621 Balmoral Street- Balmoral Motor Hotel

© 2023, Christian Cassidy

In 2022, Google Street View

Place: Balmoral Motor Hotel / New Balmoral Hotel
Address: 621 Balmoral Street (Map)
Opened: October 1966
Cost: $1.2 million
Architect: Chris Kaufman for Lloyd Finch Associates
Contractor: F. W. Sawatzky Ltd.

The roots of the Balmoral Motor Hotel date back to a business deal in Estevan, Saskatchewan in 1949. Three businessmen, Ben Zelcovich, Paul Nessman and Menashe Mandel, partnered to purchase that town's Clarendon Hotel and Cafe.

Mandel and wife Fannie soon relocated to Winnipeg and in 1957 purchased the Merchants Hotel on Selkirk Avenue, likely with Zelcovich as a business partner as he came along as the manager.

The consortium also purchased land at the corner of Balmoral Street and Notre Dame Avenue, with the intention of building a new hotel. Mandel said in a 1990 Jewish Post and News interview: "Some fellows had bought the property to build a hotel. They asked me in. The land sat empty for six years while we paid taxes on it. Gradually the others pulled out, leaving me with the property. So I finally built the hotel myself." 

Mandel chose to build what was a new breed of hotel that became the all the rage in the 1960s. The 'motor hotel' combined the convenient parking of 1950s motels with amenities that were previously only available at large downtown hotels, such as banquet facilities and fine dining. 

Examples of this new style accommodation in Winnipeg include the Viscount Gort Motor Hotel (1960), Charter House oMtor Hotel (1960), the Gordon chain of motor hotels, including the Assiniboine, Curtis and Chalet, the Carlton Motor Hotel (1960), the Westminster Motor Hotel /Sherbrook Inn (1965), the Lincoln Motor Inn (1964), the Dakota Motor Hotel (1965), and the Osborne Village Motor Inn (1965).

 

October 13, 1966, Winnipeg Free Press

Mandel hired architect Chris Kaufman of Lloyd Finch Associates to design the $1.2 million structure and F. W. Sawatzky Ltd. were the general contractors. The Tyndall stone work and masonry was by Kornovsky and Keller Ltd.. The hotel's interiors were supplied and installed by Eaton's.

The hotel consisted of a two-level service centre in the basement and ground floor that was completely separate from the hotel tower. It contained the formal Centennial Dining Room and  Boulevard Restaurant as well as the Can-Can Cocktail Lounge and Richelieu Beverage Room. Banquet facilities included the Balmoral Ballroom (for 300) and the Maple Room (for 150).

The mosaic mural on the east exterior wall, which has been covered over in tiles in subsequent renovations, was by artist and U of W professor Dr. Victor Leathers.

The hotel tower consisted of 45 rooms each featuring air conditioning and colour television.

Above: Jewish Post, October  13, 1966

The hotel was touted as part of the multi-million dollar redevelopment of the Central Park area.

Once a middle class, family neighbourhood with luxury apartments and big brick houses, it began to decline, especially after the Second World War and the development of new suburbs outside the city's core. Some apartments had their suites divided into smaller units and many of the grand, old houses became rooming houses.

The adjacent park and proximity to downtown made it a neighbourhood of interest to a new wave of developers, both private and public. Both Regency Towers and Central Park Lodge opened in 1964. The addition of Mandel's full service motor hotel in 1966 was seen as a perfect fit.

October 1, 1966, Winnipeg Free Press

May 2, 1967, Winnipeg Free Press

The Balmoral Motor Hotel appears to have opened in stages. The hotel portion and restaurants in early September 1966 and the bars and banquet facilities in early October. Once all were up and running, for many years it offered smorgs in the restaurant, nightly entertainment in the Richelieu Room, and a steady stream of wedding receptions, company dinners, and small conferences.

The hotel was a family affair. Aside from Menashe and his wife Fannie, their daughter Ruth Bubis and son-in-law Norman worked there starting in the 1970s.

The name of the hotel appears to have changed from the Balmoral Motor Hotel to the Balmoral Hotel in summer 1977.

As the fortunes of the neighbourhood continued to decline, mentions of the restaurants and lounges by name faded through the 1980s, though weekly live music was offered through 1994.

In a September 1990 Jewish Post and News interview, Mandel, who was 90 at the time, was still putting in a full day's work at his hotel. He died on November 7, 1994.

Hotel in September 1966 by Henry Kalen (U of M Digital Archives)

The hotel was sold off in early 1995 and after renovations it became known as the New Balmoral Hotel. The restaurant and main lounge were renovated that summer into Club Fantasy, a strip club that closed during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In November 2023, it was announced that new investors took over the hotel as of November 1st. They will renovate the space into Pimicikamak Wellness Centre, a medical clinic and medical boarding house for residents of northern First Nations visiting Winnipeg for medical treatment.

Related: 
Balmoral Hotel Winnipeg Architecture Foundation

Notes
When piecing together the history of a building and family mainly though newspaper archives, there will be some discrepancies. If you have additional information or corrections, share it with me at cassidy-at-mts.net!  Researching small hotel histories are difficult as there was usually a primary owner as well as a group of secondary owners.