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Brent Suer knows he is taking a very big risk.

Vacancy rates in Saskatoon are up; rental rates are down. There’s new competition down the street and he doesn’t have a single tenant lined up to occupy the building into which he’s pouring millions of dollars.

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“It’s not for the faint of heart. You gotta be all in,” the Saskatoon-based developer said while paging through a sheaf of renderings and glossy photos of what the old downtown police station may look like in a few months.

“We knew going into this project that it was going to be a long-term job, that it was going to be tough to attract tenants, so thus we’re just trying to make this building as special as it can be.”

Suer’s company, Duchuck Holdings Ltd., bought the Fourth Avenue building— which has been vacant since 2014 — and adjoining parking lot from the City of Saskatoon for $10.7 million nearly two years ago.

Photo by ICR Commercial Real Estate / Saskatoon

Crews began tearing up the building’s interior about 18 months ago; more recently, work has begun on the facade, which Suer hopes to transform from a concrete massif to a shimmering steel and glass curtain.