'We tried to remain original': New brewery opens in 124 Street's historic Substation 600

Project reimagines old power substation A year long project transformed a 1930’s power substation into a brew pub. David Ewasuk shares the details.

EDMONTON — A year-long project to transform a 1930s power substation into a brewery is now complete.

Beljan Development's project is its latest to breathe new life into a historic Edmonton structure.

Substation 600 on 124 Street is now home to Irrational Brewing Company. Customers are telling the owners it adds as much flavour to the building as their original ales.

"We tried to keep as much original as we could," said Irrational Brewing Company co-owner Nathan Marculis. "Original floors, a lot of the old fixturings, fans light switches. We tried to remain original."

Beljan Development reimagines and adds onto existing historic Edmonton structures. The new building on the back links to the 1960s building beside it and goes a floor above now with another showstopper, including a third-floor outdoor deck.

"I think we've done a great job trying to connect these two buildings into one site oriented toward providing a great use and purpose for the community," Beljan's Chris Dulaba said.

"So the brewery is now open. Lux, which is a high-end men's market consignment store, has been open for a few weeks, and then we also have a couple of office tenants moving in to the upper floors."

Dulaba says tenants have already filled 60 per cent of the space. He didn’t doubt the success of this latest project in uncertain times and he commends the anchor pub for having faith in the vision.

"A lot of cases we find we build it and then they come. With this one, we found there was quite a bit of interest early on in the project," Dulaba added.

Irrational’s co-owner says they’ve been humbled by the response to their opening this week.

"The community showed they really wanted a brewery here and we gave them what they asked for, and they came out."