Hotel, heritage building for sale

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This article was published 26/12/2021 (998 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A well-known inn and entertainment venue in Winnipeg’s French-speaking neighbourhood of St. Boniface is up for sale, listed for a cool $1.79 million.

The St. Boniface Hotel, at 171 Dumoulin St., has long been a busy spot for live entertainment in the area, showcasing bands and musical performers on a consistent basis at its Club St. B venue for decades. The space has hosted everything from arm-wrestling competitions to the Festival du Voyageur’s Voyageur Games. Plus, each of its seven rooms are rented, according to the listing by realtor Al Chopra of Landmhel Real Estate Services, who has interest in the property.

Occupying a prime lot near St. Boniface’s central business area, the yellow-and-black building sits on more than 12,000 square feet, and the price-tag includes not just the building, but the land and all equipment on site.

The current hotel is not the first one on the property: the previous iteration of the St. Boniface Hotel ended in flames.

On Oct. 28, 1970, a tenant named Ubald Desrochers was roused by the smell of smoke just past 4 a.m. and proceeded to wake each of the 30 people residing at the three-storey hotel that night. There were no injuries, and the band that played the previous evening, The Ranch Boys, were able at 7 a.m. to reclaim their musical equipment with minimal water damage.

Owner Joseph Galonsky, who had only bought the property four months earlier for $125,000, told the Free Press that the hotel was the oldest of those standing in the area, dating back to 1890. Galonsky, who left work at 2 a.m., was rudely welcomed back two hours later by the sight of his business up in flames. “It was all smoke by the time I got here,” he said.

He was not optimistic about salvaging the structure, and the next day St. B’s fire chief Emery Proulx confirmed Galonsky’s pessimism, declaring the hotel a total loss, owing to excessive heat, smoke and water damage. The hotel was insured for $100,000, the Free Press reported.

In the decades since, the newer iteration continued to host live entertainment, while also adding VLTs, a beer vendor and a restaurant.

Meanwhile, another historically significant property is up for sale in Winnipeg’s downtown: the Canada Permanent Building at 298 Garry St., currently owned and occupied by financial services company Telpay. The 11,367-square-foot office building is listed at $1.75 million.

The municipally designated historic building was designed in 1909 by J.D. Atchison — the city’s leading architect of the era — for the Canada Permanent Trust Co., a Toronto-based company which was looking to grow its footprint in Winnipeg as the city became a financial hub. (The company came to Winnipeg in 1881 as its first expansion site, per Heritage Winnipeg.)

A city report on the property states that in 1900, the location of Canada Permanent’s Winnipeg office was in a renovated block on the southeast of Portage Avenue and Main Street. However, by 1909, the company had to move: the Bank of Montreal had purchased the site to erect its own headquarters, designed by American architects McKim, Mead and White.

So the company moved to 298 Garry St., where Atchison’s renaissance revival design was rendered in salmon-coloured sandstone. Canada Permanent operated there until 1964, at which point it became home to the Guardian Finance Corp.

In the 1970s, according to the Manitoba Historical Society, it became known as the Freed Building. According to the city report, the building was purchased in the early 1980s and “sensitively” renovated to be the headquarters for Comcheq Services Ltd. For those restoration efforts, the building has been recognized with a conservation award from Heritage Winnipeg. Today, Telpay, a subsidiary of Comcheq, occupies it.

For around $1.8 million, either the hotel or the building on Garry Street could be yours.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com