Backpackers hostel, Alteregos cafe poised for major expansion - Halifax

Backpackers hostel, Alteregos cafe poised for major expansion (May 12, 2010)
http://www.thecoast.ca/Shoptalk/archives/2010/05/12/big-gottingen-street-news-backpackers-hostel-alteregos-cafe-poised-for-major-expansion

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Her plan is to use the upstairs of the Darrells building to expand Backpackers' bed count from 36 to 60. That includes a few private rooms but the hostel will "stay really budget," says Strum. With 4,500 square feet on each of the two Darrells floors, Strum can get the increase in bed space and also eliminate the boarding space now on the first floor of the existing Backpackers building. That in turn will free up space to expand Alteregos, “and especially the kitchen,” she says---a much needed opening up of a tight retail space.

Strum is a breath of fresh air in a business community that often seems straight-jacketed by old ways of doing business.

It's telling that as other downtown businesses ask for $100 million or more in taxpayer money to attract high-end conventions to town, Strum is tackling the lower-end convention and travel business on her own dime, using a regular bank loan to finance the purchase of Darrells, and doing the renovation work herself.

...More, she has committed to helping, and not displacing, the struggling community around her businesses. Strum hires from within the community, typically through the Youth Empowerment Project's mentoring program. "Mentoring is my thing," she says, "and this expansion will actually let me step back a little bit from the day-to-day operation and concentrate on mentoring." She now has about eight employees; post-expansion she envisions hiring an additional 10 to 15.