$30M development eyed for lot where Sutherland Hotel once stood
'It would be a major project and, I think, a significant contribution to the community': Gordon
The Sutherland Hotel is gone but the ambitious plans that were in place to renovate the 142-year-old structure prior to January's destructive fire are now rising from the ashes and rubble in Winnipeg's North End.
"This is an opportunity to let our imagination go free a little bit, and let itself organize from the bottom up, let the community speak, let government, business, other groups speak, let the Indigenous voice be heard, and see what it will develop into," said Keith Wiebe Gordon, whose nonprofit group hoped to convert the boarded-up building into affordable housing.
The B.C.-based Anhart Community Housing Society signed an agreement to buy it for $475,000 just four days before it went up in flames.
"We were shocked and disappointed. Our original intention was to purchase the property to restore [an] old building, which we have the experience at, Gordon told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.
Anhart, which Gordon co-founded and is president of, has done conversion projects of old rooming houses and hotels in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside "where the people were living in states that don't focus on wellness," he said.
"We thought the Sutherland would be a good place to start in Winnipeg."
Saturday marks exactly two months since the three-storey building at the corner of Main Street and Sutherland Avenue was gutted.
Gordon, a former Winnipegger, said he hasn't once considered backing out of the deal since the fire.
"The sale is in a due diligence process now and we hope to carry that through and then have title of the property and start a different plan," he said.
The possession date for the property is June 1 but a feasibility study for the site has already been completed.
Gordon hopes to get things rolling as soon as he has title to the property, Gordon hopes to begin as soon as possible.
"Once we negotiate with the city of and local groups about what type of building they want there, we would begin the process of design," he said, noting the idea is to have business spaces on the ground floor and as many as 100 affordable rental units on upper levels.
He estimates it will cost up to $30 million.
"It would be a major project and, I think, a significant contribution to the community," Gordon said.
The intention is to ultimately have a Winnipeg nonprofit own and operate the building.
"We're a nonprofit helping nonprofits. We're a little unusual," he said.
The Anhart Community Housing Society benefited from impact investments and capital funding in the early stages of its creation so it has the ability to buy large properties like the Sutherland or tackle new builds like the one now being considered, Gordon said, estimating the project will cost $20 million to $30 million.
Typically, his organization purchases the land using credit union loans and impact investments and then turns to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for low-interest financing.
"The whole idea is restoring and creating something for the local community," Gordon said.
Just which organization would take over the property has yet to be determined.
"It's an emergent process. It's a matter of buying the land, getting a plan and they will come," he said. "We've studied complex adaptive systems so we know how communities can self-organize.
"We think the partners will come into place as the plan gets more into focus."
Keith Horn, who runs the Northern Hotel and is president of the North Main BIZ, said Anhart's plan sounds excellent.
"It could mean a lot more people moving into the area, maybe some new businesses moving into the area, which this area could use and it also fills up another hole in the street."
During the 1980s, "this was the area to come to," said Horn, who has worked at the hotel for 28 years and estimates he's seen the number of businesses in the area decline to 57 from 110 in the last 10 years. He attributes the decline to fires, retirements and buildings struggling to be sold.
He isn't the only one hoping for changes to revitalize the area.
Misty Dawn said she hopes the building's plan will benefit the homeless community in the area, but others aren't optimistic.
Blair Ryanesau-Sinclair lives near the Sutherland Hotel and says he watched it burn down.
He thinks Anhart has a good plan overall, but he worries it might not make a difference in attracting more Winnipeggers to the area due to stereotype that the North End is a rougher part of the city.
"You walk down the street here, yeah you see homeless people, you see a bunch of people that you think are gangsters or are in trouble or bad, [but] no, they're just regular people that just live in this neighbourhood," Ryanesau-Sinclair said.
Kierian Toye says the new housing might not have a profound effect on the area.
" I think the worst thing is, this area would make it bad," Toye said. "Every week I come here I see an ambulance, police … there's always issues. Dufferin and Main is like the worst place you could be hanging out."
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