Another thing I noticed during my recent visit to Brandon is that the Casa Blanca Motor Lodge at 2728 Victoria Avenue is no more!
A decade or more ago, I used to travel to Brandon a fair bit for work and usually stayed on for a couple of days to visit friends. The clean, friendly, reasonably-priced "Casa" was my home away from home.
It had been on and off the market for some time. It was listed again in 2017 for $1.39 million and sold that summer for $1.25 million. (The property includes the restaurant land.) It was torn down earlier this year.
Here's look back at the Casa Blanca's 64-year history.
November 19, 1955, Brandon Sun
Theodore (Ted) and and Sigard Nestibo of the village of Goodlands, R.M. of Brenda, took out a $40,000 building permit for a ten-unit, 200-foot long motel in June 1955. The Starlight Motel opened at 2728 Victoria Avenue in November 1955.
At the time, the eastern portion of Victoria Avenue was being transformed from just another dusty highway out of town with a few motels and gas stations, into the gateway to Brandon's new suburban development. Landmark commercial buildings such at the CKX TV studios opened on it in 1957.
The Nestibos were well known curlers in the region and would have had first-hand knowledge of the need for accommodations in Brandon as they often found themselves there for league play and bonspiels.
The family did not relocate to Brandon. Instead, they hired Albert Sorenson, also from Goodlands, to manage the business. He and his wife moved there in 1955.
February 28, 1959, Brandon Sun
Business was good as the city grew around the motel.
In the autumn of 1958, the Nestibos took out another building permit to add six more units and gave the rest of the motel a revamp to appeal to urban travellers on a budget. Harry Kozak of Brandon was the carpenter who did most of the above ground work.
The newly renovated Starlight, which also boasted a large landscaped lot and plenty of parking, opened in February 1959.
It is unclear when the Nestibos sold the motel. In a 1963 newspaper ad it was Jack and Shirley Green who welcomed guests.
The next owners came in the mid-1960s after Roland and Annette Castonguay sold their farm in the RM of Cornwallis and relocated to Brandon.
They were very involved in regional tourism. Roland for a time was president of the south west branch of the Manitoba Tourist Association. In 1968, he was given the MTA's "member of the year award" for his work.
In 1973, the Casonguay's Starlight Hotel Ltd. got a permit to erect a three-storey, twelve-unit apartment block up the road at the north east corner of McDiarmid Drive and McTavish Avenue, which they called the rolling Hills Apartments. (It is likely what is now known as the Rosedale Apartments at 600 McDiarmid.)
The Casonguays sold the motel and managed the apartment for a year or so before selling up and retiring to B.C..
Art and Irene Black owned the Starlight until July 1975, then sold it to Rick and Ruth Frenceschilli. The Frenceschillis stayed only a year before buying the Sunset Motel in Creston, B.C. and moving on. The next owners were Orest and Fran Parchaluk. They sold it in 1980 to Tony and Torres.
The trail of owners ends there. By this time, newspapers didn't report on things like the change of ownership at a small motel and the Starlight rarely advertised, so owners names can't be gleaned from ads.
The name Casa Blanca Motor Lodge was in place by 1985 as it was mentioned in passing in a Brandon Sun story in January of that year.
Parts of the Casa Blanca will live on in other building projects. Before it was demolished, it was stripped of some building materials and furnishings that were donated to the CMHC Building Re-Fit Store.
If you have more information about the history of the Casa Blanca, please let me know !
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