If Winnipeg suburbia is the land of big box stores, Outlet Collection Winnipeg is its new capital. The 37,000 square-metre indoor outlet mall—about the size of seven football fields—is set to open May 3, vying to be a magnet for shoppers and a tourism destination.

“It’ll be expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people from central Winnipeg, central Canada, as well as northern parts of the United States,” said Dimitrios Cotsianis, General Manager of the project.

“If it can all be done indoors, rather than outside where it’s cold, I think I would go there,” said Linda Kuhn, who likes to shop at St. Vital Mall and the Kenaston outlets.
 

Studying retail landscape

The city is paying consultants $129,000 to study Winnipeg’s land-use and produce a report that will help shape Winnipeg’s land development in the future.

According to River Heights Coun. John Orlikow, land is scarce in Winnipeg.

“We’re running out of land. We have to make sure the land is available and what’s remaining, what’s the best use for it,” Orlikow said.

Consultants with Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. will look at whether Winnipeg has an adequate supply of land “to maintain economic competitiveness and to achieve other city-building objectives,” according to the city’s request for proposals for the study.

Other questions the consultants will be paid to answer include: how Winnipeg’s retail landscape compares to other Canadian cities; how retail in the suburbs impacts retail land along corridor streets and downtown; and what are the market conditions necessary to increase retail downtown.

“The capital is now growing to 800,000. So I think, in a good way, Winnipeg is now faced for the first time some of the pressures cities that are bigger than us have experienced before,” said Jino Distasio, the Director of the Institute of Urban Studies.

READ MORE: New Winnipeg outlet mall stores unveiled, grand opening announced

The general manager of the Outlet Collection Winnipeg expects 150,000 people to visit the outlet mall in its first five days.

“Are we ready for that? So the consultants are really going to have to focus on infrastructure capacity, growth, and balance between the existing residents in the area, the commuters that go through there, and the visitors who are going to be driving around there, and hopefully not lost,” Distasio said.
 

How much retail can Winnipeg handle?

Kris Mutcher, a commercial real estate broker with Colliers International, said if you look at the number of square feet of retail space Winnipeg has per capita, the city still falls behind other Canadian cities.

“We have consistently lagged behind Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon in those numbers,” Mutcher said.

Deborah Green, the general manager of Polo Park, said the mall has about 10.6 million visitors a year, and said no tenants have left to join the Outlet Collection.

“We do not foresee any retailers doing so,” said Green.