In With the Old

A heritage factory loft in Calgary’s Victoria Park gets a restorative reno inspired by its restaurateur owner.

by Kait Kucy photographs by Sue Moodie

Historic Digs Homeowner Jeff Hines—of Calgary’s Anejo and Blanco restaurants—wasn’t looking to buy when he discovered this loft, but couldn’t pass it up. Here, he installed a Murphy bed so that his home office can double as a guest room.

Jeff Hines knows how to create a mood. For seven years now, the restaurateur has been serving up sunny and quirky Mexican taquerias—with a side of top-shelf tequila—to Calgarians with his Beltline restaurants Anejo and Blanco (and soon-to-open Reposado). Hines, a tequila aficionado who moonlights as a hobby surfer in Sayulita, Mexico, is intent on bringing the laid-back vibe of his home-away-from-home to Calgary. Whether it’s the exposed brick and colourful feature wall of Mexican rosaries and crosses at Anejo or the moody, neon sign-lined surf-shack walls of Blanco, Hines has a knack for transforming heritage spaces into something memorable.

Chill Zone Hines is a hobby surfer who splits his time between Sayulita, Mexico, and Calgary— and he wanted to bring the laid-back vibe of the former to his loft. The sofa and occasional chair are from Article, the floor lamp from Wayfair.

He was able to express those talents again when he purchased a 1929 warehouse loft in Victoria Park in the fall of 2017—though, at the time, he wasn’t even in the real estate game. His girlfriend, realtor Ann Stranges, spotted the unusual listing: “When Ann sent me the listing, I knew it was a unique piece of Calgary’s history that I wanted to leave my mark on,” says Hines, who shares the space with his catahoula leopard pup, Sadie. Until 1961 the loft had been the Imperial Tobacco Company, but was now in foreclosure and had been gutted from top to bottom. “With the 14-foot ceilings, large factory windows, exposed brick and the fact that it is the only unit in the entire building with a 550-square-foot, exclusive-use patio, how could I walk away?”

Recruiting Korr Design, the interior design firm responsible for the aesthetics of Hines’s restaurants, he asked the team to strip the loft back to its factory origins and create a modern, relaxed space to suit his needs. When Kasey Sterling, principal designer at Korr Design, took hold of the project, she quickly realized the team was going to need to rework the entire space, from piping to duct work. “While we were starting with a blank canvas, the previous renovations had left the 1,432-square-foot space feeling very residential and closed off, with drop ceilings that accommodated piping and other elements that covered up the exquisite character of the building,” says Sterling. “We really pulled back the layers and revealed the original brick walls, flooring and 14-foot ceilings of the historic factory space.”

The standout feature of the loft is the transformation of the original concreteencased freight elevator shaft into an open concept kitchen, with custom Ikea cabinetry, slab stone and butcher block countertops, and KitchenAid appliances. Made for entertaining and influenced by the restaurant world, the kitchen also features a sky-high wine “cellar” with racking tucked above the cabinetry. A full-length ladder, stored nearby in Hines’s bedroom, is used to access the many vintages in his collection.

The real showstopper is a custom tequila wall on the exterior of the concrete shaft. “With Anejo and Blanco, tequila is the focus, so we wanted to create an homage to Jeff’s passion for his collection,” shares Sterling. “Five reclaimed Douglas fir shelves host about 100 bottles of my private tequila collection,” adds Hines. “This was probably the largest influence that restaurant design has had on my home, positioning my tequila collection as a centrepiece of the home, like a work of art.”

As the proprietor of three Mexican restaurants in Calgary, Hines owns an extensive tequila collection. Reclaimed Douglas fir shelves host about 100 of his favourites

Around the corner from the kitchen, the master bedroom was expanded by acquiring an unused corridor behind the unit. By working with the condo board, Hines was able to find another 120 square feet for the bedroom, including an original red brick wall that would become a feature in the room. Wall-to-wall mirrored storage flanks the brick, reflecting the factory windows and a set of restored iron-and-wood doors to the back patio. A four-poster bed from CB2 adds an