Downtown Winnipeg’s Radisson Hotel, the adjacent Somerset Building and the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre are up for sale as the Canad Inns corporation seeks to divest itself of properties along the Portage Avenue corridor.
The 29-storey, 263-room Radisson is up for sale only as part of a package deal involving all three properties, commercial real estate firm Colliers says in an online listing.
The nine-storey Somerset office building next door and the Met — a heritage building to the south, on Donald Street — are for sale individually or as part of the package. The buildings are within downtown Winnipeg’s Sports, Hospitality and Entertainment District.
“Together, the three properties form a contiguous downtown campus connected by Winnipeg’s skywalk network and surrounded by major demand generators including Canada Life Centre, RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg, True North Square, Portage Place redevelopment and the Hudson’s Bay redevelopment project,” the listing states.
“The combination of office, hospitality and entertainment uses provides diversified income potential and long-term strategic positioning within Winnipeg’s evolving downtown core.”
The Met, built as a theatre in 1920, is owned by the Canad Corporation, which renovated the heritage venue in 2012. The Somerset Building, a Chicago School-style office-and-retail structure that dates back to 1906, is owned by an associated company called Canad Centre-Downtown Ltd., which lists Winnipeg’s Lane Ledohowski and Toronto’s Lea Ledohowski as directors.
The Radisson, built in 1971, is owned by P&S Realty Holdings, which lists Lea Ledohowski as director.
Canad Inns co-founder Leo Ledohowski, who died in 2025, served as the company’s president when it acquired all three downtown properties. The renovation of the Met, in particular, was a passion for the late hotelier.
Nicole Rentz, a spokesperson for Canad Inns, said in a statement the company is working on “business strategies for some of our assets under management” and cautioned against what she called speculation about its ventures.
“We remain committed to all the communities we are fortunate to serve, including the City of Winnipeg [and] its downtown core,” Rentz said in the statement.
Canad Inns has six other hotels in Winnipeg, and one each in Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Grand Forks, N.D.
Listings follow IGM Financial announcement
City property records show the Radisson has an assessed value of $22.3 million. The Somerset is assessed by the city at $9.7 million. The Met, whose east-facing facade is most famous as a backdrop for Winnipeg Jets whiteout parties during Stanley Cup playoff broadcasts, is assessed at $2 million.
The listing of all three properties comes one week after IGM Financial, the parent company of IG Wealth Management and Mackenzie Asset Management, announced it would soon place One Canada Centre, its headquarters on Portage Avenue at Colony Street, up for sale.
Kate Fenske, CEO of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, said in a statement the IGM Financial and Canad Inns listings are decisions made by businesses in the best interests of their operations.
“There will always be changes in the downtown market. What we’re seeing on Portage Avenue isn’t a single story of decline — it’s a corridor in transition,” she said in a statement Monday.
Fenske said downtown businesses face challenges that include public safety concerns and changing market conditions.
At the same time, she said, Portage Avenue is undergoing significant redevelopment, including the adaptive reuse of existing buildings.
True North Real Estate Development is spending $650 million on a Portage Place mall renovation, while the former Bay building is undergoing a $310-million transformation at the hands of the Southern Chiefs’ Organization. The Manitoba Métis Federation has bought and renovated several significant structures on or near Portage Avenue, including the former Bank of Montreal building.
Federation president David Chartrand said in a statement there’s a possibility it could be interested in adding Canad Inns properties to its growing portfolio after studying the idea.
Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Sherri Rollins, whose ward includes the south side of the downtown stretch of Portage Avenue, said she is surprised by the Canad Inns listings.
“It’s very difficult to see a ‘for sale’ sign on the Radisson and the Met,” Rollins said in an interview, surmising the challenges facing downtown might have played a role.
“I definitely think there is something to say about the social conditions we have and this public safety moment.”
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham painted a different picture, noting the True North and Southern Chiefs investments on the west side of downtown and further renovations of the towers at Portage and Main.
“With all this new investment, it’s no surprise some property owners might test the market,” he said in a statement.