Cityplace (Winnipeg)

In January 1976, Eaton's announced that they would discontinue printing their coloured catalogues in Winnipeg and would close down the catalogue and mail order building as of March 1st.[2] All unclaimed stock at the Catalogue Office would be sold at discount. This sale went on into the Summer of '76.[3]

Remodelling construction began in November, 1977 with the Clearance Salesroom demolished to make way for the spiral parkade.[4][5]

Eaton Place opened on October 11, 1979[6] as Downtown Winnipeg's first indoor shopping mall, after Eaton's closed down its Catalogue and Mail-order operations three years earlier. It capitalized on its location adjacent to the downtown Eaton's department store, which was then the largest and busiest store in the city, now demolished. The former Eaton's store site is now the city's arena, Bell MTS Place, formerly MTS Centre.

Cineplex announced in June, 1980 that they would build several multiplex movie theatres across Canada, and that Winnipeg would soon have 7-theatre location yet to be determined.[7] In December 1980, the city's first multiplex movie theatre, Cineplex 7, opened on the second floor of Eaton Place. It was subsequently closed in the 1990s because of the small size of each theatre.

After Portage Place opened, the owners of Eaton Place updated the interior design in the late 1980s to compete with the other malls that had been refurbished.

Eaton Place was purchased by Osmington Inc., a privately owned Toronto-based real estate company in 1998 for $35 million.[8] Israeli investors purchased the building in 2003 for an undisclosed sum.[8] The building was then purchased by Huntingdon Real Estate Investment Trust in 2005 for $75 million.[8]

In 2009, the building was purchased by Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) for $81.5 million from Huntingdon Real Estate Investment Trust.[9] At the time of the purchase, MPI occupied approximately 80% of the office space in the building[9] and had been leasing space there since 1980.[8][10] MPI's expectation was to save $3 to $5 million annually by owning instead of renting, as well as a 10% annual return on the property investment, even after the costs of retaining the realty group for property management.[10]

The 337,000-square-foot (31,300 m²)[8] main complex includes two levels of retail and food court space totalling 115,000 square feet (10,700 m²),[8] as well as seven levels of office space. Cityplace also operates several surface parking lots and parkades. In 2012, the mall opened a rooftop terrace, accessible from the food court on the second level.[11]

During the Fall and Winter months cityplace hosts the Downtown Farmers' Market, where people can purchase cheese, jams, crafts, meat.[12]

Cityplace is connected by elevated skywalks to the Winnipeg Walkway System, acting as a hub connecting the Portage and Graham segments, with a link connecting the RBC Convention Centre segment.[13] The 625-foot (191 m) connection from cityplace to the Delta and Convention Centre cost $6.2-million and opened in 2010.[14] $4.5 million in funding for the 2010 connection addition came from the Winnipeg Partnership Agreement and a combined $1.7 million came from cityplace, the Delta Winnipeg and LaSalle Investment Management.[14]

There have been rumours since late 2019 that the Manitoba government, under Brian Pallister, would seek to sell of the mall to private investors. Opposition critics in the Legislature have said that this would be a negative thing because MPI would not own its offices at that location any longer.[15]

The Manitoba Liquor Mart closed its store in the mall in January 2020 and moved it to the second floor of True North Square across the street.

Since June 2020 McCor Management is the current property management firm of Cityplace.

Some of the amenities at cityplace mall include:

• Food court, incl. a McDonald's, Sushi June, Za Pizza Bistro Express, Subway, Tim Hortons
• Eaton Place Medical Centre (a walk-in clinic)
• CIBC Bank
• Rexall Pharmacy
• Shark Club Casino
• Coles Bookstore
• Boston Pizza
• Human Bean Coffee & Tea
• A&W
• Bodegoes

• Official website