The Oliver Block building in downtown Lethbridge (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Breathing new life into the Oliver Block in Lethbridge

Mar 7, 2021 | 7:15 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A historic structure stands at 316 5 Street South in downtown Lethbridge.

It’s known as the Oliver Block.

The over 120-year-old building was in disrepair a few years ago, but thanks to the community’s support and the work of Hunter Heggie, new life has been breathed into the Oliver.

Heggie is the President/Owner of Heggie Developments Ltd.

The southern Albertan also operates the King of Trade store across the street.

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In 2017, Heggie purchased the Oliver.

“I watched this 120-year-old building slowly fall apart before my eyes every day,” he told Lethbridge News Now.

“It was going to become a parking lot [and] it was destined for demolition. I decided, hey, they’re not building 120-year-old buildings very often, so let’s save this thing.”

RENOVATION

Heggie said fixing up the building was essentially a three-stepped process, noting it was “very dilapidated”.

“It was really bad. It had been abandoned for some time; it was full of water in the basement. So, the first process was to clean it up, clean up the mess, which took almost a year, just to clean it up,” he explained.

“After doing that, we had to fix the structure itself, so the bones of the building. There was quite a bit of engineering and work done there and then it was one bay at a time – [renovating] it and getting tenants in there.”

The Oliver Block is currently a combination of residential/commercial rental spaces.

“There’s three residences in there and 13 commercial spaces,” Heggie said.

FILM PROJECT

One of the tenants of the Oliver Block is Bryce Baker of Clasual.ca. He recently put together a short film based around the historic structure, featuring Heggie and building manager Lee Freeman.

“He wanted to do a story on it, and I thought, this would be really great,” Heggie told LNN.

“When I watched it for the first time, I was blown away. He did a tremendous job.”

Baker’s video can be seen below.

“I was completely impressed,” Heggie said.

“I was not expecting that. Actually, the first time I watched the video, I was like, ‘is there more’, I didn’t want it to end.”

Heggie said Baker’s video is helping spread the word on the Oliver Block’s history and what it means to Lethbridge.

“It does good for our community and it gets it out there. I know people have seen it right across Canada already. It’s pretty cool. That’s not why we fixed the building, though. I didn’t restore the building to get a five-minute film,” he commented.

Heggie said one of his factors in refurbishing the structure was a love for the building and love for the city.

“It’s a commercial venture, too. My wife and I, we’ve kind of put our life savings into this and hopefully one day, when we get it paid off, we can retire,” he said, adding the project and the building’s current vibrancy is a win-win for the community.

“This city can just be such a great city. People really rallied behind the Oliver [Block]. In fact, there was a lady who said she’d chain herself to the building before she’d let it get knocked down, so you gotta hand it to more than just me doing it.”

INTO THE FUTURE

Heggie said “the future is now” for the Oliver Block.

“We have a full building. I’ve got tenants kind of moving in and out every few months but at this moment, literally, it’s fully occupied,” he remarked.

“If you go back four years and you think, this was a building that was going to be demolished and now it’s full of people every day and full of life, with all these businesses and residential units. It’s amazing. The future is now, it’s here, it’s full.”