Development Rumours

[Halifax Hillbilly]

I think if you look at what has been built in this city it's clear that the desire for height is driving up the price of land in some cases. Buildings like the Sheraton Four Points and Salter's Gate are both under viewplanes. You have the certainty of knowing you can build to x height. Since high rises aren't even a remote possiblility in these places the land isn't worth as much and a four storey building becomes economical.

There are a number of buldings (Salter's Gate, Bishop's Landing, Sheraton Four Points, W suites, the heritage rip-off on Brunswick) which suggest that it's economical to develop low rise in downtown Halifax if developers don't break the bank on land expecting to put up a high rise. If HRMbyDesigns height restrictions come into place some developers will lose money because they invested in land expecting to build a building they now can't. Density transfers might be a way out of that problem, we'll see what HRMbyDesign comes up with.

There should have been no uncertainty in the Midtown case. The fact that project got approved was ridiculous. Council approved the project despite the fact that it obviously did not conform to the MPS. In the case of the Brewery Tower they were again attempting to build something the MPS just did not allow. I don't see why they were so shocked when council stalled the project.

I get the impression United Gulf was very confident they would make it through council and the URB. Council rubber stamped the development agreement after selling the TexPark site and I don't think Heritage Trust had a snowball's hope in hell of winning that case. The MPS may be vague and criptic but United Gulf was smart enough to find a spot they could build a tower and went ahead and did it.