Once upon a time, Portage Place was the mall you just had to visit. There were lots of stores and shops and food court options, and business was booming. But all that seems like distant memory now.

You know things are bad at Portage Place when one of the shops in there that customers are loyal to is forced to shut its doors.

As MyKawartha reports, The Gourmet Cup is closing today due to lack of business. The Gourmet Cup has been in the mall since the very beginning, and current owner Lorna Ray has run it since 1996.

"The landlord has done nothing to attract tenants," Ray tells MyKawartha. "It's the state of the mall."

A new management team has been brought in to turn things around at the mall and attract more tenants, but is it too late? Many of the stores in Portage are now vacant, and things appear to be getting worse and worse by the day. You hardly hear of anyone shopping at Portage anymore. It just feels empty.

What would you do to turn this mall around?

[MyKawartha]

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