HGTV Home Town Takeover hosts grand opening for Harbour Quay<\/p>\n
Published 1:45 am Sunday, August 30, 2026<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people crowded into Harbour Quay on Friday afternoon for the HGTV Home Town Takeover Canada\u2019s big reveal. <\/p>\n
Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions took the stage with Sarah and Bryan Baeumler, co-hosts of the new reality TV show, to unveil renovations at Harbour Quay. The Aug. 28 block party was the final day of filming as building projects wrapped up for the upcoming HGTV show. <\/p>\n
In the beginning of June, HGTV chose Port Alberni for their first-ever Home Town Takeover Canada. The city beat about 140 small towns across Canada to be the first community featured in the show, which will air in the fall.<\/p>\n
The city had some long-planned renovations for Harbour Quay that were completed with the TV show. A new covered patio next to the Marine Building was built with wood from the former Somass Sawmill; the Spirit Square had new renovations, with fresh paint, new signage and more shops opened. A new covered stage was built next to the playground with a mural painted by local artist Olesia Matsai; a new sign for Harbour Quay was designed and painted by Shayne Lloyd; and outside the entrance to the quay a new ticket booth was built for the tourist train that runs through town.<\/p>\n
Harbour Quay was not the only project Home Town Takeover has done for the city. A new mural was painted on the side of Savoy Theatre, fire hydrants around town had been painted by local artists, and some homes have been renovated. <\/p>\n
\u201cPort Alberni really does have a heart. They show up for one another. You welcomed us with open arms. At that moment you solidified that a hometown is all about the people that call it home,\u201d Sarah Baeumler said right before cutting the ribbon for the big reveal. <\/p>\n
Minions had gifted the hosts with a key to the city, as a thank you for all they have done for the community. Earlier in the week city council proclaimed Aug. 28 Bryan and Sarah Baeumler Home Town Takeover Canada Day.<\/p>\n
Minions said she is excited to share Port Alberni with the world when the episodes air, as this has been something the community has wanted for a long time. She was happy to get to know both Baeumlers, and was also happy to see them embrace the community, see what was important to the people living here and make it happen. <\/p>\n
City councillor Debbie Haggard said she was excited for the community, as tourists will come to town after seeing on TV what has been done. Councillor Cindy Solda said this was what the community wanted and she was also excited to see the completion of the projects. <\/p>\n
Councillor Todd Patola said he feels fantastic about everything that had been done. He thinks it\u2019s great that residents get to see what is happening in the community, especially with the mural on Savoy Theatre, which has had a lot of good feedback. He says it gets to show how much better the city has always been. <\/p>\n
Once the ribbon was cut members of the public were invited to check out the changes to the quay. Owners of The Donut Shop\u2014one of the businesses that were renovated in the Marine Building\u2014said they sold 1,800 doughnuts on Friday, and had gone through almost as many on Saturday. The quay was busy on Saturday as visitors and residents alike wandered through the new spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HGTV Home Town Takeover hosts grand opening for Harbour Quay Published 1:45 am Sunday, August 30, 2026 Hundreds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-584826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}