Liquor store outlet in True North Square scaled back from 50,000 square feet to 4,000

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries will occupy a much smaller space in the new True North Square than originally planned under the previous NDP government.

Progressive Conservative Crown Services Minister Cliff Cullen announced the provincial liquor retailer had negotiated a 20-year agreement for a 4,000-square-foot store in True North Square, a public plaza and series of mixed-used towers currently under construction in downtown Winnipeg. 

The liquor store was scaled down from as much as 50,000-square-feet.

The original plan, announced by the then NDP government in February 2016, called for a flagship retail outlet for the Crown corporation. Cullen said that plan would have cost $80 million over 20 years. 

"This was an arrangement, I think you have to remember, signed by the previous government on the eve of an election and quite frankly that would be over and above the core mandate of Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries."

The future of the project has been in question ever since Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government came into office in April 2016 and replaced the board of Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries.

"When we put the new board in place, the new board quickly realized there was no business plan in place for that 45,000 square foot retail space and we set about renegotiating that particular arrangement," Cullen said.

As compensation for the reduced size of the lease, the province also Liquor & Lotteries will also make a one-time cash payment of $2 million to True North as part of the revised agreement.

The decision to proceed with the outlet came with no business case or research, MLL chair Polly Craik said in November 2016, and the plan was under review.

In March of last year, True North Development president Jim Ludlow said the planned development was "not a 50,000-square-foot liquor store" but a high-end concept that would incorporate restaurants and food stalls, as well as an alcoholic beverage retailer.

The plan was for "a 50,000-square-foot food hall with a liquor-store component in it, which is a very different issue," Ludlow said at the time.

The new store will replace the current downtown outlet in Cityplace.