285 Water Street: Anderson's Butcher
Vigilant is pleased to announce the completion of Anderson’s Butcher in the historic Grace Building in downtown St. John’s NL.
Overview
Downtown St. John's has a rich history. Each corner has a story, and each building has lived a life of its own. The historical Grace Building is no different. Being granted heritage status, this downtown landmark is full of character. Originally constructed in the 19th century, it features a unique eight-sided turreted corner giving the building its distinct shape. The historical value of the building lies in its attachment to the Honourable John Anderson. Anderson ran a dry goods store out of the building from 1898 to 1913. He was also involved in politics as an elected member of the St. John's city council and house assembly. The building has served many purposes over the years, most recently being transformed into Anderson's butcher shop. Providing quality butcher services from a prime location, in an iconic building, with almost endless foot traffic.
This business is a recipe for success.
Anderson's main goal is to provide customers with high-quality, traceable, and sustainable goods sourced from Canadian farms practicing ethical animal care.
Goals and Scope
Vigilant provided our civil design and project delivery services for the implementation of new water and sanitary features. These changes were a critical step in transforming the building to prepare for operations. Of course, as with any project, we encountered some challenges regarding older downtown infrastructure, but the Vigilant team managed to complete the project on time and budget. This project came to completion in late January 2023, and Anderson's has been up and running ever since.
Challenges
There were a few challenges we faced while performing this project. To start, there were significant supply chain issues in getting preferred materials for the project. A key issue we encountered was the availability of power. The original design for the project was based on the power availability in the local area, which ended up changing. As a result, swift changes were made to the design incorporating the new power capacity. Vigilant also performed an infrastructure revision due to flooding potential in the basement. These are challenges that often arise when renovating old infrastructure.
This project reminded our team of a jigsaw puzzle. We faced many obstacles in trying to get things to fit correctly, but it was an exciting challenge that made us think outside the box and put all the great minds at Vigilant to work.
Vigilant is proud to be a small part of bringing Anderson's vision to life. We enjoyed this unique challenge which forced us to develop creative and efficient solutions. We wish Anderson's all the best in the future and thank them for allowing us to help along their journey.
