Though he’s not in the business of throwing money away, local developer John Pollard said his interest in restoring a pair of heritage buildings on south Main Street is for “largely altruistic reasons.”

The co-CEO of Pollard Banknote has taken ownership of the Fortune Block on the southwest corner of Main Street and St. Mary Avenue, and is confident negotiations for the neighbouring MacDonald Block will ultimately be successful.

The pair, along with the nearby Winnipeg Hotel, were declared heritage buildings by city council on Jan. 27, protecting them from demolition and effectively scuttling a private proposal to buy the three buildings and demolish them in favour of a $35-million hotel project.

Pollard didn’t reveal the purchase price, but has said it will cost millions to restore the buildings to their former glory.

“It’d be very difficult to get a proper return on that, but I’m going to enjoy doing it,” he said. “Our city deserves better-looking buildings there. It’s a historic piece of downtown Winnipeg it’d be a shame to lose.”

The Fortune Block was built in 1882 by real-estate developer Mark Fortune, but sold before it opened to wholesale grocer Alexander MacDonald, who built a similar building south of it the next year. Fortune died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Wayne Towns owns the MacDonald Block as well as the Winnipeg Hotel, which dates back to 1873, and the vacant lot between them where the Blue Note Cafe once stood.

Pollard Banknote’s roots trace back to 1907 as a commercial printer. It’s now one of the world’s largest producers of instant games like scratch-and-win and break-open tickets with annual sales in excess of $50 million.

Plans for the Fortune Block include an expansion of roots and blues music venue, the Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, another street-level retail opportunity and the conversion of the upper floors, which have been vacant more than 40 years, to office space. Plans for the MacDonald Block are more of an open slate, but if Pollard is unable to secure its purchase, the opportunity for a “more fulsome, completely restored and renovated” space goes out the window.

“The buildings are frankly in terrible condition. They’ve been allowed to rundown very badly. There’s a huge amount of work to be done on them, and it’ll be very expensive,” Pollard said. “It would give us pause about spending millions on the Fortune Block if it’s forever beside a rooming house.”

Area councillor Jenny Gerbasi said having a private developer tackle the project is a “very positive thing for this area of the downtown and the city as a whole.”

“Many cities are losing heritage buildings but also unique, character music venues . . . at quite a rapid rate. These places add so much character and it is great news that Times Changed is being saved,” she said via email.

Pollard had been looking for a downtown or Exchange area renovation project and, as fate would have it, hooked up with Times Change(d) owner John Scoles, who married the sister of his brother’s wife. Pollard said he’d likely never become a regular, but appreciates its role in the area.

“It’s a great kind of business for downtown Winnipeg. It brings people downtown, there’s a local owner-operator of an iconic club that’s been there for (almost) 30 years, and it’s a performing venue for local, emerging musicians which is important to have. We need more of those.”

The Times it is a changin’

After years of an uncertain future hinged to its locale in the historic Fortune Block, the beloved honkytonk had its future cemented with the purchase of the building by local businessman John Pollard.

John Scoles, who has owned Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club for better than half of its nearly 30-year history, said he feels blessed.

“Everything works out here, no matter what it is, no matter what the circumstance,” he said during an interview in the basement of the 134-year-old building Saturday night. “In fact, however good you thought it would work out, it’s actually even better.”

The quirky 85-seat club has helped boost the careers of many locals, and is a favourite drop-in for numerous touring artists. It recently made a Buzzfeed list of iconic music venues for Canadians to experience.

Renovations are expected to be completed by the end of September. The plan is to double the seating capacity and add what amounts to a chill zone — the Hideaway Lounge — in the back where a sign company had been. And there’ll be heat, a sticking point for many winter visitors and part of the reason for a rack of housecoats on the wall.

Scoles said a two-foot cement wall between their club and retail space next door prevents a greater redesign, which he is resistant to anyway, guided by the notion that if there’s one thing they can’t lose, it’s that feel.

“We don’t need more people to make this work,” he said, noting they often turn away 30 to 40 people on a weekend night. “We just need to take better care of the people that want to be here in the first place. It’s just do what we do, only better.”

Scoles said he often considered buying the building himself, but couldn’t find a way to manage the risk. He’s pleased that the community helped culture win out over condos, and that they can remain in a building he feels tied to, working under a good friend in Pollard, who he met through his marriage.

“You need that level of resource to come and be interested and open to the possibility of it, and yeah, without him, this next chapter wouldn’t be possible. There’d be a chapter, but not this.”

Kking@postmedia.com