Sauk Rapids Salon Owner Transforms Century Old Bank Building

SAUK RAPIDS -- Over a century ago the building was home to Citizens State Bank but now 24 North Benton Drive has been transformed into a more relaxing space, Hair & Body Works Salon and Spa.

Tanya Reisinger is the owner of Hair & Body Works Salon and Spa. She says for almost a year her team has been renovating the former bank building.

"As we kept uncovering things like the wood paneling, we noticed the vault had brick on it so we wanted to make sure we uncovered the brick."

Since the beginning, Reisinger says she knew she didn't want to lose the historical charm of the building, so keeping the design as original as possible was a must.

"It has the stained glass windows which we love. It has marble on the walls too and we wanted to keep the vault and the vault doors."

One of the first decisions made during the project was to raise the dropped ceiling. Reisinger says this later lead to a huge discovery.

"The loft that's up there used to be the bank office and it used to look down over the tellers. Until we undercovered it, it was actually covered by the dropped ceiling."

Now the loft has become usable space, housing two stylist's booths and a shampoo station. But despite some unexpected circumstances, Reisinger says they only had one major problem during the renovation.

"The night drop deposit box safe which was three feet of concrete by five feet high. It took us from May until September we jackhammered it a little bit every day to get it out."

The new salon is about 1,000 square feet smaller than the previous location on Veteran's Drive in St. Cloud but because of how efficiently the space is being used, it doesn't feel smaller.

"We wanted to make sure that the main level was very efficient and could do all of the services that we wanted. Then the downstairs is for the breakroom, offices and storage."

Hair & Body Works is a full-service salon and spa. Reisinger says she is always hiring if you're interested in applying, stop in. You can now check out their new location in downtown Sauk Rapids.