They used to be places where you might grab a Coke or a quart of milk. But in some residential pockets of North America, corner stores that have sat vacant are turning out to be prime real estate not for proprietors but for homeowners disillusioned by prohibitively expensive housing markets. This story and two others—one in Phoenix, and another in the San Francisco Bay Area—share how clever owners applied pluck and perseverance to turn disused mom-and-pops into dream homes that, dollar for dollar, beat out anything they could have found doomscrolling on Zillow.

When Aki Kaltenbach called her partner, René Gauthier, in 2017 to announce she’d found their next home—and that it was a corner store—René had the kind of reaction anyone would upon learning they might soon live where candy bars and lotto tickets reigned: skepticism tinged with confusion. But within days, they had taken over a shuttered storefront on an otherwise residential street in Victoria, British Columbia, plus a worn-out house tucked behind it. What followed wasn’t only an opportunity to live somewhere with a quirky backstory—it was also a tactical maneuver to buy a home in a housing market that had priced the couple out of almost every reasonable option.

“I’m from Vancouver originally, and you see these transitions of corner stores and family businesses into homes,” Aki says. “Conceptually and visually, they’re beautiful, and they’re often in great locations in a neighborhood.”

The Victoria property had that going for it. That both buildings were in poor condition made it relatively affordable as well—the store had somehow been operating without a foundation, and outer wall studs were cobbled together with two-by-fours and were in no way up to current code. The couple snagged the address for just over $400,000 USD, an absolute steal in Victoria’s competitive real estate market.

Aki and René came up with a plan, which they dubbed Operation 2 for 1: Subdivide the lot, rent out the back house (even though it was worse for wear), then combine earnings from the rental and the eventual sale of that house (it sold for $326,000) to turn the store into their home. “There’s no way we could get this home without having had the other one on the property,” René says. The total cost of bringing the project to life came to about $400,000. This included not just construction, landscaping, and furnishings, but also substantial legal and city fees for rezoning, permitting, and subdivision, which alone exceeded $43,000.

As it turned out, the rezoning shuffle was no easier for a small structure than for a high-rise. “In Victoria, it doesn’t matter what size building it is, it’s the same development process,” René says. “Doing an 850-square-foot home or a twenty-story building, you’ve got to jump through the same hoops.” They bought in 2017 but didn’t move in until early 2020.

Demolition surfaced century-old newspapers and business licenses, which hinted that the building had begun life as a farmer’s shed, back when the area was a patchwork of orchards. Even with permission from the city to rebuild at a larger scale, the couple kept the original footprint, with a new structure modeled after the old store. “The dream was the corner store that was originally there. That was what we wanted,” René says.

Architect Colin Harper and contractor MDRN Built helped them turn the compact footprint into a one-bed, one-bath, gable-roofed home with an open living space and cozy loft. Much of the budget went toward essentials: the foundation and structural work (over $65,000), systems like electrical and plumbing (together more than $23,000), and high-performance windows and glazing (another $6,400).

$36,298 Site Work	$30,135 Foundation	$35,433 Structural
$20,399 Wall Finishes	$578 Flooring	$7,000 Roofing
$1,108 Hardware	$11,517 Electrical	$12,272 Plumbing/Mechanical
$11,006 Landscaping	$9,119 Kitchen/Bath Fixtures	$1,818 Lighting
$4,458 Cabinetry/Millwork	$5,123 Countertops	$7,254 Appliances
$6,473 Windows & Glazing	$14,259 Doors	$4,705 Tilework
$3,040 Metalwork	$18,939 Furnishings & Decor	$3,739 Pepsi Sign Refurbish
$43,415 Permitting	$13,636 Contractor Fee	$3,983 Architect Fee
$1,662 Structural Engineer	$2,462 Landscape Design
Grand Total: $310,011

The kitchen is necessarily efficient: Three sleek burners installed directly into an island, a space-saving single dishwasher drawer, a European-size fridge. “I’m grocery shopping every other day,” Aki says. “We physically do not have room for Costco.” Concrete floors hold radiant heat; scratch-resistant Corian counters withstand the rigors of the young family. The couple’s son, Hiro, sleeps in a Baltic birch loft reached by a ladder hidden behind the kitchen; during the day, four north-facing skylights bring soft light into the home.

Would they do it again? “It allowed us to enter the housing market,” Aki says. Though they successfully petitioned for residential status for the building, the revised zoning still allows for commercial use, which may well prove useful in the future for the two entrepreneurs: Aki runs Save Da Sea, making plant-based alternative seafoods, and René, sustainability-minded clothing brands Ecologyst and Frankie Collective. The couple kept the original “Dominion Market” store sign, complete with a big Pepsi logo, which still brings in the occasional passerby. “I have to make sure the door is locked. Otherwise people just come right in,” Aki laughs.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Colin Harper Architect (CHA) / @colin_harper_architect

Builder: MDRN Built, Pattern Builders

Structural Engineer: Wicke Herfst Maver Structural Engineers

Landscape Design: Lombard North Group

Landscape Contractor: Yorkshire Landscapes

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