R.I.P. to the Sherbrook Inn parking lot!

 © 2025, Christian Cassidy

685 Westminster, now and proposed

There are at least a couple of large residential developments slated for West Broadway.

One is a four-storey, 21-unit, mixed-use building approved for the site of Howell Court at Broadway and Furby Street, (see the end of this post for more details), and a much more substantial building could be coming to the parking lot of the Sherbrook Inn.

The city's Committee on Property and Development will be asked at its October 9, 2025 meeting to approve a plan that would change the zoning on the Westminster Avenue lot to allow for a six-storey building with 86 residential units and one ground-floor commercial unit. 

If approved, the project could begin construction as early as January 2026.

The building is designed by Cibinel Architecture, whose recent projects include the WAG's Qaumajuq Inuit Art Gallery (2021) and the Transcona Library (2018).

The developer is Lotus Holdings Winnipeg Ltd. which has developed several buildings in partnership with Cibinel, including Solara Flats for the University of Winnipeg.

Here's Cibinel's FAQ about the proposed development. 

Civic Committee on Property and Development, Oct. 9, 1925 agenda

I wanted to look back at the history of the long-vacant lot, and what I found was a lot of houses!

The 1962 Henderson's Street Directory, the data for which would have been compiled in 1961, shows three properties on Westminster Avenue: 670 (Herbert Bassler); 689 (Ernest Butler); and 691 (Lucien Pagoot) and another six properties along Furby Street: 104 (Orest Venela); 106 (Abe Penner); 108 (Lloyd Thurston);  114( E. Bailey); 116 (Daniel Westbrot); and 120 (Mrs. K. Twyonak).

The 1965 directory, which would have been compiled in 1964 when construction began on the Westminster Motor Inn, as it was called back then, shows all nine houses are missing.

June 27, 1964, Winnipeg  Free Press

A few years back, I wrote a history of the Sherbrook Inn and in a preview article about the development in the June 27, 1964 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press, the architect's drawings shows development on that Westminster Street lot. It was described in the article as a multi-storey open parkade with a walkway connection to the hotel, which obviously never materialised.

Related:
A history of the Sherbrook Inn at my Winnipeg Places blog