The Town of Gravelbourg is continuing its efforts to find a re-use for the historic Jesus and Mary Convent building. 

The town issued Expressions of Interest in February and reissued the Expressions of Interest in June. Since then, the town has received a few inquiries, but no submissions. 

The 75,000 square-foot, four-storey brick and stone building was built between 1917 and 1927. It was a convent for the Catholic Church until the 1970s. 

It eventually became the Gravelbourg Elementary School until 2015 when the Prairie South School division built an addition to the high school to make it a K to 12 school. 

Since then, the former convent, which is recognized as a municipal and heritage property, has been owned by the town. 

“It’s been standing there for over 100 years. It’s a very significant feature of our landscape. You can see it if you’re approaching from the south or the west if you’re coming in from those directions. You can see it there on the horizon, so it’s a very impressive building,” said Town of Gravelbourg economic development officer Ariel Haug. 

The town has rented it out to a variety of businesses and organizations including the Gravelbourg Artisan Co-operative and the Gravelbourg Community Music Centre. 

However, it has been sitting empty as the cost for heat and maintenance was too much and the town couldn’t justify the spending of ratepayers dollars with limited income from the building. 

“There are currently no renters in there. The building was open for tours for the museum all summer long, but that season’s ended. Tours are available upon request, but not a whole lot of anything else is going on in there right now,” Haug said. 

More information about the building can be found at gravelbourgconvent.com. The Expressions of Interest will be open until the end of the year. 

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