David Parker, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Brothers Bart and Peter Hribar grew up in Lethbridge and both had a keen interest in design and construction.
They worked on the construction of a new restaurant and when the owner and contractor had problems were asked if they could take over. The brothers completed the design and built Cassandra Restaurant to the satisfaction of Steve Reid – and they were on their way.
After moving to Calgary, Peter chose to stay with design and owns the very successful Hribar Design Group that’s been responsible for many fine restaurant, lounge and office interiors.
Bart concentrated on engineering and construction, and although the brothers share the same office building on 10th Street N.W., they run separate companies. Bart is president of CREATE. and City Core Investco.
He launched his construction company with projects in collaboration with Peter in the design and building of restaurants and custom-designed homes, but has since grown to be a full-service firm with a specialty interest in interiors for the medical professions. Early on, Bart had the good fortune to meet Allen Clayton who moved here from Victoria to take courses in construction at Mount Royal University.
Hribar needed a construction supervisor and Clayton had a yearning to be in management.
The two hit it off and Clayton is now CREATE.’s vice-president operations and a partner in the company.
They completed interiors for the likes of Metropolitan Grill and two Redwater Grill locations in Bow Valley Square and Stadium Shopping Centre. They are very efficient at meeting tight deadlines to open hospitality and retail projects, but Bart says thanks to working for client NorthWest Healthcare Properties, CREATE. has an understanding of what is required to build to the expectations for medical buildings. Among its portfolio are the 100,000-square-foot Riley Park Health Centre – formerly known as Grace Hospital – that included building out the space for 20,000 square feet on the second floor for Caleo Heath. The repurposing of the former movie theatres at Sunridge into a medical teaching faculty for the University of Calgary required levelling out the sloped floor and installing 37 clinical classrooms and 9,000 square feet of administrative office space, as well as installing large skylights.
All of the expectations of owner Alberta Health Services were met, including time and budget expectations.
Clayton says his staff has built a reputation for high standards and the ability to find solutions to construction problems.
They have helped secure other jobs such as converting the former theatre space at Webber Academy into a 10,000-square-foot, state-of the-art Science Centre.
Other recent projects include the Morin Music Studio in Shoppes of Montreaux and new space for LPI Communications on 62nd Avenue S.E.
Chaparral Square is a 24,000-square-foot three-storey development owned by City Core Investco on 194th Avenue S.E. that was designed especially for use by the medical/dental community. It is already more than half full thanks to its location close to the South Health Campus, accessibility to Deerfoot and Macleod Trails and Highway 22X – and the CREATE.’s team of designers, engineers and construction manager Jim Madden’s competent crews.
