{"id":650538,"date":"2026-05-06T01:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/650538\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T01:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:42:10","slug":"manwin-hotel-owner-sues-city-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/650538\/","title":{"rendered":"Manwin Hotel owner sues city \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of the Manwin Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in January, is trying to sue the City of Winnipeg for $15 million.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service officials ordered the charred remains of the hotel, at 655 Main St., to be demolished while crews were still working to extinguish the blaze that engulfed the dilapidated, vacant hotel.<\/p>\n

The Manwin had been vacant since the city ordered residents \u2014 who occupied cheap, single rooms \u2014 to leave in January 2025. The owner had failed to address multiple outstanding permit requirements and compliance orders.<\/p>\n

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

MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n

The Manwin Hotel, before catching fire, had been vacant since the city ordered residents to leave in January 2025.<\/p>\n

The city was in the early stages of trying to expropriate the property when the fire erupted on Jan. 14.<\/p>\n

Property owner Akim Kambamba\u2019s company filed a brief statement of claim in the Court of King\u2019s Bench last week in which it seeks extensive damages, plus court costs. Kambamba\u2019s company hasn\u2019t retained a lawyer and filed the suit itself.<\/p>\n

The city has yet to reply in court.<\/p>\n

The company claims that one day before the fire, the city advised Kambamba that the building had been breached. He was told to arrange to have the building boarded up again. Vacant property owners are responsible for securing their buildings under a city bylaw.<\/p>\n

Kambamba claims he asked city police to sweep the building first, but they refused. He conducted a \u201cmake believe boarding\u201d of the Manwin.<\/p>\n

In the court filing, Kambamba\u2019s company claims the city\u2019s decision to allow Main Street Project to provide services to homeless people at its adjacent property interfered with his business.<\/p>\n

The suit argues the city breached its duty of care to him by allowing the shelter to provide services that he claims hurt his operation.<\/p>\n

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

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

The suit claims the city had the duty of properly securing the Manwin, despite the bylaw dictating it\u2019s the responsibility of property owners.<\/p>\n

Kambamba claims, without including evidence in the court filing, the city \u201cimproperly\u201d shut down the hotel and evicted the tenants.<\/p>\n

After the city ordered the hotel to be closed, Kambamba briefly listed it for sale at a price of $2.8 million.<\/p>\n

Fire department and city officials haven\u2019t said what caused the fire.<\/p>\n

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n

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

Erik Pindera
Reporter
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.\u00a0 Read more about Erik<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of the Manwin Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in January, is trying to sue the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-650538","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\/650538","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=650538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}