BEL JAN passing out cigarette in their hands – I was just absolutely shocked that it hadn’t been burned down.” “So we acquired it and we were in the process of renovating it, and I’ll be damned if a fire didn’t start under our watch,” he says. In spite of the fire – and despite some cynical comments on social media – Beljan continued their restoration of the historic Edmonton landmark, and they ensured that the legacy of one of the oldest buildings in the province lived on. One of the Beljan’s most recent projects is called ‘Substation.’ Chris says that project has only just started operating, but he expects it to be just as impactful as the previous examples. “That’s an exciting project, and we hope it will become this great little community hub for the district,” he says. “We hope it will raise the stature of the street.” On that project, Beljan is significantly transforming the historic electrical Substation #600 building on 124 Street. They are restoring and retaining the existing two-storey building for commercial use while developing a three-storey addition at the back of the site. Both buildings are connected by a pedestrian walkway on the second floor. There, Chris says, Beljan has once again cultivated investment partners that “believe in the vision, and that want to do something unique and different.” “They could put their money anywhere, but they chose to invest their dollars with us because they want to be part of something,” Chris says. “It’s humbling to receive that kind of attention from the investment community. That keeps us motivated to keep going.” To ‘keep going,’ Dave adds, means continuing to find identify and acquire interesting buildings communities on the verge of revitalization. Like they did with Oliver Exchange, The Strathcona, and most recently Substation, they want to reposition those buildings and transform them into community hubs. In the longer term, Beljan is also interested in doing some larger projects. The company has historically focused on small-tomedium sized developments, and they firmly believe that projects of that size can have large impacts, but they also believe they can apply the “Beljan touch” on a larger piece of property. They hope to show what that looks like soon. “The company is well positioned for growth, and we intend to approach that growth very strategically,” Dave says. “We’re going to get bigger and better while still maintaining the attention to detail that the market has come to expect from us. We’re pretty excited for the next few years here.”
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