New hotel coming to Transcona

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This article was published 11/04/2018 (2720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many Winnipeggers have driven past the huge empty lot on Regent Avenue in Transcona so often they don’t notice it anymore.

That’s about to change.

Saskatoon car dealer Sherwood Sharfe hosted a sod-turning on Tuesday for a new Best Western Premier Hotel on the 4.4-acre site.

Sharfe said his family has owned the massive property at 900 Regent Avenue West for too many years to count and it’s never been built on before.

Now just seemed the time to do something with it and erect his first hotel, said Sharfe, 84, who grew up in Winnipeg.

The site is being prepared for a six-storey Best Western Premier Hotel on Regent, midway between Club Regent Casino and Plessis Road. Sharfe wouldn’t give the cost except to say it’s “a lot of zeroes.”

Best Western has three categories of hotel: Best Western, Best Western Plus (like the hotel near Winnipeg’s airport) and the top-tier Best Western Premier. This will be the first “premier” in Manitoba.

The first phase of construction will be for the six-storey hotel with 141 guest rooms, including a spacious Prime Minister’s Suite that includes a hot tub. There will be lounges on every floor, a breakfast area, and a main floor business centre with meeting rooms and a media room. There will also be a fitness centre, pool, hot tub and water slide.

“It fronts Regent and Pandora (Avenue), so we have great access,” Sharfe said.

The second phase will begin after the hotel’s construction, expected to take 15 months, and will include a commercial kitchen and banquet centre that holds 600 people. A beer and wine store also is planned for the site.

Construction is being led by Bird Construction and Calnitsky Associates Architects Inc. of Winnipeg.

Sharfe is originally from Naicam, Sask., a town of about 200 people. His family moved to Winnipeg when he was 12 and he obtained his degree in arts and law from University of Manitoba. He practised law for three years and then transitioned into business and moved to Saskatoon.

“My roots and my life, a good part of it, is still Winnipeg,” he said.

It’s his first hotel but his family has been in the real estate business in Winnipeg and Saskatoon for many years, he said.

“Why not?” said the octogenarian, about building his first hotel at his age. “It’s a project I decided would keep me up and alert and getting things done. It’s not my nature to not do something. “

Mayor Brian Bowman said the new hotel reflected Winnipeg’s growth. Winnipeg’s hotel occupancy rate is 71 per cent, about seven per cent higher than the national average.

“As you know, Winnipeg is growing. As we grow to a million people, new hotels are going to be needed,” Bowman said. “This signals the growth in our community, and the tourism industry, are going in the right direction.”

Sharfe thanked the many people involved who helped bring the project to the construction stage. “

It isn’t just putting a few bucks on the line and making it happen,” he said. The project has been in discussion for two years.

Both Sharfe and Bowman also singled out Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona), who was not in attendance, for his work behind the scenes for the project.

Wyatt is on a medical leave of absence to deal with alcohol and substance abuse.

“The councillor had my back all the way. It meant a lot to me,” said Sharfe.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca