diff --git a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
index 4affa199f8..2f2b652c2e 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
@@ -428,7 +428,9 @@ fn start_pageserver(
                 conf.broker_keepalive_interval,
                 tls_config,
             )?;
-            anyhow::Ok(storage_broker::TimelineUpdatesSubscriber::new(service_client))
+            anyhow::Ok(storage_broker::TimelineUpdatesSubscriber::new(
+                service_client,
+            ))
         })
         .with_context(|| {
             format!(
diff --git a/safekeeper/src/broker.rs b/safekeeper/src/broker.rs
index 3b15cf8d70..41e9d6a6cd 100644
--- a/safekeeper/src/broker.rs
+++ b/safekeeper/src/broker.rs
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ async fn push_loop(
         conf.broker_endpoint.clone(),
         conf.broker_keepalive_interval,
         make_tls_config(&conf),
-    )?;
+    )?
+    .into_raw_grpc_client();
     let push_interval = Duration::from_millis(PUSH_INTERVAL_MSEC);
 
     let outbound = async_stream::stream! {
@@ -97,7 +98,8 @@ async fn pull_loop(
         conf.broker_endpoint.clone(),
         conf.broker_keepalive_interval,
         make_tls_config(&conf),
-    )?;
+    )?
+    .into_raw_grpc_client();
 
     // TODO: subscribe only to local timelines instead of all
     let request = SubscribeSafekeeperInfoRequest {
@@ -153,7 +155,8 @@ async fn discover_loop(
         conf.broker_endpoint.clone(),
         conf.broker_keepalive_interval,
         make_tls_config(&conf),
-    )?;
+    )?
+    .into_raw_grpc_client();
 
     let request = SubscribeByFilterRequest {
         types: vec![TypeSubscription {
diff --git a/storage_broker/src/lib.rs b/storage_broker/src/lib.rs
index e46133cad7..a6edea695d 100644
--- a/storage_broker/src/lib.rs
+++ b/storage_broker/src/lib.rs
@@ -40,11 +40,18 @@ pub struct TimelineUpdatesSubscriber {
 }
 
 /// Wrapper type to weed out all places in the codebase that interact directly with the gRPC generated code.
-/// We want all to go through the facade structs above so we can implement brokerless mode in the future.
 pub struct BrokerClientChannel {
     client: proto::broker_service_client::BrokerServiceClient<tonic::transport::Channel>,
 }
 
+impl BrokerClientChannel {
+    pub fn into_raw_grpc_client(
+        self,
+    ) -> proto::broker_service_client::BrokerServiceClient<tonic::transport::Channel> {
+        self.client
+    }
+}
+
 pub struct TimelineShardUpdate {
     pub is_discovery: bool,
     pub inner: proto::SafekeeperDiscoveryResponse,