Troubled Saskatoon motel reopens under new management

A motel that was forced to shut down over unsafe and unsanitary conditions has reopened as the Midtown Inn.

The Midtown Inn, formerly known as the City Centre Inn and Suites, was forced to close in July 2020.

The Saskatoon Fire Department identified a list of safety issues including: stairs at risk of collapsing, locked exit doors and unmaintained fire alarm systems. Saskatoon police said they received almost 3,000 calls to the motel in the years leading up to its closure.

Pictures from firefighters showed raw sewage in a bathroom and signs of a bed bug infestation.

The Midtown Inn opened last week, under new management. Pictures on an online booking website show a look inside the motel. A room with a double bed is priced at $56 a night.

Land titles documents show the registered owner as a numbered corporation with four voting shareholders and Regina’s Taylor Lee Johnson listed as president, but the mortgage on the property is still held by Empire Investments, the company of former City Centre Inn manager and owner John Pontes.

In a statement to CTV News, the Saskatoon Fire Department said the motel “has moved from a full closure to a partial closure,” with the upper level and back of the inn still closed.

“The new owners have been communicating and working with the Saskatoon Fire Department,” the statement said.

Pontes was dismissive of issues at the motel when the fire department shut it down, saying the presence of cockroaches and bed bugs did not warrant the closure of his business.

(Chad Hills / CTV News)

“One here. One there. There’s no bed bugs,” he told CTV News in 2020.

The motel property was listed for sale in December 2022 for $7M, but the provincial land titles registry valued it at $5.6 million in October 2023.

-With files from Rory MacLean