1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Bob Frey keeps things humming at Clearspring Centre for 38 years

NOVEMBER 14, 2020—There is much more to managing a successful city-type shopping mall in a rural centre like Steinbach than just renting out space to retail merchants.

For 38 of Clearspring Centre’s first 40 years, Bob Frey was the man behind the scenes. He was a merchant, a manager, and a politician. Most of all, he was a promoter, as that was the way the Clearspring Village Shopping Centre evened the playing field with the big city malls like St. Vital Centre and Polo Park.

When Frey took on the position of mall manager in 1981, mall owners Jim Penner and Ernie Penner realized they needed the mall to be a place for the community to gather, not just for shopping.

The two men had purchased 36 acres from Benny Reimer and when the mall opened in May of 1980 there were three anchor tenants, Penner Foods, Penner Building Centre and The Met, along with 14 smaller stores and one restaurant.

Everything in the mall was locally owned, except the Met, Frey said.

“We couldn’t charge anywhere close to the lease rates of the brand new St. Vital Centre, because we were still considered to be a rural market.”

Because there was not a huge mix of stores, the shopping centre became a meeting place, almost like a community centre. To that end, Frey ran a full slate of promotions and advertising throughout the year to connect with the local market.

“There was always a spirit of co-operation and merchants participated enthusiastically, because the combined effort benefitted them as owners of a piece of the mall.”

Activities such as indoor sidewalk sales, yard and garden shows, and a Christmas craft sale which started in 1982 were among popular events organized by Frey.

A farm toy show, which grew to be the biggest in Manitoba with collectors from all over Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Minnesota and Ontario, was an annual draw at the mall for nearly 30 years.

But, according to Frey, the biggest promotion came about quite by accident,

Fred Penner was scheduled to come to Steinbach to sign covers of his latest cassette, The Cat Came Back, which was being sold at Radio Shack, owned by Frey. Penner’s agent adamantly told Frey the popular children’s entertainer would not have time to play or sing when he came to Steinbach and would leave right after the autograph session.

But that did not happen when Rudy Nikkel from Holiday Travel brought Fred a guitar, and Frey set up a microphone.

Fred was a gracious guest, and hundreds of youngsters who had crowded the mall to get his autograph were treated to a live version of the The Cat Came Back in an impromptu concert in the area known as “the pit” in the centre of the mall.

The area, when not staging entertainment, was an area where parents could drop off their youngsters to play with their friends, go and do their shopping and catch up with their kids later.

The original design was an area four feet deep, with different levels of seating. Entertainment was staged at the lowest level in the centre and surrounded by spectators. The idea was to have shoppers extend their stay at the mall.

Getting back together at this play area at a designated time became a Steinbach tradition, much in the same way earlier generations met under the clock at Eaton’s in Winnipeg.

Weekend activities, like school science fairs or a book sale, added to the Clearspring Village shopping experience.

When Pioneer Days rolled around, a pancake breakfast in the parking lot would draw up to 3,000 people, and no one was happier than the mall manager, when the Steinbach Lions Club offered to take over serving the crowd every year.

Frey started working at the mall in August of 1981 and retired from the job in April of 2019. The Clearspring Centre started with 18 tenants and during Frey’s time there reached a maximum of 33.