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Developers hope to see construction underway this spring

By GLEN PARKER
Sun. Feb 22 - 4:46 AM

Principals in the Mill Island commercial and residential development in Windsor are expecting to resume renovation work on the historic building this spring.

Windsor developer Terry Hines said recently that workers have been hamstrung during the winter. "Our goal is to finish the ground floor and get that full. We plan to start up again in a couple of months."

Mr. Hines said some of the third-floor condos have been sold but the downturn in the economy has become a factor.

"We’ve had a lot of interest in the commercial space," he said. "Right now we’re seeing what comes along and we’ll start back up again."

Mr. Hines’s partner and major Mill Island tenant is Kevin Keefe, owner of Granite Breweries. He acknowledged they were planning on things going a lot more quickly, but echoed his partner’s view that people are "showing quite a bit of interest."

Mr. Keefe said a few prospective tenants are talking about expanding the commercial portion of the building. The original plans were for the third floor to house 16 condominiums; the second floor would be office space and the ground floor commercial and retail space.

Granite Breweries is also changing its Halifax business.

"I’m shutting down the brew pub, taking my equipment and just getting into brewing beer," Mr. Keefe said.

"When I open in the Valley I will have all the mechanism in place to do that plus I can start selling more to pubs in HRM," he said.

"The Mill Island development has been on the back burner. I thought we’d be there by now. We are going to have to get going this summer for sure."

Renovations started in September 2006 on the 125-year old former Nova Scotia Textiles building, close to Highway 101 at Exit 6 in Windsor.

Work has included landscaping, removal of some exterior buildings, extensive interior cleaning and remodelling, and installation of 199 new windows and a new roof.