Canad Inns shuttering its original Winnipeg hotel

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This article was published 12/10/2017 (3096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last call at Winnipeg’s first Canad Inns location will ring out at the end of November.

Over the next two months, the 36-room Express by Canad Inns at 1792 Pembina Highway will be shuttered in stages, the Manitoba-based hotel chain announced on Wednesday.

Known as the Norlander Inn when the facility was acquired in 1978, it became the first to carry the Canad Inns name. It was also home to the original Aalto’s Family Dining, and for a decade housed the offices of the hotel chain’s founders.

“It has been a long decision,” Dan Lussier, chief executive officer of Canad Inns, said on Wednesday.

“It has been a bit of a sentimental decision to make for (executive chairman) Leo (Ledohowski). It is the original property in the current portfolio and it served as his head office… so there was a significant attachment to the site.

“(However), we’ve been talking about it for a number of years… It just made sense to move on.”

According to the company, Canad Inns has targeted a larger “destination” format for its sites — nine other Winnipeg locations, one each in Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Grand Forks, N.D. — and the Express no longer fits the bill. (The chain will maintain its presence in the area, as its Canad Inns Destination Centre Fort Garry is just across Adamar Road at 1824 Pembina Highway.)

The CEO said he expects “there shouldn’t be very many, if any, job losses… All of the staff are being absorbed by our other facilities.”

While the building’s Reign Nightclub is scheduled to close at the end of Halloween night and Garbonzo’s restaurant will go dark in mid-November, the final date for hotel guests at the Express is still fluid, Lussier said.

“We are closing down the rooms in stages, as well, so we will start with a few at a time,” he said.

“We are accommodating the bookings, and we will slowly be turning (guest rooms) off.”

Playmaker’s Gaming Lounge and its kitchen will be the last venues to close, on or around Nov. 30, he said.

The Express site has been sold to a third party, Lussier said, declining to name the new owner. “It is not really my place to comment on what they will be doing with the site, but it won’t be a hotel, I can tell you that much.”

Garbonzo’s, however, will live on, Lussier said. The restaurant will move to an as-yet-unrevealed location, with the announcement on its new home expected in the next three months.

scott.emmerson@freepress.mb.ca