St. Regis Hotel site is up for grabs once more

The former St. RegisHotel is back on the market after Winnipeg's downtown-development agency reclaimed the property from an embattled Toronto-area developer.

CentreVenturereclaimed the title of the vacant Smith Street hotel in September, after Fortress Real Developments of Richmond Hill, Ont., failed to follow through on a plan to build a parkade and commercial complex on the site.

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Fortress bought the property in 2015 with the condition that construction begin by April 2017. The St. Regisproject was slated to be the first phase of the larger SkyCityCentre complex, which was supposed to be anchored by a 45-storey residential tower on the site of the adjacent surface parking lot at the corner ofSmith Street and Graham Avenue.

CentreVenture gave Fortress an additionalyear to begin work at the St. Regis site but has now reclaimed the property in hopes of giving another developer a crack at it.

A request for proposals to redevelop the property will close on Dec. 20, CentreVenturepresident and CEO Angela Mathieson said.

"We'd love to see main-floor retail, maybe with residential above or office above. Some people have discussed parking structures, so that's also a possibility. We're really quite open-minded," Mathieson said in an interview.

She said she is hopeful CentreVenture will receive more proposals than it did when Fortress bought the property, given improving real estate market conditions in downtown Winnipeg.

"There wasn't certainly the level ofinterest then there is now," she said.

A decision about the property will be made in several months, Mathiesonsaid.There are no heritage elements left in the building to consider, she said.

Wood panelling from the hotel's old Oak Room has been installed in the forthcoming Patent 5 distillery on Alexander Avenue.

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All but one of the panels were incorporated into the distillery's tasting room, whichlikely will be called the Oak Room, Patent 5 owner Brock Couttssaid in a telephone interview.

Thedistillery and its tasting room may be open as soon as January, Coutts said.