Selkirk Avenue’s Merchants Hotel has a storied past not always filled with fairy tales but another chapter is about to be written for the 110-year-old building.
A partnership that includes the University of Winnipeg, the North End Community Renewal Corporation and the provincial government plans to bring the building back to life by converting it to a mix of university classrooms, affordable student housing and retail shops.
The hotel has been closed since the province bought it in 2011 and planning for the re-development has been underway since that time.
Before the sale, the location was known in the neighbourhood as a trouble spot for drugs, prostitution and violence.
The building will now be home to the University of Winnipeg’s Urban and Inner-City Studies program.
Jim Silver, chair of the department, said the new facility will allow the program to double its capacity and the new spots will be marketed to people in the community who might not think of university as a viable option for them.
He said the program already has a successful track record of educating mature students and graduating them into the workforce with a skill set geared towards helping revitalize the neighbourhood.
