Architect of change on Academy Road

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This article was published 24/05/2016 (3458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

George Cibinel is gutting the former home of Comics America, but he’s going to pay homage to the longtime retailer of pop-culture collectibles.

The partner at Cibinel Architects has bought the one-storey building on Academy Road and plans to move his 15-person firm there in July.

First, the place is being gutted and reconfigured to house three retailers with frontage on the busy River Heights roadway with the firm operating out of the back.

After completing the deal to buy the 7,000-square-foot building a few months ago, Cibinel walked in and bought 30 comic books from Comics America.

“I’ll either put them on the desk for customers to read or use them as wallpaper in the washrooms. I want to keep some of the history in the building,” he said.

“It will be a new building inside of an old building.”

Some of the history was far too difficult and expensive to take out. The Bank of Montreal ran a bank branch out of the space for many years, and you can’t do that without a vault.

“It was going to cost somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000 to take it out, so we’re leaving it in,” he said.

The building was opened in 1954 by National Studio, a company that specialized in school pictures.

Cibinel got possession of the property a few weeks ago, and construction has already started.

He’s a little sad about the prospect of leaving behind the firm’s longtime office on Sherbrook Street but is looking forward to the future.

“We want to create unique work areas and a courtyard for the staff and really put our own design talents to a space that we live in and work in. Some of us are here every day and every evening. That’s the industry we’re in,” he said.

Some of the firm’s clients include the University of Manitoba, the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inuit Art Centre and the Arctic College in Iqaluit.

A pair of startups, North Flag – a casual men’s clothing and accessory store – and a home decorations retailer called Grace & Co., have signed on for 800 and 1,200 square feet, respectively, leaving one retail space of another 1,200 square feet to fill.

The retailers will also open their doors midsummer.

Cibinel isn’t releasing the purchase price of the building, but he did say the total cost, including all of the renovations, is a seven-figure commitment.

Comic relief

Things aren’t as straightforward for Comics America, however. Owner Joe Krolik has temporarily suspended its daily retail operations and plans to take a well-deserved break for a few weeks after 39 years in the business.

“Then we’ll come back and see what opportunities lie before us. We didn’t think it would make sense to feel obligated to run a retail operation without a breather. We wanted to stop and smell the coffee,” he said.

One possibility is taking on a partner to help run some form of online operation.

“If anybody is interested in acquiring the inventory or getting into some kind of business relationship with us, we’re open to any proposals. We’re working on a website,” he said.

Comics America has comic books, caricatures, magazines and figurines from every action hero known to mankind — plus a few you might not have heard of — and tonnes of other memorabilia ranging from Betty Boop to The Walking Dead. Its pop-culture collectibles cover television shows such as Batman and The Green Hornet, to Hollywood blockbusters such as The Avengers and Superman.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca