The historic Transit Hotel is on sale. A whopping $1 million has been knocked off the original asking price of the iconic Fort Road establishment that went on the market in 2023. The 29-room lodging includes restaurant and liquor store opportunities on the main floor, the listing says, as well as ample parking. The hotel cost $50,000 to build when it opened on Fort Road in 1908 in the meat packing hub aptly named Packingtown, which would be incorporated as the Village of North Edmonton a few years later. It is one of the few surviving buildings from Fort Road’s meat processing glory days. Unlike the also-iconic Canada Packers Chimney Stack, the hotel is not a designated historical landmark. The hotel closed in 2017 after falling into disrepair and remained empty for several years. In 2020, a new business offered to breathe life back into the building. Transit Smokehouse & BBQ, whose owners originally wanted to renovate and reopen the hotel, crowdfunded more than $10,000 to get their restaurant up and running. The eatery closed its doors in May after almost five years, but the owners recently posted on social media that the landmark hotel is well-built and well worth saving. “I still believe if you find the right buyer with a desire to preserve this historic landmark that the building can be saved,” the post reads. “Hopefully another person with a love for the northside and a vision to preserve our history sees that too, because it would be a shame to lose more of our city’s wonderful history.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Craig Ellingson
