Polo Park (corporately styled as CF Polo Park) is a

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Canada. It is situated on the former

Polo Park Racetrack The Polo Park Racetrack was a Canadian horse racing facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Considered one of the finest racetracks in Western Canada, it was built by Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee R. James Speers. The six-furlong track o ...

near the junction of

Portage Avenue Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

and St. James Street. Its grounds also includes a

Scotiabank Theatre Scotiabank Theatre (French: Cinémas Banque Scotia) is a Canadian banner of multiplex cinemas owned by Cineplex Entertainment. The brand was established in 2007 as part of a wider partnership between Cineplex and Scotiabank on their new Scene ...

(formerly SilverCity). The mall is currently anchored by Husdon's Bay,

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

, Urban Planet,

Sport Chek Sport Chek is the largest Canadian retailer of sporting clothing and sports equipment, with 191 stores throughout Canada as of 2020. It is the only national big box sporting goods retailer in Canada, although it is absent in the Northwest Territ ...

, and EQ3. It is the largest mall of the 8 malls in the city, and is the 15th largest shopping centre in Canada, ranking between

Guildford Town Centre Guildford Town Centre is a shopping mall located in Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. It opened on November 8, 1966, and is owned by Ivanhoé Cambridge, a Quebec-based real estate company. It is the largest mall in the Low ...

and

Laurier Québec Laurier Québec (formerly called and still commonly referred to as Place Laurier) is one of List of largest shopping malls in Canada, Canada's largest shopping malls. It is located in Quebec City, Quebec (in what was formerly the city of Sainte-Foy ...

. For

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

purposes, Polo Park is also the name given to the neighbourhood including and surrounding the shopping centre.

History

The Polo Park Mall opened on Thursday, 20 August 1959, and became one of the first enclosed shopping malls in Canada when a roof was added in 1963, the other being the

Park Royal Shopping Centre Park Royal Shopping Centre, also known as simply Park Royal, opened in 1950, is a shopping mall located in West Vancouver and X̱wemelch'stn, British Columbia, Canada. Park Royal was Canada's first covered shopping mall. Park Royal has seen multip ...

in BC. The district was once the sports hub of Winnipeg, with the

Winnipeg Arena Winnipeg Arena was an indoor arena located in the Polo Park district of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The arena was the city's premier ice hockey venue from 1955 to 2004 and is best remembered as the home of the first Winnipeg Jets franchise, whi ...

Canad Inns Stadium Canad Inns Stadium (also known as Winnipeg Stadium) was a multipurpose stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The stadium was located at the corner of St. James Street and Maroons Road, immediately north of the Polo Park Shopping Centre and th ...

, and

Winnipeg Velodrome The Winnipeg Velodrome was a cycling facility built in Winnipeg, Manitoba for the 1967 Pan-American Games and managed by Winnipeg Enterprises. The facility was a banked short-track oval with a cement surface. The velodrome was located near the W ...

all being located in the Polo Park neighbourhood. The Velodrome was torn down in the 1990s to make way for a strip mall that includes

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the l ...

and

Chapters Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

. The arena and stadium have also since been demolished and replaced by new retail and office complexes. The former CKY building is situated next to the mall. It used to house the city's

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...

affiliate,

CKY-TV CKY-DT (channel 7) is a television station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, and maintains studios on Graham Avenue (adjacent to the Canada Life Cen ...

CKY CKY may refer to: * CKY (band), American rock band, formerly "Camp Kill Yourself" ** ''CKY'' (video series), named after the band **CKY crew, people involved in the video series and related projects *CKY-DT, a television station in Winnipeg, Manito ...

radio, and FM 92

CITI Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant #Citicorp, Citicorp and financial ...

. It was the original home of the WTN network. Corus Radio Winnipeg has occupied the building since 2011, as part of a lease agreement between

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Onta ...

and

Cadillac Fairview The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited is a Canadian company that invests in, owns, and manages commercial real estate, mainly in Canada and the United States. As of March 2017, the company had 73 properties, encompassing 38 million square feet ...

. Studios for

CJOB CJOB (680 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is owned and operated by Corus Radio and airs a news/ talk format with news and sports programs. CJOB and its sister stations, CFPG-FM, CJKR-FM, and CKND-DT, ...

680,

CFPG-FM CFPG-FM (99.1 FM, ''Peggy @ 99.1'') is a radio station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it broadcasts an adult contemporary format. Its transmitter is located in Duff Roblin Provincial Park, while its studios are loc ...

99.1 and

CJKR-FM CJKR-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting on the assigned frequency of 97.5 MHz in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It airs an active rock format with the on-air brand name ''Power 97''. The station is owned and operated by Corus Entertainment, which ...

97.5 are located on the second floor of the three-story building. On October 10, 2017,

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears� ...

announced the closure of all 130 of its remaining stores, which included the Polo Park location that had been part of the mall's original store lineup since before its 1959 grand opening. The location closed in December of that same year, and a new flagship EQ3 store has since taken much of the vacant space, relocating from its former freestanding store on November 3, 2021.

Expansions

In the spring of 1968, a $7.5-million expansion of Polo Park was completed. The addition brought a three-storey

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

department store to the mall, making Polo Park the second largest shopping centre in Canada at the time. In 1986, the mall underwent a $75-million renovation that added a second level to the building. This addition was panned by

downtown Winnipeg Downtown Winnipeg is an area of Winnipeg located near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It is the oldest urban area in Winnipeg, and is home to the city's commercial core, city hall, the seat of Manitoba's provincial government, a ...

merchants, who voiced their objections to the plan at

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

meetings in 1984; Council approved the expansion nonetheless. The expanded shopping centre opened in mid-August 1986. Another expansion took place in 2007, which added and cost $30 million. A new $49-million expansion to Polo Park opened 1 October 2014 in the former

Zellers Zellers was a Canadian discount department retail chain and is currently a brand name owned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Founded in 1931 in London, Ontario, in later decades it was based in Brampton, Ontario. Zellers was acquired by HBC i ...

space on the mall's second level. The redeveloped space included of retail space and 17 new stores.

Complexes

Polo Park has also added new retail complexes, which are located on properties adjacent to the north of the mall. Polo North is located on the site of the former

and features

Marshalls Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. Mar ...

Mark's Mark's (known as L'Équipeur in Quebec) is a Canadian clothing and footwear retailer specializing in casual and industrial wear. Beginning in 1977 as Mark's Work Wearhouse in Calgary, Alberta, it evolved from an industrial accessories dealer ...

, Atmosphere, and the new head office of Western Financial. The Plaza at Polo Park—located at the

grounds, adjacent to

—is a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

that spans over . It features

Winners Winners Merchants International L.P is a chain of off-price Canada, Canadian department stores owned by TJX Companies. It offers brand name clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, fine jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Products are at a ...

HomeSense HomeSense (stylized as Homesense in Europe and the United States) is a Canadian chain of discount home furnishing stores owned by TJX Companies. It originated in Canada in 2001, and was expanded to Europe in 2008 and the United States in 2017. O ...

Urban Behavior Urban Behavior also spelled Behaviour is a unisex apparel retailer in Canada with a focus on club wear. The chain was founded in 1989 by Arif Noor.Winnipeg Metropolitan Region Inc., and the first

P. F. Chang's P. F. Chang's China Bistro is an American-based, casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang that serves Asian fusion cuisine. Centerbridge Partners owned and operated Chang's until acquired by the private e ...

restaurant in Winnipeg. With parking capacity for over 1,200 vehicles, The Plaza was originally built to house

Target Canada Target Canada Co. was the Canadian subsidiary of the Target Corporation, the eighth-largest retailer in the United States. Formerly headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, the subsidiary was formed with the acquisition of Zellers store leases fr ...

, which soon after went out of business throughout Canada.Kirbyson, Geoff. 2015 January 16.
How was Target's aim so bad?
. ''Winnipeg Free Press''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polo Park, CF

Polo Park Polo Park (corporately styled as CF Polo Park) is a shopping centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is situated on the former Polo Park Racetrack near the junction of Portage Avenue and St. James Street. Its grounds also includes a Scotiaba ...

Buildings and structures in Winnipeg Shopping malls in Manitoba Shopping malls established in 1959 Cadillac Fairview St. James, Winnipeg