Osborne Village Inn, which has been vacant since late 2015, is now planned for conversion into a mixed-use building featuring Winnipeg’s first micro-sized rental suites.
A spokesman for Cushman & Wakefield Winnipeg, which is marketing the three-storey property in the heart of Osborne Village, said it is currently looking for tenants for the main floor and lower level. Each storey has a floor plate of about 9,500 square feet.
The rental apartments will reportedly range in size from 275 square feet to 450 square feet with rents starting at $975 per month and moving up to $1,400.
The micro-suite concept has been proven in Vancouver, where Reliance Properties repurposed an old downtown building into 30 rental suites that measured from 226 to 291 square feet. Opened in 2010 and immediately rented out, the little apartments now rent for north of $1,000 per month.
A similar concept is also being planned for downtown Edmonton.
In Winnipeg, the Osborne building will also receive an exterior facelift, including new windows and an outdoor patio on Osborne Street.
The building’s owner, Winnipeg’s Fusion Capital Corp., has been largely silent about its plans for the property, which opened up in the 1960s as the Champs Motor Inn. Sources said the original intention was to convert the top two floors into a boutique hotel with 20 to 30 rooms with a restaurant on the main floor and a bar in the basement.
Perhaps the biggest immediate effect will be on people looking to quench their early-morning thirst, as the stand-alone beer vendor on the property will close at the end of April. The 2,000-square-foot building, known for having the latest hours of any beer store in town, will be repurposed.
