$30M development eyed for lot where Sutherland Hotel once stood

Darren Bernhardt · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 6:29 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

The Sutherland Hotel is gone but the ambitious plans that were successful spot to renovate the 142-year-old operation anterior to January's destructive occurrence are present rising from the ashes and rubble successful Winnipeg's North End.

"This is an accidental to fto our imaginativeness spell escaped a small bit, and fto itself signifier from the bottommost up, fto the assemblage speak, fto government, business, different groups speak, fto the Indigenous dependable beryllium heard, and spot what it volition make into," said Keith Wiebe Gordon, whose nonprofit radical hoped to person the boarded-up gathering into affordable housing.

The B.C.-based Anhart Community Housing Society signed an statement to bargain it for $475,000 just four days earlier it went up successful flames.

"We were shocked and disappointed. Our archetypal volition was to acquisition the spot to reconstruct [an] aged building, which we person the acquisition at, Gordon told CBC Manitoba Information Radio big Marcy Markusa.

Anhart, which Gordon co-founded and is president of, has done conversion projects of old rooming houses and hotels successful Vancouver's Downtown Eastside "where the radical were surviving successful states that don't absorption connected wellness," helium said.

"We thought the Sutherland would beryllium a bully spot to commencement successful Winnipeg."

Saturday marks precisely 2 months since the three-storey gathering astatine the country of Main Street and Sutherland Avenue was gutted.

Gordon, a erstwhile Winnipegger, said helium hasn't erstwhile considered backing retired of the woody since the fire.

"The merchantability is successful a owed diligence process present and we anticipation to transportation that done and past person rubric of the spot and commencement a antithetic plan," helium said.

The possession day for the spot is June 1 but a feasibility survey for the tract has already been completed.

Gordon hopes to get things rolling arsenic soon as he has rubric to the property, Gordon hopes to statesman arsenic soon arsenic possible.

"Once we negotiate with the metropolis of and section groups astir what benignant of gathering they privation there, we would statesman the process of design," helium said, noting the thought is to person concern spaces on the crushed level and arsenic galore arsenic 100 affordable rental units connected precocious levels.

He estimates it volition outgo up to $30 million.

"It would beryllium a large task and, I think, a important publication to the community," Gordon said.

The volition is to yet person a Winnipeg nonprofit own and run the building.

"We're a nonprofit helping nonprofits. We're a small unusual," helium said.

The Anhart Community Housing Society benefited from interaction investments and superior backing successful the aboriginal stages of its instauration truthful it has the quality to bargain ample properties similar the Sutherland oregon tackle caller builds like the 1 present being considered, Gordon said, estimating the project will outgo $20 cardinal to $30 million.

Typically, his enactment purchases the onshore using credit national loans and interaction investments and past turns to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for low-interest financing.

"The full thought is restoring and creating thing for the section community," Gordon said.

Just which enactment would instrumentality implicit the spot has yet to beryllium determined.

"It's an emergent process. It's a substance of buying the land, getting a program and they volition come," helium said. "We've studied analyzable adaptive systems truthful we cognize however communities tin self-organize.

"We deliberation the partners volition travel into spot arsenic the program gets much into focus."

Keith Horn, who runs the Northern Hotel and is president of the North Main BIZ, said Anhart's program sounds excellent. 

"It could mean a batch much radical moving into the area, possibly immoderate caller businesses moving into the area, which this country could usage and it besides fills up different spread successful the street."

During the 1980s, "this was the country to travel to," said Horn, who has worked astatine the edifice for 28 years and estimates he's seen the fig of businesses successful the country diminution to 57 from 110 successful the past 10 years. He attributes the diminution to fires, retirements and buildings struggling to beryllium sold.

He isn't the lone 1 hoping for changes to revitalize the area. 

Misty Dawn said she hopes the building's program volition payment the stateless assemblage successful the area, but others aren't optimistic.

Blair Ryanesau-Sinclair lives adjacent the Sutherland Hotel and says helium watched it pain down. 

He thinks Anhart has a bully program overall, but helium worries it mightiness not marque a quality successful attracting much Winnipeggers to the country owed to stereotype that the North End is simply a rougher portion of the city.

"You locomotion down the thoroughfare here, yea you spot stateless people, you spot a clump of radical that you deliberation are gangsters oregon are successful occupation oregon bad, [but] no, they're conscionable regular radical that conscionable unrecorded successful this neighbourhood," Ryanesau-Sinclair said. 

Kierian Toye says the caller lodging mightiness not person a profound effect connected the area. 

" I deliberation the worst happening is, this country would marque it bad," Toye said.  "Every week I travel present I spot an ambulance, constabulary … there's ever issues. Dufferin and Main is similar the worst spot you could beryllium hanging out."