Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
There are at least 2 probable futures for that area. One is the future where a decent number of key heritage buildings are preserved and the newer developments themselves have more character, and it becomes one of the best neighbourhoods in Canada. The other is where the character is mostly erased and it becomes a watered down version of what gets built in most North American brownfield areas.
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I agree that in an ideal scenario some developer would buy this building along with its neighbor on the corner, knock down the adjacent nondescript buildings on Robie as far as Willow, and propose a new apartment building on the bulk of the lot, with the pair of North St buildings incorporated into the design as townhouse units or whatever with fully restored street level finishes.
The problem is that this is one of the busiest corners in Halifax, being the intersection of the main N/S and E/W routes. Would anyone want to pay big money to live 10 feet away from all that traffic at street level? I suspect they would be a very hard sell. Perhaps the economics of the rest of the proposal would need to be able to carry them as a loss leader, but I wonder if any developer, even the most enlightened, would be willing to do that. In the end you end up with what could be a couple of jewels next to a very ugly and unfriendly Bell Aliaint facility, with a gas station and a used car lot across the street, and some of the worst traffic in town. It just doesn't seem practical.