Changes: 2nd Avenue Lofts

I promised to update the blog from time to time with some of the good things happening around town. I’ll begin with the obvious ones, before moving on to areas that even current residents might not have noticed. On the way, I’ve already discovered tidbits of history I never knew. Apparently there was a city here before there was a city.

You’ll be forgiven if you don’t recognize the older building pictured on the left. It is, or was, the five-storey J.F. Cairns Ltd. Department store, opened in 1913 and purchased by the Hudson Bay Company in 1922. Its five storeys contained just over 8300 square metres of space (90,000 square feet). It stood on the northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and 23rd Street.

The building, which included a grocery store, served Saskatoon until 1958, when the Bay announced its replacement. The store was torn down that year, and reopened its new digs on the same location in 1960. Though only three storeys tall at first, the new store boasted 14,500 square metres (157,000 square feet) of retail space. The building was constructed with expansion in mind, as an additional two floors could be added in the future.

The fourth floor was added soon enough, in 1966, and a skywalk built to the Bay’s six-level parkade across 2nd Avenue. A vast area below this parkade served as the Bay’s shipping and receiving area. Eventually, the Safeway store abutting its northern edge was demolished, and the Bayside Centre shopping mall built. The Hudson Bay Company continued in this location until the turn of the century, when they moved to the old Eaton’s location in Midtown Plaza.

For more than half a decade, the building—apparently built like a brick—stood empty and forlorn. Ideas were passed, of course: the library could move there, for example. Somehow, none of it fleshed out. The skywalk was torn down and the parkade bit the dust, to be replaced with a parking lot. Talk began circulating of doing the same to the store. The Bayside mall, once a home to higher-end retail outlets, soon floundered and sunk. For a time, that became home to Heinze Career Institute, then to two separate furniture stores.

Then along came a developer with the pie-in-the-sky idea of turning the Bay building into condos. No doubt many a citizen secretly rolled their eyes at the thought; there’s been a lot of pie-in-the-sky ideas in this town. (Remember the old A.L. Cole power plant condos?) This time, though, the timing must have been right. 

The revamped Bay building is not only near completion, but it finally has that elusive fifth floor…bringing it to the height of the original store (though it is also longer). The adjoining mall soldiers on, now as a home to several government offices. The condos feature underground parking, a central atrium, open floor plans, etc. (See http://www.2ndavenuelofts.com/).

This appears to be just one small part of Saskatoon’s downtown revitalization. More to come in this blog.