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 in BC. The district was once the sports hub of Winnipeg, with the
Winnipeg Arena,
Canad Inns Stadium, and
Winnipeg Velodrome 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 and
Chapters. 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 affiliate,
CKY-TV,
CKY radio, and FM 92
CITI. 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 and
Cadillac Fairview. Studios for
CJOB 680,
CFPG-FM 99.1 and
CJKR-FM 97.5 are located on the second floor of the three-story building. After
Sears Canada closed its location in December 2017 due to bankruptcy, the anchor was redeveloped between March 2018 and October 2021 to house new tenants. As of 2023, most of the space is occupied by EQ3 and
Zara.
Uniqlo will open on the second floor of the vacant Sears space in Spring 2026.
Expansions In the spring of 1968, a $7.5-million expansion of Polo Park was completed. The addition brought a three-storey
Eaton's 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 merchants, who voiced their objections to the plan at
City Council 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 space on the mall's second level. The redeveloped space included of retail space and 17 new stores. The space will again be redeveloped in late 2024 and most of 2025 to host a
London Drugs location, the chain's second in Manitoba, which is scheduled to open in late 2025. Some tenants in the redeveloped space were relocated to other areas of the mall, while others' leases were not renewed. == Complexes ==