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A Winnipeg hotel that’s stood empty for more than two decades is one of four downtown heritage buildings slated to be converted into residential housing with the help of $4.7 million in public funds.
The three-storey St. Charles Hotel, a 113-year-old structure at the corner of Notre Dame Avenue and Albert Street, will be replaced with an 11-storey structure with 140 residential units, Rochelle Squires, executive director of the downtown Winnipeg development agency CentreVenture, said at a Tuesday news conference.
Building owner Ken Zaifman, an immigration lawyer, has been working for decades on a renovation plan that would satisfy the city’s heritage-preservation goals for the structure, which stands at the entrance to the Exchange District.
Zaifman is working with Penfor Construction to preserve the facade of the three-storey building and extend the same visual esthetic to all 11 floors of the proposed new structure.
“Our strategy is to scan very carefully the existing facade, dismantle it, store it, build the new building and then come back and replace the facade,” Penfor CEO Danny Serhal, who is working on a separate tower on the empty lot north of the St. Charles, said at Tuesday’s news conference.
The public funds for the St. Charles project will come from the federal housing money forwarded to the city as well as the city-administered Gail Parvin Hammerquist Fund. The new tower is also eligible for provincial housing credits, Squires said.
The owner of this low-rise building at the corner of Bannatyne Avenue and Princess Street is planning to add enough storeys to create 114 new residential units. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
The cash will also help convert the vacant one-storey Sanford Building at 291 Bannatyne Ave. in the Exchange — a remnant of a four-storey structure built in 1890 that lost its upper storeys to fire in the 1940s — and the attached Maw’s Garage, which dates back to 1907, into a 114-unit residential tower.
Property records show 291 Bannatyne Ave. is owned by Fratelli Enterprises Ltd., a Winnipeg company that lists property developer Sabino Tummillo as the director and shareholder.
The Belgica Block, a four-storey building built in 1911 on Garry Street south of Portage Avenue, will be converted into 29 new residential units with the help of the funding.
Justin Beaulieu of Westgate Developments said he is in the process of purchasing the vacant block from a numbered company, which corporate records show is controlled by Winnipeg businesspeople Polly Craik and David Rattray.
Twenty nine units are planned for this building on Garry Street, south of Portage Avenue. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
“The biggest thing is to get some of these underutilized buildings that have been basically vacant for a long time … back to being used by the public,” Beaulieu said at Tuesday’s news conference.
The final structure slated for redevelopment is the Alloway Building, a three-storey walkup on McDermot Avenue built in 1903.
The building was damaged by a fire in 2025 in its basement tenant, Johnny G’s restaurant. Building owners Shelley and Mark Buleziuk are working with the city to approve a residential conversion that only utilizes a single staircase.
British Columbia was the first province to approve small residential buildings with only one staircase for access and egress.
“That gives us 14 suites, all about 400 to 450 square feet, so basically the entire building will be affordable apartments,” Mark Buleziuk said.
The four projects combined will add 297 residential units to downtown Winnipeg, of which 106 will be designated affordable housing, Squires said.
Fourteen units are planned for the fire-damaged Alloway Building on McDermot Avenue. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
The public funds help bridge the gap between the cost of the conversions and potential returns for the developers, she suggested.
“The efficiency of these buildings are not like new builds. There’s also uncertainties, like what do you find when you open up the building or look at the flooring? Sometimes things need to be remediated,” said Squires.
“The developers we’re working with, that CentreVenture has always been working with when it comes to downtown heritage conversions, they’re skilled and they’re ambitious. But mostly they’re passionate.”
CentreVenture plans to add 750 housing units a year to downtown Winnipeg as part of a long-term plan.
WATCH | St. Charles Hotel to become 11-storey tower, facade will remain:
St. Charles Hotel to become 11-storey tower, facade will remain
A Winnipeg hotel that’s stood empty for more than two decades is one of four downtown heritage buildings slated to be converted into residential housing with the help of $4.7 million in public funds.