Project details
| Status | Completed, 2026 |
| Type | Commercial change of use: hotel and office building to fire evacuee housing |
| Scope | Construction management |
| Client | Manitoba Métis Federation |
| Address | 3615 Main Street, West St. Paul, MB (RM of West St. Paul) |
| Storeys | 2 |
| Floor area | 9,084 SF |
| Occupant load | 127 persons |
| Permit | RRPD-2026-227, issued 12 May 2026 |
| Service | Commercial construction management in Winnipeg |
A hotel and office building, converted to emergency housing
3615 Main Street is in the RM of West St. Paul, just outside Winnipeg, which matters because the permit came from the Red River Planning District and not the City. The Manitoba Métis Federation needed the building to house fire evacuees. The permit describes the work as “Emergency Fire Evacuee Temporary Housing, Code Upgrades for the change of use, Hotel / Office.”
Those last four words are the job. A change of use re-opens the building’s whole life-safety case, and the Part 3 alteration permit says so: occupancy classification, fire separations, egress, ventilation, dampers. Summit was construction manager under a commercial CM agreement effective 27 April 2026.
What the permit required
The building is now classified three ways at once: Group C residential, Group D office and Group F Division 3 storage garage. It is two storeys of combustible construction, a 6,458 square foot ground floor with a 2,626 square foot second floor above it, and the code analysis sets the occupant load at 127 persons.
The permit set four mandatory inspections:
- Framing, for all interior framing in the upgrades
- Fire separation, including fire stopping, called before the drywall screws are taped and with every fire and smoke damper installed
- Final
- Final zoning compliance
The fire separation inspection is the one that sets the pace. It has to happen before finishes close the walls, so the fire stopping, the damper installation and the rated assemblies have to be complete and documented first.
How it was built
- Fire separations and fire stopping throughout, inspected before taping
- Fire and smoke dampers and grilles at rated penetrations, on their own shop drawing
- A new air make-up unit and a heat recovery ventilator, each on its own shop drawing
- New ceilings, flooring, door hardware and pot lighting in the board room, each submitted for review before ordering
- An addressable fire alarm system with a control panel at the main entrance, tied into the laundry-room smoke damper and the garage exhaust fan
- Fire alarm verification to CAN/ULC-S537 on 9 September 2026; the report lists no deficiencies
Seven shop drawing packages (door hardware, flooring, board room lighting, ceilings, air make-up unit, heat recovery ventilator and dampers) went through between late April and mid-June 2026. On a code-driven job the paperwork is the schedule: nothing gets ordered until it is reviewed, and nothing gets closed in until it is inspected.
Why it mattered
This was emergency housing. The date does not move, and the code does not relax because the need is urgent. The work was getting both to agree: a building ready when it was needed, with a life-safety case that stands up to inspection.
The numbers
| Permit | RRPD-2026-227 (Red River Planning District), Part 3 alteration |
| Applied / issued | 31 March 2026 / 12 May 2026 |
| Storeys | 2, combustible construction |
| Area | 6,458 SF ground floor + 2,626 SF second floor = 9,084 SF |
| Occupant load | 127 persons |
| Classifications | Group C, Group D, Group F Division 3 |
| Mandatory inspections | Framing, fire separation, final, final zoning |
| Fire alarm verification | CAN/ULC-S537, 9 September 2026 |
| Contract | Summit Commercial CM Agreement, effective 27 April 2026 |
| Delivered for | Manitoba Métis Federation |
Converting a building to a new use? We can tell you what the change of use triggers under Part 3 before you commit. See commercial construction management in Winnipeg or talk to us.
Related reading: Multi-Family Construction Winnipeg: The 3-Storey Code Line