The Sherbrook Inn, a controversial West Broadway bar and beer vendor shuttered since February, is making a comeback.
The building was purchased in mid-May by Neil Soorsma, a local businessman who has owned the Royal Albert Arms since 2019, after the longtime former owners shut down the bar business but kept the living quarters over the bar open.
While rumours of what would become of the Sherbrook Inn have swirled in the months since its closure, Soorsma said his early plans for the space are to create an “upper-scale” version of the hotel by refurbishing the bar, reopening the beer vendor, updating the hotel rooms and creating a space for live music.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Controversial West Broadway bar and beer vendor The Sherbrook Inn, has been closed since February.
He’s even considering establishing a restaurant, a year after beloved eatery the Tallest Poppy left the building in May 2023.
“We’re going to incrementally change it, we’re not going to come in and rip everything down or kick out people that have nowhere to go,” he said Monday.
“It’s a good, solid building. It doesn’t need a lot,” he said. “It’s just been sliding for a few years.”
There are about 20 people living in the 33 rooms above the bar now; Soorsma said he plans to keep the rooms available for long-term stays, while also advertising for short-term tenants.
The building (formerly the Westminister Hotel) has been the site of controversy over its near-60-year history. In 1995, then-mayor Glen Murray called a beer vendor attached to a pawn shop a “stupid decision” in response to a neighbourhood survey calling the hotel one of the most unsafe places in the area.
In December, the body of a truck driver from B.C. was found in a nearby apartment after his vehicle was discovered in the Sherbrook Inn parking lot. Days later, an armed man was shot and killed by police after taking three adults and a child hostage in that same apartment block. Homicide detectives believe the two incidents were related.
Soorsma, who has lived in West Broadway since 1991, called the hotel’s lasting reputation as unsafe “ridiculous,” but said he would invest in security and use what he’s learned running the Royal Albert Arms to keep the building “under control.”
“We’re going to make sure it’s a safe alternative to go pick up a case of beer if you live in the area and you don’t have a car,” he said.
He hopes the bar will be open in a couple of months, but said that timeline is subject to change.
Soorsma cited the success of nearby venues such as the Handsome Daughter as examples of what the building could become.
“It’s an upcoming area here, in my opinion,” he said. “I think it’s becoming trendy.”
Soorsma wasn’t ready to commit to bringing back the hotel’s original 1965 rooftop pool, but he didn’t say no, either.
“We’ll see which way the wind blows on it,” he said.
West Broadway Community Organization executive director Kelly Frazer said she was happy to learn the bar and vendor will return and the hotel will stay in place.
She lives nearby and said she has yet to have an issue with a patron.
“I am not one of those people that was looking for the closure of the Sherbrook at any time.”
It’s an easier option for people in the community to grab an affordable cold beverage without having to travel into Osborne Village, she added.
“A lot of people who have less money, they can’t afford to go and drink at a bar necessarily, they want to purchase something and have it at home, I think it’s good to give folks the option to be able to do that,” Frazer said.
The Inn was previously owned by Bill Bailly and his family in the late 1980s, and was owned by his son, Terry Bailly, before it was sold.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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