Page 25 - Trending Magazine 2017 Winter

Transformations_BassBuilding_V2_Layout 1 17-12-06 5:34 PM Page 1

Story by Tyler Clarke
Photos by Matt Goerzen,
Tim Smith & Nikita Lindenberg

lagging one’s hometown is a popular pastime in
just about every community, where the grass is
Salways greener somewhere else.
Maybe it’s because they only relocated to Brandon a
few years ago and are able to look at it through a fresh
set of eyes. But Robyn and Jason Sneath see the
Wheat City as being more a diamond than a rock.
Sometimes, these diamonds are disguised as rocks,
such as what they found at 29 10th Street.
Currently facing a massive renovation that has
included its gutting, the building is being promoted
as something akin to The Forks in Winnipeg,
where its tenants all link together, with patrons
able to look inside each business, with each one
feeding off of the others within a hub of
commerce.
“Almost all of the tenants plan to be open weekends
and evenings so that will also help to reshape the
evening atmosphere of downtown,” Robyn said.
“The building will have a stunning new street level
facade and will certainly feel like a destination.”
What she describes is a far cry from the
borderline dilapidated state the building was in
earlier this year. If its weathered walls could
speak, the building’s autobiography would be a
real page-turner.
Built in 1905, the 30,000 square-foot, four-
storey building — also known as the Bass
building after one of its former owners —
was initially constructed to accommodate
a furniture store and mortuary. By the
’30s, the building was taken over by the
city as a result of unpaid taxes, after
which it was transformed into a hostel,
with game rooms, a canteen, dance hall
lounge and sleeping facilities.

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