Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Restaurateurs buy ex-hostel for student residence
By: Murray McNeill
Posted: 01/12/2013 1:00 AM
STUDENTS from around the world could soon be calling the former Downtowner Motor Hotel their new home away from home.
The owners of Winnipeg's India Palace Restaurant -- Ashwani and Suroj Nagpal -- have purchased the former Ellice Avenue hotel-turned-hostel from the North Portage Development Corporation for about $2 million, and are spending more than a million dollars to convert it into a residence for foreign and out-of-town students.
They'll also be opening a 70-seat, internationally themed restaurant and a small cafeteria in the three-storey building, which is located on the southwest corner of Ellice Avenue and Kennedy Street. The restaurant will be open to the public, while the cafeteria will be used to feed the student residents, who will have meals included in their rent.
"The experience of our own children is the reason we're doing this," Ashwani Nagpal said in a written statement released on Friday. "They were disoriented and felt very alone when they first arrived in a new city to study. Finding accommodation, having your meals taken care of, is key to settling in to the real reason you're there -- to study and enjoy the student experience."
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