‘A LABOUR OF LOVE’
Trevor Anderson, left, Derek Wu, Keenan George And Lee Forsberg stand in St. Chad’s Chapel And College on Anson Road. They Are investing millions to restore the 104-yeAr-old heritage site And Convert it to Condos And commercial And office space.
Under a pristine vaulted ceiling, a broken-down antique organ lies on a creviced, heaved-up hardwood floor.
Four longtime friends hope a restaurant will open here next year, as they pump millions of dollars into their first large-scale heritage restoration project: The 104-year-old St. Chad’s College and Chapel.
“This is more a labour of love for us,” said Trevor Anderson, who owns Regina’s Lot Club and Collaborative Construction with his business partner Derek Wu. “We fell in love with the architecture.”
Anderson and Wu are teaming up with Lee Forsberg and Keenan George of Alair Homes. All Regina natives, Anderson said they’ve been “best friends” since university, with Wu and Forsberg’s friendship dating back to their grade-school years as baseball teammates.
Now they want to make a mark on the city.
“We keep referring to it as our legacy project,” said Anderson. “When we’re looking to retire and we’re old men, we’ll be proud of what we did to build up the Regina skyline.”
But now the Anson Road building, which housed an Anglican girls’ school until 1970, remains a shell of its past grandeur — especially inside.
The plaster is crumbling from walls marred by heavy water damage. The foundation needs work. The four friends fear there might be asbestos to remove.
City council is behind the project. At last month’s meeting, Forsberg told them how they hope to spend about $4 million on heri- tage work. Councillors granted them roughly $480,000 in tax exemptions, with Coun. Jerry Flegel hoping they could fix “the mess” at St. Chad’s.
“It’s a beautiful building,” said Coun. Lori Bresciani, “and it will be more beautiful when you’ve finished with it.”
The plan calls for repairs to terra cotta detailing and efforts to clear the moss that now covers much of the cedar roof. The team will gut about 14,000 square feet of space to make way for 18 condo and office units, after restoring the chapel to host a restaurant. Forsberg said they already have interest from a woman looking to expand her bistro business.
An addition to the north side is set for Forsberg’s company’s office, as well as additional retail space and a rooftop terrace for the condos above.
The whole project will take three years to finish, with the restaurant the first to move in.
Forsberg said they’ll be looking for financing from banks and private equity after securing a development permit.
He said the building still boasts plenty of features in good condition, like the chapel’s original windows and wooden ceiling. But he knows many would find the project overwhelming, especially for a team of thirtysomethings.
“In terms of restoring — we’re looking at shingles, foundation, terra cotta, windows, brickwork, slab work and then the electrical needs to be redone, the plumbing needs to be redone,” he said.
“A lot of people get scared about a development like this.”
Anderson said they’ve never done anything like it.
The biggest project for Collaborative Construction so far was renovating and putting an addition on a two-storey house. He called it “a huge step” that follows about two years of efforts to buy the building and a further year of planning.
But he thinks they have a winning concept. He said other projects might be better money makers, but St. Chad’s will be their shot at history.
“One day I want my kids to drive by and be like, ‘My dad took this to what it’s like today,’ ” he said. “And hopefully, a hundred years from now, people will still be looking at this in admiration of how beautiful it looks.”