The former Grey County Courthouse is being redeveloped into an entertainment complex with event spaces, restaurants and a lounge, in addition to office space and an interactive museum.
The handsome Georgian-style courthouse and governor’s residence and its adjacent jail have been a landmark in Owen Sound, Ont., since the 1850s. But for more than a decade, the heritage complex has been sitting vacant.
The former Grey County Courthouse is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act for its architectural and historical significance, which protected it from demolition. Over the years, proposed redevelopments proved impractical or too costly because of the need to preserve the sturdy former jail and its high courtyard walls, which are on the city’s heritage register.
In 2015, Nick Ainis, chief executive of Toronto-based Fusioncorp Developments Inc., approached the city with a plan to redevelop the buildings as condominiums; however, it was rejected because converting it to residential would require damaging and, ultimately, prohibitively costly alterations of the buildings.
A rethink led to the city endorsing a plan for Royal Rose Court that would turn the massive stone buildings into an entertainment complex, with event spaces, restaurants and a lounge, in addition to office space and an interactive museum.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, another landmark posed similar issues when the five-storey General Post Office became vacant. Occupying an entire downtown city block, it was built between 1953 and 1958 and designed in the mid-century International Style by McCarter Nairne and Partners architects and served as the primary mail-sorting facility in Western Canada.
The granite-and-concrete building with terra cotta inserts and commissioned artworks was the largest in Vancouver when it opened and was nicknamed “Taj Mahal with escalators,” according to the National Trust for Canada.
It was decommissioned when Canada Post moved operations to a new processing plant in Richmond, B.C., and was ranked by the Heritage Vancouver Society as one of the city’s Top 10 endangered buildings. In 2012, it sold to the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., whose real estate arm, QuadReal Property Group, started planning a redevelopment.
The project team, including MCM Architects, considered options to add residential towers atop the building, but the plan was refined to two office towers of 21 and 22 storeys. The team engaged heritage conservators to retain and restore many of the building’s distinctive elements, including the blue and terracotta tile façade, the relief sculpture of a postal worker and a huge coat of arms, as well as original artwork and etched windows, says Remco Daal, president of Canadian real estate at QuadReal.
The design leverages the building’s existing central podium and welded-steel frame, whose base floors have 100,000-square-foot floorplates. The Post features 1.1 million square feet of office space and 185,000 square feet of retail. It will be home to more than 7,000 workers, with Amazon leasing the office space. The 185,000 square feet of retail includes Loblaws CityMarket, retail shops, services and restaurants.
“We’re going to convert the back jail into a bar we call Speakeasy. There will be booths where the cells were because we can’t break down the masonry walls.”
— Nick Ainis, chief executive officer of Toronto-based Fusioncorp Developments Inc.
The 180 columns in the building needed to be structurally reinforced to support the extra weight of the additions and there were asbestos pipes and lead paint that required remediation, to name just a few of the challenges.
But restoring of the heritage building was the sustainable solution to avoid the building going to a landfill. “No matter what you would build there you ultimately would still need a podium, and this was a uniquely significant one,” Mr. Daal says.
Originally built as a secure bunker for mail-sorting equipment, it was made more inviting for retail and engagement with the street by windows and entrances added around the base.
“As a long-term developer, we recognized the responsibility to this community to acknowledge that this was a very special place for generations. A lot of people remember going to the post office to mail their letters and packages and seeing [artist] Paul Huba’s murals of the postman and women and child. We wanted those respected and fully restored,” Mr. Daal says.
The interior of the former Grey County Courthouse in Owen Sound, in its original condition.
“The Post building uniquely connects the past with the future,” Mr. Daal says. “A place that once sorted our letters is now in a way the home of the next generation of distribution technology. This was a truly collaborative process and our heritage consultants, the heritage society, the City of Vancouver and our other partners are thrilled with the outcome.”
In Owen Sound, Fusioncorp’s subsidiary, FC Entertainment & Hospitality is moving through the site plan approvals process to begin restoration next year designed by a team including Boldera heritage architects.
It’s simpler than some previous heritage reuse projects his company has tackled in the past, turning schools or churches built in the 20th-century into residential spaces, Mr. Ainis says.
“Whenever you have a landmark building there are many challenges converting it to modern uses. Royal Rose Court is keeping the basic structure the way it is. There are actually few restoration challenges, considering the age of heritage buildings because their heavy stone and masonry walls are still solid and the floors are level,” Mr. Ainis says. By contrast, “structures from a century later are often falling apart.”
The General Post Office, a Vancouver landmark, is being redeveloped into 1.1 million square feet of office space and 185,000 square feet of retail space, which will include Amazon, Loblaws CityMarket, shops and restaurants.
The plans will keep the structures intact, other than some removal of interior walls, and the main courthouse room is going to be an event and reception room. There is also a courtyard that will be roofed in as a ceremony space for events like weddings and small functions. The governor’s residence is going to become a restaurant, joining a tea room on the main floor and another restaurant on the upper level.
As for the jail, “we’re going to convert the back jail into a bar we call Speakeasy. There will be booths where the cells were because we can’t break down the masonry walls,” Mr. Ainis says.
The name Royal Rose was chosen in honour of his late mother, “so there’s a bit of personal sentiment in it,” he says.
”I’ve done a lot of historic conversions, so I’m confident I can see this one work. They don’t build them like they used to.”