Maybe they could use it to jack up Citadel Hill 70 feet or so and let us get some taller buildings downtown. :D

The idea of infilling the Citadel might upset some people (me included).

On a related topic, they might find some tunnels running from the Citadel Hill down to George's Island during excavation (apparently this myth has been debunked, but you never know...)

pffft, you and I both know, the HT would complain the the hill would be too high and would ruin the historical view from like the armories or public gardens, or something.

I took this from Dawn Sloane's facebook page.

Helping preserve HMCS Sackville Info and Motion for Council

HMCS Sackville is "the very last Canadian corvette" from the WWII era. There is a ship from the WWII era currently alongside Hamilton. The name is HMCS Haida and it happens to be a Tribal class ship.

The Corvettes served a huge role for our Navy during World War II. They were built quickly and in big numbers. Following construction and based on an urgent need, little time was lost before putting them into service.

Even though the waters of the Atlantic were swarming with U boats, they managed in cooperation with other ships to keep the sea lanes between North America and Britain open so the supplies could get through.

The HMCS Sackville is Canada’s Naval War Memorial. There is a move to preserve Canada’s Last Corvette in an enclosed sea water berth next to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

The Naval Memorial Trust is requesting HRM to help advance the design process by requesting a financial contribution of $100, 000 over two years.
This support would:
Provide a rationale for HRM to be a stakeholder at the table during the design process
Provide a clear signal to all concerned of HRM’s interest in the completion of the public portion of the QLP
Provide a number of benefits in common to all major corporate donors:
Membership of CNMT
Public acknowledgement of investment
Complimentary use of ship for Municipal Events


I am asking for your support to have staff generate a report with viable options for this endeavour to help preserve the Nations Last Corvette.
Examples of aid:
30,000 over 3yrs
45,000 over 2yrs
Full support in the 2011 budget

Just a bullet highlighting funding for the following, from the provincial 2011-12 Capital Plan, page 11 at:

http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/site-fi...lan2011-12.pdf



"CableWharf-Queens Landing project and BioScience building demolition"

Seems consistent with the previous information in that the building would be coming down in 2011.

yes most tenants have now moved into the LSRI bioscience space on Summer (official grand opening will be later this year). Last time I was at a meeting in the Bioscience building on water street (a month ago) there was just a handful of places still occupied, and I think they are in the process of moving.

Just another parking-lot/hole on the waterfront, given that there are absolutely no plans to move this project forward any time soon (according to McCrea).

Does he plan to start getting approvals and so forth or is this going to continue to be in limbo?

What else is required for this to proceed? Federal and municipal funding? It's not even really clear what the scope of this project is at this point.

I am going from memory here, but I have a vague recollection of him saying it would be a while before he would do anything. The context of the article that I remember was him blaming the delays on a lack of government funding for the public portions, which he then cited as more evidence for why he thought the Nova Centre shouldn't go ahead (since it was impacting his projects). I might have the exact details of that wrong, but it was something along those lines.

EDIT: I went back and found an AllNS article from last October in which he says it will be perhaps 10 years before something is built on that site. He did in that particular article state that part of the issue was dealing with 3 levels of government in terms of funding, but it must have been another article I had in my mind where he was fuming about NC getting funding and then being able to build the office/hotel, which was going to impact his ability to do his own ones.

There should be a limit to how many bombed out prime downtown sites you are allowed to hold hostage at one time.

From my understanding the public porition is delayed, and the private is what is proceeding (hotel/office building). I believe through articles in the past the project intends to be submitted through HRM by design in 2011.

The old brick (BioScience) building on this site was supposed to come down this fall. I'm surprised that this wasn't done yet to turn it into parking.

Good to see some "progress" here, hopefully this'll get things moving a bit quicker.

Demolition tender starts waterfront plan
REMO ZACCAGNA
thechronicleherald.ca
January 13, 2012 - 7:18pm

"The first step in the $190-million Queen’s Landing development project on the waterfront is underway.

The Waterfront Development Corp. launched a tender process on Friday for the demolition of the BioNova building at 1721 Lower Water St.

The building was vacated by Innovacorp’s BioScience Enterprise Centre, which moved closer to Dalhousie University last spring. It sits on land that will be part of the $70-million private portion of the Queen’s Landing development on the waterfront between Sackville Landing and Cable Wharf.

..."


http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...aterfront-plan

:previous:

Good! This'll help get the ball rollin.

It'll be quite the day in Halifax to see the entire waterfront developed, as opposed to vacant lots and surface parking.

is there a new web site for this project? The one posted at the begining does not work??

The tender must have been awarded:

http://my-waterfront.ca/cms/wp-conte...e-Feb10-12.pdf

WDCL is closing the "Queen's Landing" parking lot (1707 Lower Water Street)for demolition of the former BioScience building. According to the notice it was closed last night and should remain closed for 6-8 weeks

A fence is going up this afternoon.

Here it is:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7049/6...f3a8d744_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7209/6...21e41715_b.jpg

Is this the building that will be demolished soon?

^
Sure is!

Maybe we'll get lucky and somehow the Law Courts building will also come down.

I hope not, I actually like the Law Courts building. Although it is not very tall, it is a dominating building on the waterfront, as a Law Courts building should be. What is not to like? Here is the Bing Maps link.

They're not a bad building, but I don't like the way they block the continuity running all the way down Duke Street down to the water, unlike the clear view you have down George Street/Carmichael Street

restore the view
 

Maybe we should start a new group to 'Restore The View'. We can tear down all those buildings that have reduced our view of the water.

I think it's nice to have a mix where some streets have water views and others terminate with buildings. I really like how Purdy's Wharf is visible at the end of Bedford Row. It would be great to have a similar view down a couple of other streets.

This discussion reminds me of the cool plans that Breakhouse and some other design/architectural firms created for the Cable Wharf area at the foot of George Street:

http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles...511ecab05a.jpg
Source

In the Cable Wharf case they chose to carefully preserve the view down George and frame it with new buildings. I hope this will not be just another shelved plan because it could add a lot of interest and a modern feel to this important part of the waterfront and would tie in very well with an eventual Queen's Landing development. It includes a couple of modest buildings that should not be overly challenging to get off the ground.

Are there any current renderings of this development?

Also, is Armour going to be able to handle Waterside and this at the same time?

I think I remember him saying that he expected Queen's landing to still be years out, in particular if both Waterside and Nova Centre go up.

That makes sense. On top of Waterside and the Nova Centre, the NSP building freed up space and the TD reno is likely to move forward. I am not very worried about the prospect of waiting a few extra years for Queen's Landing because downtown Halifax is getting too many new buildings!

I wish somebody would try to develop some mid-sized residential buildings in the old downtown core. I guess the Discovery Centre and Alexander more or less fit the bill. United Gulf would have been perfect had it actually been built. It is sad because the lack of residents downtown is a big part of why retail along Barrington isn't very successful, and there's a lot of demand for apartments, but there seems to be some sort of disconnect. High land prices and height restrictions probably have something to do with it.

There was an article tonight about Queen's Landing. The development has been broken down into separate public and private components. One public component, a $50M naval memorial hall that would include permanent space for the HMCS Sackville, is being planned for 4-5 years in the future. New renderings should be released for the private component of the development around the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013.

I'm not sure what the story is for the Cable Wharf area but I read something about an upcoming expansion for Nova Scotia Crystal. I guess that could be a part of a new building for that area. It wouldn't take much work to turn that into a great part of the waterfront -- there are already lots of nice features there to build off of.

Two projects in one shot:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8...8485e89e_b.jpg

Waterfront project still at seaNovember 15, 2012 - 8:09pm By REMO ZACCAGNA Business Reporter Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on linkedinMore Sharing Services
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Demolition of a building to make way for the $190-million Queens Landing development project in Halifax is underway.

But it remains unclear when construction will begin.

Work to bring down the BioNova building at 1721 Lower Water St. began three weeks ago and is expected to be completed by Christmas, said Colin MacLean, president and chief executive officer of the provincial Crown agency Waterfront Development Corp.

The building was vacated by Innovacorp’s BioScience Enterprise Centre, which moved closer to Dalhousie University in the spring of last year. It sits on land that will be part of the $70-million private portion of the Queens Landing development on the waterfront between Sackville Landing and Cable Wharf.

The private component includes 100,000 square feet of new office space, a 200-room, four-star hotel with harbour views from every room, and underground parking. The Crown agency announced in 2010 that they had agreed on a conceptual plan for that portion with Armour Group Ltd.
“They’re currently going through the drawings and assessing the market, but there are no plans to move forward yet,” MacLean said Thursday. “But our responsibility is to make sure that we make the site ready so we can make it successful, and the first step in that is to bring down the building.”

Armour Group representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday.

MacLean said the company is in the midst of an economic feasibility test and, once completed, will determine when construction could begin.

“Which is essentially what’s the market looking like, when the market comes around and the developer can have some predictable revenues that justify the development costs, that’s when we’re going to build.”

The public portions of the project will see HMCS Sackville turned into a permanent naval memorial and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic transformed into a national memorial.

(rzaccagna@herald.ca)

About the Author »
By REMO ZACCAGNA Business Reporter

This morning by me:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8...6b152803_b.jpg

The BioNova demolition can be seen in the webcam - http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/hal...m-wharves.html , which is currently pointed directly at the site. The BioNova building is almost completely gone.

Also shown in the webcam is a good view of the RBC Waterside project.

Cool, The way the camera is angled the skyline appears higher in the left side of the image. Just gives it that big city feel.

Demo is done, they are sorting material now, photo by me:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8221/8...10570188_b.jpg

Landscaping:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8400/8...eccc0f5f_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8104/8...422a6596_b.jpg

The Armour Group is talking to the city. They intend to move forward with this project in 2014. It won't include the public component, which is now Battle of the Atlantic Place, and it'll cost around $60M.

Not sure if they plan to build on both lots to begin with. I think it's good news that the public piece was separated out so that the private component can proceed whether or not government funding happens. I would also guess that we're hearing about this now because Waterside Centre is winding down.

Excellent news. I bet this stuff is all Andy Filmore, now at Waterfront Dev Corp, getting these projects going.

So, just as Halifax gets a nice new boardwalk "market", it's going to be taken down so they can start QL? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Maybe all the huts can move to the Salter lot.

Is there not room for them to stay? I always assumed they would be staying. Most likely they'll spread out to other sections of the water front if they do move.

Are there any renderings for this, I thought I heard this was starting up this year.

Here's a revised rendering of the project's massing:

http://imageshack.com/a/img633/8186/trrWVt.png
Source

Not sure where this is in the approvals process. I like it though; the waterfront should have nooks and crannies, and the walkways under the buildings will restore a bit of the feel that the archways in this area once had. The only downside I see is that the views from the boardwalk to some historic buildings will be lost.

Not sure what's going on with the tall ship on the left in full sail while docked... :???:

Like the rest of the waterfront, it has been Disneyfied for tourists and local rubes. The sails are only a hologram.

Hey, those tourists will be bringing you dollahs. Eventually new hotels will be needed to accommodate those tourists, new bars/entertainment will be needed to entertain these tourists, new shopping centres will be needed to provide these tourists with an enhanced shopping experience, and new infrastructure will be needed to get these tourists moving around.... EVENTUALLY. All of this will create more jobs. Tourism is a powerful industry that can help catalyze the development of many other industries and developments such as food and beverage, retail, entertainment, and better infrastructure.

I agree tourism is important, but don't think Disneyfication is appropriate for a city. Make it a great place to be for its citizens and other folks will want to visit... spend time... spend $$$.

Although, hologram sails might be pretty cool! LOL

Then we need a hologram Captain Jack Sparrow® to accompany! ;)

Sails could be to on a calm day to let them dry. Though they look full of wind in the pic.

Obviously that's the result of the many wind tunnels created by all the new developments downtown that are over 3 stories. :D