Historic Higgins building sold, expected to reopen as hotel

The former King’s Hotel in South Point Douglas has been sold amid a slow decline in the number of older inner-city hotels with beverage rooms and beer vendors.

Brad Gross, who was the listing agent for 114 Higgins Ave., located just east of Waterfront Drive, said the new owner took possession March 1.

Gross said the building, purchased for just under $900,000, will be renovated and could reopen as a hotel.

“I think that’s the plan,” Gross said.

The new owner could not be reached for comment. There was no sign of activity at the 123-year-old building when a Free Press reporter stopped by Thursday afternoon. People who work in the area said they noticed contractors earlier in the week.

King’s Hotel, which has space for a restaurant, beer vendor and bar, closed more than a year ago. The three-storey brick building was constructed in 1903 and initially opened as the Richelieu Hotel.

It was one of many small downtown hotels built between the late 1890s and the First World War to provide rooms to thousands of visitors to the city, says a 2007 assessment conducted for the City of Winnipeg’s historical buildings committee.

The site became known as the King’s Hotel by 1940 under the ownership of an arm of Drewry’s Brewery.

Under more recent ownership, the hotel’s retail beer vendor licence was suspended Feb. 14, 2024, when a compliance order was issued by the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba. The licence was cancelled Jan. 7, LGCA spokeswoman Lisa Hansen said.

“A new owner of the property would need to apply to the LGCA for licensing,” Hansen wrote in an email.

City of Winnipeg spokesman Kalen Qually said the building had outstanding compliance orders from 2021 to obtain permits for work done without a permit.

Permits were issued in 2022 for fire alarm panel upgrades and interior alterations, including the construction of a new kitchen, says an online database.

The property had been subject to compliance orders under the city’s vacant buildings bylaw since October. The orders relate to maintenance standards and security requirements to stop people from breaking in to the vacant building.

The sale happened at a time when older hotels — typically low-rise buildings with beverage rooms and beer vendors, and some with a reputation for violence — are disappearing from core neighbourhoods.

Some were repurposed under new owners, while others — including the Manwin, Sutherland and Windsor — were destroyed by fire after closing and being vacant for months.

Some have become single-room occupancy hotels with month-to-month housing for renters with low incomes.

The Mount Royal Hotel, at 186 Higgins Ave., just east of Main Street, has been closed since the province issued a health hazard order in August 2022.

The order is still in place, a government spokesperson said. The three-storey hotel was built in 1904.

Now boarded up, the former Mount Royal Hotel is listed for $1.1 million. Gross is also listing agent for that property.

Keith Horn, who owns the Northern Hotel at 826 Main St., recalled the heyday of smaller hotels in Winnipeg’s downtown and surrounding neighbourhoods.

“You see the change happening down here as the older customers and clients pass away. You’re not seeing as many of the younger clients coming back to the hotels,” he said.

“Every hotel down here was busy. The area was much better, and people would come down here.”

The Northern Hotel opened in 1906. Horn has run the hotel since 1997.

Part of the key to survival is how the hotels are managed, he said.

“You can’t run them at arm’s length. Some are bought, and they get someone to run and manage them,” Horn said. “Somebody who does the work themselves has to run it. It’s got to be more hands-on.”

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca