[Halifax] NFB Building | 15 m | 7 fl | U/C
 

From todays Herald. Hopefully we will soon see some renderings.


Downtown makeover in the wings

Project to include much of city block


By BRUCE ERSKINE

Business Reporter

The reconfiguration of a good chunk of downtown Halifax real estate could start as early as October or as late as next spring, says restaurateur and developer Chris Tzaneteas.

“We’re getting ready to put in a pre-application with HRM," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Tzaneteas and his business partner Costa Elles own several downtown restaurants and bars, including Opa Greek Taverna , The Argyle Bar and Grill , and Mosaic Social Din ing , all on Argyle Street.

They are planning an $11-million development that will include a 47-unit, four storey apartment complex in the space now occupied by the National Film Board building at 1572 Barrington St.

The film board building, formerly the St. Mary’s Young Men’s Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society Hall, was destroyed by fire in 1991.

The proposed development, which will include 18,000 square feet of retail space, will extend over the top of The Ar gyle and around a renovated Opa to the Farquhar Building at the corner of Barrington and Blowers streets.

The Farquhar now houses a

Venus Pizza outlet.

The developers have been awarded a $100,000 grant to maintain historic facades un der the Halifax by Design mu nicipal planning strategy’s Barrington Street Heritage Conservation District desig nation.

They have also been ap proved for $600,000 in related tax credits.

Tzaneteas said the grant and the credits don’t kick in until the development is finished.

“We have to spend at least $100,000 on facades," he said, adding that the tax credits aren’t funds coming out of municipal coffers.

“It looks like we’re getting $700,000 but we’re not."

Tzaneteas said the devel opment, which is slightly smaller than originally planned, isn’t contingent on a decision to build a new con vention centre on the former Halifax Herald lands on Argyle Street.

The province recently ex tended property owner Rank Inc. ’ s deadline until Monday to come up with more detailed plans for a new centre before it decides whether it wants to negotiate a contract with the developer.

“Argyle is a great street, regardless of the convention centre," said Tzaneteas.

Tzaneteas said the only thing that might affect the plans he does have is financ ing.

“I haven’t secured financing yet," he said, although he is in talks with a couple of lenders.

“It looks good but it’s a com plicated process," he said, suggesting that financing com plications could delay the pro ject start date to next spring.

“We’re 60 per cent there," he said. “I feel confident."

If it does proceed, the pro ject won’t include the Tip Top Tailors building at 1592 Bar rington St., which the partners have decided not to purchase.

“There were too many condi tions," Tzaneteas said.

(berskine@herald.ca)

Finally some progress on the site - watch; the heritage trust will be right in there with something in the paper tomorrow.

I don't really see anybody fighting this. I think the biggest risk for this project is red tape.

Perhaps - I think it would go through the site plan approval process; versus the other stream in HbD. But still; I have my doubts that the HT will be quiet on this.

Just wait for it - they will say something...

If the Heritage Trust tries to stop this one, then we will know that the Heritage Trust no longer is a relevant organization.

4 stories does nothing for me in the heart of the city.

It will help revitalize Barrington a little bit though.

Sometimes it's the LITTLE things in life... JET

Yeah. I really can't see a lot of businesses piling into Barrington anytime soon.. so it might be cool to turn it into more of a medium-density residential place.

Is anything going in that building on Salter's and Barrington? The one across from the Aliant Building. I think it was like a Masonic Lodge or something before. That would be a nice place for something like this.

Yes, offices are upstairs. I'm not sure who exactly. Another outdoor store has moved into the lower retail space on Salter and a restaurant is moving in on Barrington.

Tao outdoor equip moved there from Bayers Lake. JET

I could see it dramatically improving if things go reasonably well. I don't think Barrington will have large department stores again but I think it could easily support a mix of restaurants, shops for locals, and interesting retail along the lines of Freak Lunchbox and others that are already there.

One of the big issues with retail is that clusters of stores tend to do better, and right now that can't happen because too many of the storefronts are tied up one way or another. Beyond this, there aren't enough people living in the immediate area to help balance things out. Another problem is that the street itself is run down and ugly looking.

The NFB development if it happens will be huge for Barrington even though it's only four floors. Right now the NFB building is the number one eyesore on the street.

The only real way that downtown will grow and evolve is to add more people. Apparently the trillium has very few units left and the King's Wharf project is selling well (I am waiting for one of the taller buildings to come on the market to put in an offer).

With more people an evolution of downtown will occur:

• You will see more people taking the ferry across the harbour to work;
• Businesses that once struggled on the weekends will start seeing better business numbers and expand;
• More NEW businesses will open up;
• Downtown will start having vitality and life again because there will be people in it; all the time;
• Transit service will be busy all week long versus just the rush hours or for special events.

That's just a quick list of things I could think of - but with more people in the core; lots of this will occur. If you take locations outside of the viewplanes or get rid of the Brightwood viewplane in Dartmouth; I could easily see adding at least 20,000 on the Halifax side and the same if not more on the Dartmouth side. Why that industrial parcel by King's Wharf - if redeveloped; alone could probably bring about 5 to 8,000.

Then if you add in redevelopment of areas such as Agricola Street, the Robie Street Car dealership and the quinpool road corridor - I suspect you could probably add another 15 to 20,000 in those areas too. With them being so close to the core; people would probably visit downtown more too.

Unfortunately with downtown retailers in Halifax there's been a bit of an obsession with attracting suburbanites and competing with suburban stores by offering parking and so on. I think that attitude's been really harmful to areas like Barrington. Barrington is never going to compete with Wal-Mart on the basis of cheap goods and free parking. It's also totally unreasonable to think that somebody living in Sackville is going to drive an extra hour whenever they want to do some shopping.

I agree that by far the best thing for the city right now is to get another 30,000-50,000 people living in the core.

Is this it?

http://www.housenumbers.ca/HfxNFB.jpg

Yes, that is the NFB site.

Ok, I change my opinion. This building is much bigger than I thought. It'd be a great project.

There's also this building on the Argyle Street side: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,111.6,,0,0.58

I believe it was originally connected to the NFB building (several go right through the block from Barrington) and was three storeys on Argyle.

The Farquhar Building on the corner is also in somewhat rough shape but would probably look great after some work.

Yep. Ugly old thing. Should have had a date with a bulldozer a decade ago. Another waste of tax dollars, both to preserve the facade after it burned down and now to incorporate that undistinguished facade into a new red-brick faux-Victorian.

At least as an apartment it will be kept in good shape. I actually think that this thing has potential to be really nice looking once it's re-done.

Nice location as well.

Its the same here in Calgary. 11th Avenue (also known as Electric avenue) has been trying to pull shoppers from the burbs with trendy flower and home decor stores. They are able to do it reasonably well because they can park on the various side streets or at the safeway parking lot near by.

The downside for Halifax is that there is much less on street parking available and the distribution of parking garages through downtown is a little off (at least in my mind) since you have Scotia Square, then the MetroPark and then City Centre Atlantic and that lot that will soon be the library.

If the retails in the main core blocks of Barrington Street want to attract those people; there would have to be some sort of parkade in the middle as well - oh whoops; isn't that the convention centre site? Oh silly me... haha.

Seriously though; if the convention centre offered public parking on the weekends, then they could have some chance.

I was doing some rough density calculations on the Quinpool, Agricola corridors. If the density of the parcels was 250 units/hectare and up; and you built at minimum of 10 stories - Agricola (between North and the commons) could have about 8,000 people and Quinpool would be about the same. If you pushed it up to 15 stories, about 10,000 and 20 was pushing 15,000. Now this is all rough math - but if both sites brought in 15,000 each; there is 30,000 new shoppers for the downtown core that could walk, bike or take transit to the stores.

Anybody know what's happening with this?

Perhaps it's just doomed to sit in this state forever. It's already been 16 years or so...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/...1ecc8a3c_b.jpg
Source

I think that Councillor Sloane would know the status since it is in her district. Maybe somebody could contact her by email and ask. I would like to know the status also.

A Cat D8 bulldozer could fix that place right up... ;-)

I thought there was a permit through the site planning process of HbD with the greek restaurant involved; that would have residential above this?

This photo is actually of the back side of the Green Lantern building. Anybody know if and when they plan to move forward with a large-scale restoration and the facade improvements on the rear?

I realized I did that after I went to bed. I don't think that project has its own thread though. So it can stay here.

Planning moves forward for NFB site


By JOANN ALBERSTAT

Business Reporter

The redevelopment of the Na­tional Film Board building in downtown Halifax could begin some time in the next six months, says restaurateur and developer Chris Tzaneteas.

Tzaneteas and business part­ner Costa Elles had hoped to begin the project last fall or this spring.

“It really comes down to fi­nancing," Tzaneteas said in an interview Monday. “Once we get the financing in place, then we can move forward."

He and Elles own Opa Greek Taverna and The Argyle Bar & Grill , both on Argyle Street.

Their latest venture is a $13-million development that will include a 55-unit, four­storey apartment complex in the space now occupied by the film board building at 1572 Barring­ton St.

The National Film Board building, formerly the St. Ma­ry’s Young Men’s Total Absti­nence and Benevolent Society Hall, was destroyed by fire in 1991.

The proposed development, which includes 25,000 square feet of retail space, will extend over the top of The Argyle Bar & Grill and around a revamped Opa to the Farquhar Building at the corner of Barrington and Blowers streets.

The Farquhar Building, at 1558 Barrington St., now houses a Venus Pizza & Lebanese Cuisine outlet.

The proposed development was originally estimated to cost $8 million, but that figure has risen because the scope of the project is “a little bit bigger" than expected, Tzaneteas said.

“It’s complicated building in downtown Halifax," he said.

“It’s not as easy as building something up in Clayton Park or Bayers Lake."

The developers have been awarded a $100,000 grant to maintain historic facades under the Halifax by Design municipal planning strategy’s Barrington Street Heritage Conservation District designation. They have also been approved for $600,000 in related tax credits once the development is finished.

Tzaneteas said the developers have met with officials from Halifax Regional Municipality in advance of filing their planning application.

“They were very positive.

There were a couple of items that they needed to look at and give us comments back. We’re currently waiting for their re­marks.

“It wasn’t anything on the design. It was more building code, safety kind of issues."

When the project is ready to begin, construction will start on Barrington Street, not Argyle, he said.

(jalberstat@herald.ca)

So they still don't have approval and also need financing? Is six months realistic?

Good to hear that construction will start on Barrington and that NFB isn't some future phase to be built after other renovations. Replacing the burned-out husk of a building on Barrington will make a dramatic difference to the feel of the street.

ScovaNotian posted this in the Espace thread. The posted link has some slides of the NFB development that should be starting construction soon (based on the story posted by Jonovision on March 15, 2011). In the link the NFB slides are from page 40 - 46.

Great news.

Still a disaster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/demne/6017342797/

This thing should have been knocked down a decade ago. It is a perfect example of decay in the downtown caused by misguided heritage sympathizers.

This type of building is what makes Halifax great!

Not the Vic, not Waterside, not the Paramount, not Armoury Sq., not the Waterton & the list of nots goes on & on & on.

I think these buildings help make Halifax an interesting city but so do Purdy's Wharf, 1801 Hollis, Maritime Centre, the Paramount, Armoury Sq., the Vic, etc., etc. There is no reason why architecture in Halifax should have come to a halt 100 years ago. Much of the architecture from 100 - 200 years ago was wood siding; would that be acceptable in Halifax today?

The architecture of the building is mostly beside the point, which is that it's crazy that this has sat on Barrington in this state for 20 years. I really hope that this gets redeveloped soon because it is a black eye for the city that many visitors see. It makes Halifax look like a dump.

After the first ten years; this building should've been taken down if all it was going to be was held up and made to look this bad.

I wonder what's going on with this? It's been almost a year since the news article announcing that the development should be moving forward. It would be great to see this happen along with the CD Plus redevelopment, but it has been stuck in limbo for years.

Like I mentioned in one of the other threads, the beltline here in Calgary had a bunch of projects announce they were coming off the shelf and then they ran into financing problems.

I suspect this might be the same thing - from what I'm hearing, lenders are now tripple checking things to make sure that loans they guarenteed are worth it (and in some cases making developers start the process all over again). I don't know if the last part is the case out here, but I've heard that happened to a couple developers here in Calgary.

This is global, has been since 2008. International finance markets are weak and lack confidence, making it harder and harder to build...

We aren't talking about a major skyscraper here, this redevelopment could only be a few million bucks.

I bet this is held up by red tape somewhere along the line.

Did you ever watch "Flip This House" back in 2007 or so? Ever wonder why a 25 year old working at Starbucks was able to get a $1 million mortgage with no money down? Then the economy collapsed and that went way.

Things are tighter at all level of risk, not just subprime. My understanding is that these guys are not big time developers, and I suspect that it is just a lot harder for them to get financing now than when they conceived of their plan.

So even for a small development, tighter rules around having leases signed, cash in the bank could slow them down.

That said, Halifax is all over red tape. I don't think the approval process is our problem as much as the post-approval process of getting 18 different HRM departments to sign off on your project.

Yeah I went back and re-read the article from the property owners that started this thread. The had at the time stated that the project would start last fall or at the latest this spring, and at the time the identified that their biggest challenge was securing financing.

Yeah, not surprised about financing, but either way it's unfortunate that this hasn't gotten off the ground.

They had problems for a couple of years because they applied for a federal heritage grant and then the program was cut. After that they went to the city and it took some time for the Barrington heritage district stuff to be sorted out.

Still my view.

According to the allnovascotia.com, the NFB redevelopment will be going ahead. The proposal is for 16 residential units contained within 5 storeys and 3,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor. (source: Caryi Buys More Barrington, allnovascotia.com, Wed, Jan 2nd, 2013 edition).

I think this is great news. I think the NFB building is a great old building and the shell will be restored.

Yeah, it is wonderful news, and it explains some delay in the development. The former owners had plans but I'm not sure they are used to developing properties like this and they seemed to have trouble getting financing. The new owner was behind the Freemasons Building restoration and has experience managing many heritage properties on Barrington. In some ways this might even be easier than a restoration project since it is pretty much a new build.

The streetscape along the west side of Barrington is going to be pretty nice with the new NFB, 1592, and Barrington Espace. I think the new TD building will also have a positive impact on the feel of the street. Aside from the NFB building the only big remaining problem on Barrington is the empty lot at George Street; that probably only still exists at this point because it is government-owned. Hopefully the province will develop it soon. It would also be nice to see restoration work on the Green Lantern Building and the Pacific Building.

While it will be good to have the ugly facade of the NFB used for something, that streetscape will remain unattractive and foreboding until its neighbors are all either knocked down or redeveloped. That is a scar on Barrington that should have been fixed long ago.

Well, the building next door at 1566 has been quite beautifully fixed up, the redevelopment at 1592/Cd Plus is going ahead, and the Tramway building as well seems to be in some intermediate stage of repair. Things actually look pretty good to me—vastly better than a couple of years ago.

And no, neither the Khyber or the building immediately south of it (which could use a good cleaning, to be fair) are going anywhere, so that's just sort of that.