Then I began to hate holidays.
In order to satisfy the City's Facade Guidelines and qualify for the 5-year municipal tax freeze, we went into endeavour of redesigning the face of the building to give it a required Western look. Few roof elements, wooden posts and beams did the trick, but it was December, and everybody was looking forward to Christmas. We got it approved by the City Centre Board only in the end of January. Still, we were so excited, and (even before the financing of the project was approved - lesson I will never forget), we moved ahead full steam.

We thought of the project as something that would bring life back to downtown, which was dying, loosing business to the area adjacent to the highway and housing to outskirts, like The Bench.
The name Sunrise Centre seemed to be appropriate for the project envisioned as a focal point for future redevelopment of downtown. It also should have set the development plank higher up than Merritt, striving to re-invent itself, have ever seen before.