{"id":824127,"date":"2026-07-24T23:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824127\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:39:14","slug":"we-want-to-create-an-experience-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824127\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We want to create an experience\u2019 \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entertainment attractions are coming to fill the former Hudson\u2019s Bay space in St. Vital Centre.<\/p>\n

Montreal-based real estate firm Leyad, the south Winnipeg mall\u2019s owner, says it is finalizing an agreement for the vacant property. Further details should appear in the next couple months, said president Henry Zavriyev.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at what other types of experiences we can bring to the mall that aren\u2019t just typical retail,\u201d he said during a visit to Winnipeg this week.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"MIKAELA
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Henry Zavriyev, president and CEO of Leyad, at St. Vital Centre (one of their recent property acquisitions) on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to create an experience where you can just come to the mall, hang out here for hours, no matter if you\u2019re a kid, an adult, a retiree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leyad bought St. Vital Centre in February. It\u2019s among the company\u2019s latest acquisitions in a string of shopping centre purchases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at what other types of experiences we can bring to the mall that aren\u2019t just typical retail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Leyad opened a bowling alley in Niagara Pen Centre in St. Catharines, Ont. It also inked deals with a pickleball operator and Funvilla, an indoor playground.<\/p>\n

It turned a former Hudson\u2019s Bay store into a Zellers at its Londonderry Mall in Edmonton. It\u2019s also adding an indoor playground and laser tag to the centre.<\/p>\n

St. Vital\u2019s Bay store shuttered in May 2025 amid the country-wide shutdown of the former retail giant. Redevelopment of the old department store could take two years, Zavriyev said.<\/p>\n

When the Bay \u2014 an entryway into the shopping hub \u2014 closed, mall retailers nearby felt a drop in traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf something does go up (in its place), I hope it would drum up more business for the stores that are on this end,\u201d said Ashley Kiemeney, an employee at Daring Diva Purses.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"MIKE
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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

St. Vital\u2019s Bay store closed in May 2025 when the former retail giant went through a shutdown of its country-wide operations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Meantime, Uniqlo is set to open in the corridor on Aug. 21. It\u2019s planning a grand opening with matcha, donuts and drumming.<\/p>\n

The Japan-headquartered clothing chain is a \u201cphenomenal retailer,\u201d Zavriyev said, sitting at a St. Vital Centre food court table peppered with Uniqlo advertisements.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s led the acquisition of roughly eight Manitoba properties over the past two years. Leyad bought the building housing CDI College, at 280 Main St., in February 2024.<\/p>\n

Johnston Terminal at The Forks, Garden City Square, and a few buildings housing Loblaw tenants and Canada Goose have followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m \u2026 super bullish on Winnipeg,\u201d Zavriyev said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Anne
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Anne D\u2019Innocenzio \/ The Associated Press<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Japan-headquartered clothing chain Uniqlo is set to open a St. Vital Centre location on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Leyad is a private company. It\u2019s prioritized smaller Canadian cities and centres that will be \u201cconsistent\u201d with one to three per cent revenue growth per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteady Eddie\u201d and \u201cnot very volatile\u201d are terms Zavriyev used.<\/p>\n

Half of Leyad\u2019s commercial revenue comes from \u201cnecessity-based\u201d tenants, such as grocery stores. Walmart, Loblaw, Canadian Tire, Winners and Dollarama account for nearly 30 per cent of revenue, Zavriyev said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m \u2026 super bullish on Winnipeg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows us to take those kind of unconventional steps with those other types of retailers,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve been very cognizant of, \u2018We need to have that anchor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Leyad ramped up purchases of malls following the COVID-19 pandemic, when many questioned the future of brick-and-mortar retail. Mall fundamentals \u2014 dollar shops, grocery stores \u2014 remained \u201cgreat,\u201d Zavriyev said.<\/p>\n

Leyad has been on a shopping spree: in 2026 alone, it\u2019s purchased shopping centres in Victoria, Thunder Bay, Ont., Lloydminster, Alta., and Winnipeg, plus 387,000 square feet of grocery stores that Loblaw stores occupy.<\/p>\n

Zavriyev, 32, established Leyad in 2012.<\/p>\n

The company began in Montreal with apartment management. Zavriyev said he was working as a janitor while studying at Concordia University; he asked the property manager if he could rent out the apartment\u2019s vacant units. He did the grunt work \u2014 painting, plumbing \u2014 and rented spaces.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"MIKAELA
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

St. Vital Centre, one of Leyad\u2019s recent property acquisitions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Eventually, he dropped out of school and focused on building a property management business. He went to family offices in Montreal for initial investment and has gathered all-Canadian investors, he said.<\/p>\n

Duplexes and 12-unit places later became industrial properties, leading to retail strip centres and larger buildings.<\/p>\n

Leyad still owns apartments. Among them, Quebecers have accused the company of \u2018renovictions,\u2019 where tenants are pushed out of housing due to renovations and price increases.<\/p>\n

Tenants in one Montreal seniors residence took Zavriyev to court, after being told to move or pay more for fewer services, CBC reported in 2023. The building wasn\u2019t converted into residential apartments, despite the owner\u2019s initial intentions.<\/p>\n

Zavriyev argued Leyad has \u201cnever renovicted anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBuildings hadn\u2019t been renovated in generations and getting to hazardous points,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were going to all of them and trying to make deals where we would try to figure out solutions in which, \u2018OK, what would make sense as far as compensatory amount.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

Leyad may purchase Manitoba apartments in the future, Zavriyev said, adding the company has \u201cmore optionality now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s grown to around 500 employees and has offices in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.<\/p>\n

Leyad isn\u2019t the first out-of-province developer to acquire several properties in a \u201crelatively short\u201d time period, said Jeremy Davis, spokesman for the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbitious developers looking to expand into other markets can have many goals, but chief among them is making profitable investments,\u201d Davis wrote in a statement. \u201cIn the end, outside investment is a direct vote of confidence into the market fundamentals of our region and increased competition is good for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retail spaces are generally \u201cflourishing;\u201d restaurants, entertainment and services such as barbers and nail salons continue to be popular in malls, said Paul Kornelsen, a CBRE vice-president.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good-news story that there\u2019s a \u2026 group that are outside of the province (seeing) Winnipeg as a viable investment,\u201d Kornelsen said.<\/p>\n

Colliers Canada clocked a vacancy rate of 5.1 per cent for Winnipeg retail centres in 2025, a jump from 3.3 per cent in 2024.<\/p>\n

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entertainment attractions are coming to fill the former Hudson\u2019s Bay space in St. Vital Centre. Montreal-based real estate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-824127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}