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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
New hope on Selkirk Avenue
Residents cheer as infamous Merchants Hotel transforms
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The liquor licence at the ex-Merchants Hotel will not be back. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Greg Selinger heralds a new era at the announcement Monday. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store
Rob Neufeld's first act as the new owner of the Merchants Hotel was ripping down the barroom's liquor licence.
It's a small gesture that has a huge significance for this corner of Winnipeg's North End as the people who live in it put the notorious hotel's past behind them.
"We took the liquor licence off the wall," Neufeld, executive director of the North End Community Renewal Corporation (NECRC), told about 200 people who gathered on Selkirk Avenue Monday to celebrate the hotel's closing.
A cheer went up from the crowd and with that, Neufeld tucked away the framed licence for good, signalling that the Selkirk Avenue hotel is now under new ownership. "We will not be renewing it," he said.
The hotel, in operation since 1933, has been long criticized as a magnet for violent crime on the once-vital avenue.
But it shut down for good on Sunday, with the keys being turned over to Neufeld on Monday. The NECRC, along with representatives from about 20 organizations, including the University of Winnipeg and Red River College, will soon start work to transform the three-storey building and its parking lot into a combined housing, retail and education centre, to be known as Merchants Corner.
"We want to build strength on our street and we believe that this vision for Merchants Corner and not having a large liquor vendor in a large residential area is a good thing," Neufeld said.
Neufeld said plans for the ex-hotel will take shape over the next six months, with its renovation to take at least two years. The province contributed $1.3 million toward its purchase.
For the hotel itself, preliminary plans call for the main floor to be converted into retail space, the second floor for educational use and the third floor into housing. The nearby parking lot is to be used for housing.
"We're going to take that blight off Selkirk Avenue called the Merchants Hotel," Premier Greg Selinger said. "It's long overdue, in my opinion, to get that facility out of here. (People) have always thought that the hotel brings this area down when everyone else was trying to bring it up."
North End resident Pete Lavallee brought his daughter, Mary, to listen to the premier and commemorate the end of the hotel with his neighbours, which included a bannock and bison stew feast.
"People can see there will be no more pain here and that we can move forward from the tragedies that have suppressed so many people," he said. "Now we have an opportunity to help and to give back to our community."
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 1, 2012 A4
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