like: H&M, Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, Zara, NikeTown, LuLu Lemon, Banana Republic and Levis, woven with an assortment of local and unique restaurants and single-market national retailers, joining local retail successes like Mountain Equipment Co-op and Warehouse One – all located within walking distance of the MTS Centre, home of the Winnipeg Jets and many world-class concerts and events.

A cluster of these retailers fits well within a downtown that is reinventing itself and wants to attract more people in the evening and weekends.

What unique retailers like these can do, that a majority of other national retailers can't, is pull suburbanites downtown because their local mall just doesn't have one! Also, retailers that seek to open only one flagship store in a city is ideal for the city centre. These unique retailers can also play a huge role in influencing thousands of new residents to live downtown. With a variety of new housing projects coming down the pipe, this should be considered as part of a broader strategy to help form a new densely-developed downtown destination for Winnipeggers and tourists.

A tweet from me asking how important an H&M is to a downtown resulted in a rapid fire of re-tweets and comments like "Hell ya! We want one downtown!" My response to that: people will come downtown if the right retail is offered. Except, our retail centre on Portage Avenue, faces many challenges in attracting these types of retailers.

Globally recognized retailers like H&M generally like to operate next to their own competitors. H&M stores typically have 15-25,000 square feet and are housed in newer buildings with floor to ceiling bright window displays or are located at a dominant corner in a mall that generates more than $300 per square foot in sales. The H&M brand tends to open up stores where pedestrian traffic is high, tens of thousands of people walking by daily. This is why H&M and other retailers like it will not locate downtown under current circumstances.

Other cities throughout North America have recognized that a thriving retail strategy is vital to any downtown's success and have intervened in normal market forces, giving the downtown a fighting chance to compete and reinvent themselves on the retail front, not waiting for decades to repopulate the downtown and hoping that will drive new retail. By balancing the economic playing field and developing and promoting new downtown districts, we've seen downtown retail hubs are emerge in places like New Orleans, Washington, Toronto and others.

A retailer's decision to come downtown does not come about by accident or coincidence but as part of a concerted effort based on a strong, smart downtown retail strategy. Incentives should be put in place to stimulate a retail renaissance downtown and we should continue to build on our successes in attracting small, local retailers as they will help stimulate the interest from national retailers in our city centre. This would help ensure the success and growth of existing and struggling retail downtown – a double win.