Winnipeg Construction X

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

I wonder if there are any plans to do something with the mothballed Northstar Cinemas in the basement of the hotel?

Good question. I'm amazed that it has been sitting vacant for so long. When it first closed down I expected it to be converted to meeting/convention space or something like that.

I would love to see it go back to being a cinema, although that would probably require new everything inside.

[Authentic_City]

If Canad is serious about redeveloping the Hotel and the buildings adjacent as some sort of entertainment hub, a revamped theatre could be part of the plan. Although the Met Event Centre, if joined to the other buildings, could knock the wind out of any plan to do something similar with the old Northstar Theatre space. They could convert it to a bowling alley, I suppose???

[esquire]

I always thought the theatre could stand a chance if it had some prominent signage to remind people that it's there. A little bit of neon, some blinking lights, nothing major but just something beyond the tiny old changing-letter marquee that the Northstar used to have.

A bowling alley is not a bad plan B!

[Authentic_City]

Bowling seems to be having a bit of resurgence lately. A new downtown bowling alley with a bar open late would actually be pretty cool. But now I'm just dreaming, I think.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

There appears to be a render in the background of the photo in the CBC news story. Anyone seen this render up close?

It is hard to tell what is going on in the picture of the PowerPoint but it is similar a photo of Somerset as is, maybe with some light reno to the main floor. The biggest tell is the ledge detail about six stories up in the existing building. You can see that in the photo. Once I had that landmark other details started to pop out.

As for CanadInns plans for the site I scream BS all over that. When the main floor came open a couple of years back there was lots of speculation on what would move in. If they were serious about their plans that was the time to jump.

As for the connection of the Met to Somerset if you look at the article of the back lane you can see a clear bricked in window arch on the Met overlooking the backlane. That seems like the obvious tie in point.

[plrh]

A few weeks ago I had a meeting with someone from Canad at the Radisson and they had gave me the impression (intentionally or not) that the hotel would use the entire floor that the skywalk is on as additional meeting room space, and that the rest of Somerset would be leased out as it currently is. It was not the topic of the meeting so I didn't dig any deeper. I have to add that the Canad people in the meeting were not involved in the development part of the business.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by CoryB

As for CanadInns plans for the site I scream BS all over that. When the main floor came open a couple of years back there was lots of speculation on what would move in. If they were serious about their plans that was the time to jump.

More than likely they weren't ready to move ahead with their plans yet. In that light signing a five year (or however long) lease with Dollar Tree made sense.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by esquire

GWL has 2,325 employees in Winnipeg.

My source is here: https://www.economicdevelopmentwinni...on/data-tables

Scroll down to the Winnipeg's Largest Employers tab and open the Excel sheet with the details. I was floored when I found out that CanadInns was the largest. Obviously many of those jobs (part time waiter, etc.) pale in comparison to the average earnings at a place like GWL, but still. They are the biggest.

Wawanesa listed as 127 employees. Seems like a new tower might be overkill....

[dmacc]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Wawanesa listed as 127 employees. Seems like a new tower might be overkill....

I think there is a zero missing, during their announcement that they were moving they mentioned 1,200 employees I believe.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Wawanesa listed as 127 employees. Seems like a new tower might be overkill....

Originally Posted by dmacc

I think there is a zero missing, during their announcement that they were moving they mentioned 1,200 employees I believe.

It appears that there are two different corporate entities listed - one for life, one for property

The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company Fire, Marine, and Casualty Insurance Headquarters 1,688

Wawanesa Life Insurance Company Life Insurance Headquarters 127

[Ando]

Ledohowski is a drama queen who likes to hear himself talk. I don’t think a heritage designation protecting “some” exterior and interior elements should really be enough to stop his super, stupendous and amazing transformation. He’s really a relatively small time developer who likes to do things on the cheap.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by plrh

the hotel would use the entire floor that the skywalk is on as additional meeting room space, and that the rest of Somerset would be leased

My thinking is the main floor and second floor would be spaces like the Tavern, public to semi-private spaces. Perhaps with private rooms in a Tavern space on the second floor to host pre-event private parties.

Then floor 3+ would be filled with the CanadInns corporate offices we have heard are already in the building. The likely top floor would be an expansion of catering space, assuming it somewhat matches up with the similar space in the Radisson. With possibly a floor or more of the otherwise unused space in the building being converted into long stay hotel rooms that would on the books be part of the Radisson.

As for the Northstar Theater a conversion to a Lucky Strike clone could be a winning idea. In terms of the accessibility challenge I would take a guess that removing the existing escalators and replacing them with a spiral style staircase and a single elevator could address the issue without needing to significantly alter the floor plans.

[The Unknown Poster]

Originally Posted by NewIreland

Serious question though... I'm not from around these parts. What's the deal with Canada Inns? That logo drives me insane! Looks like something straight out of the 80's! Everything they've touched looks incredibly tacky. How are they even moderately successful? Has to be corruption of some sort. Has to be!

I worked for them a couple of times in years past. Back before they helped kill the nightclub business in Winnipeg. It was sort of...so-so. They always seemed very much trying to play big time corporation. They used to be called Hospitality Corporation and we were all perplexed at the name change.

Rumour has it they wanted to be called Canada inn but someone else held the trademark so they went with Canad with the logo that appears to read Canada. Very confusing.

One time, when they were named a top 50 employer, they gave all the staff $50 bills (right before staff christmas party, so that was cool).

A lot of staff started out entry level as bouncers, DJ's or bartenders and became managers, then were fired and would end up back as Bouncers or Bartenders. Weird.

I believe there was a family split where one of the brothers quit the company. Another sibling might have too. They were considered "cheap" by the staff and didnt much care for the opinion of front line staff.

They were aggressive with competition, trying to out-market or out-spend competing bars. They also had a knack for knowing when the LC Inspectors would be showing up so they could maintain good order on those nights. And a knack for ensuring Inspectors showed up at their competitors.

[BAKGUY]

The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company Fire, Marine, and Casualty Insurance Headquarter 1,688
Life Insurance 127
Grand Total = 1815

[pegcity]

Canad Inns needs a complete overhaul, from branding to exterior to interior. All their properties look so dated, I guess with the exception of HSC. Rooms are dated, fake foliage all over the place.

I would rate them just above a derelict Howard Johnson that hasn’t been renovated in 50 years.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by pegcity

Canad Inns needs a complete overhaul, from branding to exterior to interior. All their properties look so dated, I guess with the exception of HSC. Rooms are dated, fake foliage all over the place.

I would rate them just above a derelict Howard Johnson that hasn’t been renovated in 50 years.

Their only saving grace design-wise is that some of their more recent hotels are vertically oriented, like HSC, Grand Forks and Brandon. Kind of a nice, European-style design touch. But other than that they're totally unremarkable.

But speaking of that, why did CanadInns stop building new/expanded hotels? For a while in the 00s they were on a construction tear, and then it just kind of stopped.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by esquire

Their only saving grace design-wise is that some of their more recent hotels are vertically oriented, like HSC, Grand Forks and Brandon. Kind of a nice, European-style design touch. But other than that they're totally unremarkable.

But speaking of that, why did CanadInns stop building new/expanded hotels? For a while in the 00s they were on a construction tear, and then it just kind of stopped.

They did semi-recently re-do the Regent hotel.

They had that proposed one on McPhillips by the Casino, even tore down the motel that was there. I think it was mentioned on here that the HSC one fell far short of expectations so it was scrapped.

Funny thought it's still mentioned on their website:
https://www.canadinns.com/stay/mcphi...no-hotel/home/

[The Unknown Poster]

Originally Posted by esquire

Their only saving grace design-wise is that some of their more recent hotels are vertically oriented, like HSC, Grand Forks and Brandon. Kind of a nice, European-style design touch. But other than that they're totally unremarkable.

But speaking of that, why did CanadInns stop building new/expanded hotels? For a while in the 00s they were on a construction tear, and then it just kind of stopped.

There was talk they had spread themselves too thin. Those nightclubs were all cash cows and now most of them are gone.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by pspeid

In terms of their hotels, a lot of people don't necessarily want to pay for a lot of extras. As long as the room is clean, comfortable and safe, many travellers spend their time outside their hotel rooms...travelling. In that regard, I feel there's nothing terribly "wrong" with CanadInns locations (even their logo, while kind of bland, doesn't offend me like it seems to others).

I'm interested to see what kind of plans they have for that corner of Portage Ave. At least, before I fly off into a foaming rage about it.

The weird thing about canad inns is that they actually aren't that cheap. I stayed in the one in Portage a month ago and it was more than $150 a night....that's Fort Garry or Mere territory.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by trueviking

The weird thing about canad inns is that they actually aren't that cheap. I stayed in the one in Portage a month ago and it was more then $150 a night....that's Fort Garry or Mere territory.

True. After the discussion above I looked up the rates of the apparently underperforming HSC CanadInns on random dates in May, and it was $166 a night. Only a small handful of hotels in town cost more than that for the same dates (Inn at The Forks, maybe a couple of others), and none of them are in areas where most people wouldn't care to walk around at night.