Atrium set for a grand re-opening June 26

The Atrium will hold a grand re-opening event Friday, June 26, to promote its various businesses featuring live music, alcohol and a raffle.

Two weeks before the event storefronts in the building will be selling raffle tickets for $5 with four prizes available, each containing items donated by the Atrium and the businesses within as a token of appreciation.

The prizes are being kept under wraps for now, but they will be on display next week on the ground floor.

The event is the result of a collaboration between many of the Atrium's business owners including Kris Shaw of the Artitudes Gallery, Ryan Johannesen of Hippie Hop and Derek Hann of the Havre Book Exchange, all of whom will be preforming during the concert.

"People really don't come down here as much as they used to," Hann said.

He said the event isn't just to raise awareness, but to celebrate the businesses in the building as well as the businesses in the community of which he said the Atrium has been a staple of.

"With coronavirus ... it's a tough time for everybody. And we kind of just wanted an event to promote people coming to the Atrium," Hann said.

He said this re-opening event is part of a larger effort to get people back to the building, which includes repairs and upgrades being made to the building.

This re-opening is in part a celebration of the Atrium's ongoing progress as well as the phased re-opening of the state.

Hann said he was planning to do a grand re-opening for his own business, the Havre Book Exchange, which he became the official owner of back in March.

He said the Hi-Line Dance Academy had plans for a re-opening at some point, and Hippie Hop, which opened last month, was hoping to do a grand opening as well.

Hann said he thought it made sense to merge these events into a larger one for the building itself, and the various business owners in the building have been supportive of the idea.

"It seem like pretty much everyone is excited to be a part of it," said Shaw, owner of the Artitudes Gallery and Co-Owner of the Atrium.

Hann said part of the money obtained from the raffle tickets sales will go toward covering the cost of the event, but he hopes any money left over can be put to use for the building itself.

"Hopefully, we raise enough money to start a building fund, for the Atrium as a whole, for constructions or new handrails," he said. "I'm already working on a website for the Atrium as a whole with a group calendar."

Hann said the prizes for the raffle will contain $400 to $500 worth of items donated by the Atrium and the businesses within and he's hoping to make enough to at least cover that.

"We're just hoping that everything goes well, and enough people show up to support the businesses here and support the building, and that we can keep moving forward," he said.

Hann, Shaw and Johannesen said there is a feeling within the Atrium that people just don't come to the place like they used to.

"A lot of people have forgotten what is even in the Atrium, most people just go to the DMV," Hann said.

"Everyone has kind of been saying 'Jeez I wonder if they know we're still here,'" Shaw added.

Johannesen said the pandemic has certainly not helped alleviate this feeling.

"It's kinda been that way ever since the virus," he said.

Hann said a lot of the businesses in the Atrium have been hit financially by the pandemic especially those lke himself and Johannesen who are just starting out.

"The pandemic hurt a lot of people, especially for me and a few other people who just managed to go into business for ourselves," he said. "It was really a shock."

Despite the troubled times many are facing, Hann said, there is a lot to look forward to.

"We have a lot to celebrate in the Atrium," he said, "... This is such a fun building. It should be a hub for creatives, it should be a hub for music artists, it should be a place for people to just hang out and have fun."

Many of those potential musical artists will be preforming at the June 26 concert at 5 p.m., include The Other Brothers & Sistas, which features Kris Shaw, and T.J. Overcast and Ryan the Rudest, who owns Hippie Hop.

Johannesen said he's hoping to see other musicians make more use of the Atrium's stage in the years to come.

"We want to continue to use the stage and try to get acts coming through here," he said.

Johanassen said he and his fellow business owners are thinking of getting a PA system for the building at some point, and in the future expanding the stage's hosting ability to include talent shows.

"This event is the first one of, hopefully, many," he said.

The raffle drawing will be after the second act. People who bought a ticket don't need to be present to win, but contact information will be required when they buy a ticket.

Hann said that information will not be put on any mailing lists.

Alcohol will be available at Cowboy Coffee and the Half-nut, which are in the process of getting a permit to serve alcohol outside their stores for the event.

Hann said the health department has approved the event.