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WINDSOR, N.S. —

A new take on an old business – and building – is forging ahead in Windsor.

The former Stephens and Yeaton garage and showroom on Water Street is, more and more, starting to resemble the building Michael Oxner envisioned for his flagship James Roué Beverage Company location.

“We’re behind schedule, but we still plan on opening the production plant later this spring, as soon as we can, to start producing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages,” said Oxner in a phone interview.

The company’s website says it will produce ginger beers, sodas, cordials, liqueurs, rums, gins and vodkas.

Michael Oxner, owner of the soon-to-be revived James Roué Beverage Company, stands with two of his most prized possessions - one of the original bottles dating back to the company's founding days, and the Bluenose Soda launched by the founder's son, W.J. Roué. File

Oxner has multiple phases planned for the operation on Water Street, starting with production and bottling.

“The production bay is almost finished,” he said.

From there, he plans to add a large retail store and small, cocktail bar-styled restaurant serving fresh, organic, healthy food options.

“Everybody’s told us they’ve been waiting for something like this,” he said.

He estimates that roughly 15 jobs will be created once these aspects of the business are all in full swing. When the cashflow allows for it, Oxner plans to add a rooftop patio overlooking the nearby Windsor waterfront to the mix.

Extensive renovations

He bought the well-known building in July 2018. It was weathered, and in need of some significant repairs.

“It was in worse shape than we thought - than everybody thought,” he said.

He originally hoped to repurpose more of the original 10,000-square-foot building than he was able to salvage.

“Basically, what we have left is four standing walls and a half a roof,” he said.

Oxner felt restoring an aged building would go hand-in-hand with reviving a business first launched by James Roué Sr.in 1851.

“We’ve kept the exact footprint,” he said.

“Some of those bricks and stones in the buildings are pushing 100 years old, and we wanted to keep the integrity of that building.”

He originally wanted to base the company along the Halifax waterfront, where James Roué Sr. got his start. The Stephens and Yeaton building, however, offered the space he wanted for a production facility at a manageable price.

The vision

Oxner said the drink menu will include a number of products based on original James Roué Sr recipes he found in the provincial archives. They’ll start off with ginger beer.

The building’s design, featuring cathedral ceilings and an expansive skylight, will follow a nautical theme that pays tribute to the shipbuilding era, Oxner said.

“You’re going to feel like you’re on the deck of a schooner,” he said.

Michael Oxner stands in front of the former Stephens and Yeaton garage on Water Street in Windsor. The old business will soon be retrofitted into the James Roué Beverage Company, featuring a tasting bar, retail location and small restaurant. - File

The ambience inside the building will aim to transport guests back to the 1920s, 1930s.

“The founder of the company, James Roue Sr., he was a beverage producer, but his son was the plant manager until he became a famous naval architect when he designed the Bluenose,” explained Oxner, who noted that William James Roué is his great-great uncle.

The renovation has taken longer than anticipated, with some regulatory headaches along the way, but Oxner has kept his sights set on the horizon while weathering the storms.

“It’s going to be an amazing legacy project and building for the town of Windsor and Nova Scotia.”

Dealership's heyday

The renovation work has been of particular interest to Windsor resident Eric Stephens.

He remembers the old Chevrolet car dealership in its heyday. In fact, he worked for the family business in that very building from 1949 until 2009.

He’s been following the renovations Oxner is spearheading closely.

“I’m very pleased to see something happen with it,” said Stephens.

“Before this COVID-19… I would go in weekly and talk with the guys and see what they were doing. I really enjoyed being around there.”

Stephens said his father purchased the building, which was constructed in 1938, in 1945.

“We always managed to employ 25 to 30 people, and we moved a lot of vehicles,” he said, noting that a lot of people made a living there.

“We felt quite good about serving the public in that way.”

It comforts Stephens to know the building could once again be a source of employment, and hub of activity in Windsor.

“I think the way they’re going about working on it, they’re making it so it will last quite a long time and I sure hope that the business they’re in is going to be a longtime thing as well,” he said.

“That would please me a lot.”

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