Some new info on the Arthur Cook building in today's star phoenix. The Shift Developments project also has it's own website with info on their proposal:
http://www.inthemint.ca/
It seems like there are some pretty interesting/good ideas.
One old building, three new visions
Local firms in running to remake historic Arthur Cook building and kick off revitalization of the warehouse district
By David Hutton, The StarPhoenixDecember 7, 2009 9:47 AM
The Saskatoon Cartage and Warehouse Co. building
Photograph by: Leonard Hillyard, 1945, Courtesy local history department, Saskatoon Public LibraryThree Saskatoon developers have submitted proposals to buy the 81-year-old Arthur Cook warehouse and turn the faded architectural beauty of the building into an anchor point of a trendy new neighbourhood.
Company officials hope a remake of the long-forgotten building catalyzes a private-sector driven revitalization of the warehouse district.
"It's critical for the warehouse district to have a really strong start," said Midwest Developments president Ken Achs, who is bidding to convert the building into the company's headquarters.
The city decision-makers face a tough challenge in delineating the top proposal or deciding whether or not to accept any of them, given that several of the proponents say the $3-million asking price is too high to make any conversion project economically viable.
The three proposals from home builder North Ridge Developments, upstart Shift Developments and Midwest are diverse but all focus on carefully restoring the building into modern office space -- not condos as was originally proposed -- and opening up the closed-off warehouse to the outside.
All three companies said that while they're hoping to land the opportunity, there are other buildings fit for conversion in the warehouse district, including the city-owned John Deere building nearby.
"At the end of the day, I hope that whoever gets it does a good job," said Achs.
"The thing that I get concerned about is that there's so many of these condo conversions all throughout the city and they're done in a slipshod manner."
"With these conversions -- you've got to strip them down and start at nothing."
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Arthur Cook history
In real estate, as in romance, timing is everything.
It was in 1928 that the Saskatoon Cartage and Warehouse Co. bet its timing was just right, building a 30,000-square-foot storage facility in what its full-page newspaper advertisement at the time bragged was the first "fire proof" warehouse and the latest addition to "the prosperity of the fastest growing city in Western Canada."
It was "tangible evidence" of the city's boom times, the ad said.
Fifty years later, the City of Saskatoon purchased the building on the corner of 24th Street and Ontario Avenue and renamed it after Arthur E. Cook, the longtime keeper of the city's stores.
The main floor of the building has been used as the city's central purchasing department and for storage and archives since that time.
In recent years, the Arthur Cook building has become what the city's Rob Tomiyama refers to, on a tour of the site, as the city's "storage garage."
Each floor is filled with discarded items from the past, including old photocopiers and furniture, locked-up police evidence, even old typewriters and flags.
Discarded items from the demolished Capitol Theatre collect dust behind locked doors on one of the upper floors.
Once the new tenant takes possession, the city's 15 employees at the site will move to a new leased space in the city's north airport industrial area, while the odds and ends on each floor will be stored at another location.
The Proposals
1. Shift Developments
Shift's Curtis Olson, who was part of the group behind the redevelopment of the Fairbank Morse building, wants to create a heritage-drenched precinct for arts, culture and entertainment in the centre of what he sees as a burgeoning creative hub in the city.
The idea, dubbed The Mint, "is all about bringing together professionals in the cultural and creative industry who are in the same business and facing the same challenges," he said.
In an increasingly familiar pattern of urban warehouse district redevelopment worldwide, the private sector has used artists and creative companies to help rejuvenate down-at-heel neighbourhoods. Bring in the creative types, the theory goes, and the buzz will attract restaurateurs, retailers and residents.
The main floor will include a cafe, art gallery, stage and pub -- a "showcase of the cultural products created there," as Olson says.
The other floors will be dedicated to high-density office space to house those in the creative industry, which will lead to collaborations, he said.
The challenge the company undertook was to open up the first floor for public use, he said.
"We want to make it easy for the public to get inside the building from the street," Olson said.
Olson terms the city's decision a "symbolic" one and crucial in setting the tone for the warehouse district that he believes will morph into a trendy neighbourhood.
"This is a litmus test for the city," Olson said. "The question in front of the city is whether they want to progress as a city or maintain the status quo."
2. North Ridge Developments
The company, known primarily as a home builder, is venturing into the area of adaptive reuse for the first time.
Its idea is to turn the building's main floor into a commercial space with the company looking to attract trendy stores similar to those on Broadway Avenue, said North Ridge's Jeff Balon. "The heritage is a real benefit and selling feature of this building," Balon said. "It makes it unique, while the history will be a great marketable thing for tenants."
The rest of the building will be office space with arts-based groups and design and architectural firms the targeted tenants, Balon said.
Balon was impressed by the work done on the former DeFehr's and Countrywide Furniture building on First Avenue. The big brick building was transformed into a modular and open office and now houses Suncorp Valuations, ICR Commercial Real Estate and Assante Financial.
North Ridge's signature mark to the Arthur Cook building would be a four-storey addition in the northwest corner that would house a stairwell and new elevator.
"The building in its glory day was probably one of the finest buildings in the city," Balon said. "But since that time it's slowly deteriorated to the current state where it's been forgotten, quite frankly."
"There's a lot more potential in that building than its current state."
3. Midwest Developments
The niche-market developer of some of the city's most prized developments is once again targeting the adaptive reuse of a heritage building.
The company has redeveloped the King George Hotel, the CBC building on Second Avenue and the CP Station, among other projects.
The aging Arthur Cook building would become the company's headquarters with the top two floors destined for high-end office space and the City of Saskatoon a targeted tenant, said Midwest's Achs.
The company is proposing a literal about-face, turning the back of the building into the front and vice versa, and completely remodelling the building's rear facade with angled glass that wraps around the northwest corner.
Achs said he was attracted by the parking availability and the potential growth of the warehouse district once 25th Street is extended to Idylwyld Drive and the city yards moved, he said. They would also look at a rooftop garden terrace in the future, he said.
"We're into this project for the long haul," he said. "Our project will stand the test of time."
It's not going to be an easy job preserving the heritage aspects of the building the city is asking for, including the old elevator shaft and pulley-style doors that are "more of a pain than a plus," Achs said.
The building has to be stripped down and rebuilt from scratch, he said, redoing the plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems.
"We consider this more of a mercy mission rather than a profit mission," he said.
Heritage features:
The city is asking the proponents to retain several heritage features of the building:
- Retention or rehabilitation of the brick facade, including the freight elevator shaft
- Retention or rehabilitation of stone caps on columns and cement wainscotting
- Replacement windows and doors that are sympathetic to original style
- Ensure "Arthur Cook" name is associated with the building
- Maintain exposed brick on the interior and unique pull-style doors on each floor
How they'll be judged:
Business plan: 15 points
Bid price: 15 points
Conceptual drawings and environmental sustainability features: 30 points
Project objectives: 25 points
Project delivery timeline: 15 points
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