Originally built to provide electricity for Edmonton’s streetcar system, the 1938 Old Street Railway Substation No. 600 is being turned into a microbrewery by Nathan Marculis and his wife, Wafa Veljee, owners of Irrational Brewing Company.
The couple signed a lease with owner Beljan Development with projections to open some time next year.
“We decided that Edmonton has such a great growing craft beer scene that we should hop on it and that’s what got us here today,” said Marculis. “(We) started about a year and a half ago to try and open up a brewery and now we have this beautiful location.”
The substation was awarded the title of a Municipal Historic Resource in 2017 and then purchased by Beljan Development a year later to be redeveloped. Honouring the history of the building, Irrational Brewing will use an electrical system to produce their product.
Nathan Raju, of Beljan Development, said he wants to bring in a number of retailers to the area, “This is actually almost a food corridor in a sense,” Raju said. “You got Northern Chicken, Meuwly’s, Woodshed Burgers, you got Duchess bakery. The one thing that was really missing on 124th street is a brewery.”
The entire redevelopment project is expected to be completed by spring 2021.