‘You just don’t tolerate certain behaviours’ New owner has big plans for reopened Sherbrook hotel, vendor By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 12:27 PM CST Saturday, Mar. 1, 2025

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This article was published 01/03/2025 (580 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Neil Soorsma has big plans for the Sherbrook Inn.

The West Broadway hotel, located on Sherbrook Street at Westminster Avenue, has long had a reputation for attracting trouble — but the new owner is working to change that.

“It’s not the building. The building is an inanimate object,” Soorsma said Friday in the hotel’s bar that recently reopened following its sudden closure in February 2024. “You just don’t tolerate certain behaviours and make it known that it’s not acceptable.”

On Friday, signs and banners announced the bar and beer vendor had reopened for business.

The vendor has new wood panelling, a TV screen advertising products for sale — and prominent security equipment. It’s a stark contrast to the scratched Plexiglas and run-down interior from years past.

Soorsma’s son, Corey Soorsma, a vendor employee, said business has been brisk since the vendor’s reopening Tuesday.

“We’ve sold out of a lot of stuff, we were not expecting it at all,” he said Friday. “Other than that, I’ve been here every day and there hasn’t been any issues.”

The inn was purchased in May 2024 by Soorsma, a businessman who also owns the Royal Albert Arms in the Exchange District. He told the Free Press in June he planned to create an “upper-scale” version of the hotel by refurbishing the bar, beer vendor and hotel rooms.

“Your first order of business is to stabilize the place, then you can go from there,” he said.

“We don’t want it to be a Main Street bar,” Soorsma added, referring to some city establishments where safety has been an issue. “I want to have people coming in here from all parts of the city.”

Name changes are part of Soorsma’s plan to reinvent the establishment. The bar is now called the Kyoto Kat Club, while the hotel will become the East Gate Inn in the spring.

Posters advertising VLTs, a vendor, karaoke, music, pool, entertainment and other events were plastered on multiple entrances to the hotel.

The bar will offer live music, to be managed by Dave McKeigan, who handles bookings for the Royal Albert and the Pyramid, two long-standing music venues in Winnipeg.

The bar is currently open 6 p.m. until midnight, but Soorsma plans to extend the hours during the day.

Nearby, Kornerstop Foods owner Mike Williams is ready to welcome the business back to the neighbourhood.

“I’ve been here for 45 years,” Williams said. “It’s not the hotel that causes the trouble, it’s the people that go in it. But looks like they’ll run a pretty good ship there.”

Williams noticed a steep decline in business at his Sherbrook Street shop when the bar and vendor shut a little over a year ago. He reduced his hours but said he might extend them if business warrants it.

Eric Napier, executive director of West Broadway BIZ, said people in the area can’t blame the neighbourhood’s problems on one business. He said he will keep an open mind about the revamped bar and vendor.

“It’s always a complicated picture. You know, it’s easy to blame issues on one place that’s very obvious, but we also have a lot of factors going on in any neighborhood like this, just like we do all over Winnipeg,” he said.

Williams said West Broadway’s problems are no different than other central neighbourhoods in Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s 2023 annual report shows crime in the West Broadway neighbourhood declined by 17.5 per cent from 2022 to 2023, but was up 10.8 per cent over a five-year period.

During the same period, crime rates in Winnipeg went down by 2.2 per cent, but were up 8.6 per cent over a five-year average.

Soorsma maintains the hotel, vendor and bar have little to do with neighbourhood issues. Instead, he pointed to several youth and community organizations that attract homeless people and those in need.

“I’ve had their clients all strung out and dropping needles in my area and stuff; there’s two sides to every coin,” Soorsma said.

Several businesses and organizations on Sherbrook declined to provide an official comment to the Free Press. However, they said they met with the owner and have faith the business will succeed with its increased security and ticketed events.

Ken DeLisle, who has lived on Furby Street behind the Sherbrook’s parking lot since 1988, believes an affordable housing project planned for the lot will insulate the hotel from trouble.

“Right now the hotel stands out, and the hotel is not welcoming,” he said. “The new construction will hide it and will be more dominant. The people driving by will see the residence rather than the hotel and keep some of the troublemakers away.”

Cibinel Architecture has planned a six-storey mixed-use development where the Sherbrook’s parking lot is currently located. The plan includes two-storey suites along Furby with private yards and apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom suites.

The project is set to begin construction in January 2026 and be ready for tenants by spring 2027.

In September, a number of long-term tenants of the 33-room inn were evicted by Soorsma for unpaid rent.

At the time, Soorsma said holding tenants to account was part of his plan to change the Sherbrook’s reputation.

The hotel currently has 28 tenants while the other rooms undergo renovations. Soorsma said he’s working to reopen the hotel’s rooftop pool, which has been out of commission for decades. He’s also considering a rooftop patio.

Food is also on the Sherbrook’s menu. The owner is planning to revive the kitchen once operated by the Tallest Poppy, which shuttered in June 2023 and was replaced by Fiddler’s Green cannabis dispensary.

The hotel also houses Deno’s Pawn shop, which has operated there for decades.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca