Sudbury's Muirhead Building rejuvenated with new tenants

The owners of the century-old Muirhead Building on Elm Street are marketing that space as a new creative hub for the downtown — and that label might be working.

Several new tenants are moving in to what is known as one of the oldest buildings in Sudbury, occupying two-thirds of its space.

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"Most of our existing tenants we've attracted through word of mouth,” said Susan Thompson, one of the co-owners of the Muirhead Building.

“We haven't really done any active promotion of the building, but the word gets out and, for that reason, we've been able to attract the right kind of tenants to the building."

The first two floors of the Muirhead building are commercial and the third floor is currently being renovated to become a live-work space for photographers, architecture school professors, and other creative types.

''Some of the staff [members] coming in with the School of Architecture are actually looking for live-work spaces because they have endeavours that they do related to their architecture work.''

Thompson said the third floor space is set to be completed and ready for rental this fall.

"We've had a lot of inquiries already to date, and it seems to be coming a lot from creative people that are involved in a myriad of different businesses,” she said. “So it really will appeal to a broad range of people."

Thompson said they are also installing an elevator and have built larger washrooms so the building is fully accessible.

‘Really beautiful’

Studio 123 is putting the finishing touches on its new graphic design agency opening in mid-April on the second floor of the Muirhead Building.

Christian Pelletier, one of three partners behind Studio 123, said it was love at first sight when he first saw the century-old structure.

"We had just finished looking at ugly spaces downtown, with drop ceiling and carpet, and there was just no sex appeal to the spaces,” he said.

“Then we show up in this space and it had a charm to it. It was really, really beautiful."

Pelletier discovered the space when he was doing a film shoot in the building, and also when he attended a play that was being staged in there

Studio 123 — a graphic design studio and advertising agency — is just the latest business to move into the building, which also houses Fuel Multimedia, a computer start-up, and engineering firm, Worley Parsons.

"This building is turning into a really cool creative hub, so I think that if we can be part of that, awesome,” Pelletier said. “I got to see the [downtown] transformation over the past 10 years to the point that now, when I'm launching my own business, I want to be part of that transformation.''