Page 20 - 05_June-2025

City
Vintage Views, Modern MovesCivics
As Edmonton reawakens from the pandemic slump,
century-old buildings are being reinvented
Across Edmonton, COVID-19 not only
shuttered businesses and hollowed out
towers — it also forced some of the city’s
historic buildings into a state of limbo.
Among them, one of Edmonton’s most
popular boutique hotels, the Union Bank
Inn, Jasper Avenue’s Pendennis Building
and the beloved Princess Theatre on
Whyte Avenue. But as our main streets
emerge from their pandemic slumber,
there’s hope for these landmarks thanks
to new ownership trying to breathe new
life into them by giving the people what
they want: gathering spaces.
The Union
Bank
Canada
1912
A UNION OF UNIONS
Originally built as a bank in 1910, then
reborn as a hotel in 1997, the Union Bank
Inn and its restaurant Madison’s Grill suf-
fered heavily under COVID-19 travel re-
strictions. For six months, tourism
and downtown foot traffic essentially
vanished. Larger hotels held on thanks
to deep financial reserves and corporate
support, and steep discounts, but for an
independent four-star, 40-room hotel,
high fixed costs and limited access to
capital made the shutdown impossible to
sustain. It was barely able to survive past
the spring of 2021.
Since then, downtown activity has
mostly rebounded, according to a Univer-
sity of Toronto survey, even though office
vacancies remain very high between
15.9 and 21.4 percent. And tourism has
actually increased, according to Alberta
Tourism. (To what extent the Oilers play-
off runs contributed to that is TBD.) So
it might come as a surprise then to learn
that the new owner of the Union Bank isn’t
reviving it as a hotel, but rather as more
offices. To be fair though, it’s to accom-
modate his growing wealth management
corporation Union Financial, renamed to
match the history of its new home.
As with any historic building, renova-
tions are in order — a new and modern
mechanical system, a new roof replacing
one nearing the end of its life. But by and
New money, old charm ­ — the Union Bank returns to its financial roots
large, owner David Hawreluk says it was
in great shape. The only problem was
that it wasn’t historic enough.
That’s because in the late ’90s, the
interior was entirely gutted when the
building was transformed to a hotel. Few,
if any, historic fixtures were preserved.
Hawreluk says he wants to resurrect its
old spirit by recreating the past from
scratch: hardwood floors, marble finishes,
intricate moldings and dark wood panel-
ing to evoke the elegance of a bygone era.
Even small details, like elevator dials
designed to mimic early 20th-century
indicators, are part of the immersive
experience.
“When you walk back into the space,
it’s going to be like ‘Oh my God, look
photos KATELYN ASTAIRE
20 EDify. JUNE.25