Winnipeg councillor looking to toughen bylaws after St. Charles Hotel sits vacant for decade

After 10 years of no redevelopment at the St. Charles Hotel, the area’s city councillor is losing his patience.

“To have this building sitting here for years and years and years is really unacceptable,” Point Douglas Coun. Mike Pagtakhan said. “It’s like people are dragging their heels. Like I said I’m not happy and quite frustrated with the whole situation.”

Pagtakhan is calling for tougher bylaws to target vacant and derelict buildings downtown and in the Exchange District. He said he wants buildings to be redeveloped and occupied in 12 months, and building owners who fail to do so penalized with a doubling of their property taxes.

“I want to make sure that the owner does care. How do we do that? We create the incentives, policies and bylaws that encourage that kind of proper stewardship,” Pagtakhan said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I want to make sure that the owner does care. How do we do that? We create the incentives, policies and bylaws that encourage that kind of proper stewardship," Pagtakhan said.

“Basically at the end of the day, no responsible building owner who has a building occupied will need to worry. The only people that have to worry are the owners of the St. Charles Hotel.”

The hotel hasn’t been occupied since 2008.

The building is classified as a heritage building and Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg, said she wants people who buy heritage buildings to be dedicated to preservation.

“They’re not investment properties to sit on and let them for years and years deteriorate. Because it can be demolition by neglect if that happens,” she said.

“People have to care about who owns these buildings. You have to want to be part of the community, you have to want to revitalize the buildings. When they shut down, you not only have these buildings deteriorate, you have safety issues on the street.”

For 270 days pedestrians near the St. Charles Hotel have had to use the street as the sidewalk.

The sidewalk on Notre Dame Avenue and Albert Street was shut down last June after a sinkhole was discovered.

The city said work can’t be done to fix the sidewalk until the owner completes foundation work on the building.

Building owner Ken Zaifman refused an on-camera interview but said Tuesday work would start this week, although he didn’t give an exact date or time.

Pagtakhan said the work was supposed to be done two weeks ago.

“They’ve committed to the City of Winnipeg to doing the work in the first week of March. We’re past that point,” he said. “I want to see some action sooner rather than later.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They've committed to the City of Winnipeg to doing the work in the first week of March. We're past that point," he said. "I want to see some action sooner rather than later."

Zaifman said he’s committed to redeveloping the building into a boutique hotel and lounge.