[Beechville] Exhibition Park Developments

[Musquodoboit County]

Does anyone know why this area hasn't been developed much? It's close to the peninsula, much closer than west Bedford, and the proposed "parks of lake Charles" and it's a stone throw from shopping, new Bayer's Lake hospital, schools etc.

[Spitfire75]

I read somewhere they want to finish Burnside phase 13 and 14 first before starting expanding the industrial park in Ragged Lake.




I also found this in a regional plan review document:

In response to the June 5, 2018 motion of Regional
Council, 13 HRM Corporate Real Estate and Planning &
Development have begun background studies for the
Ragged Lake Industrial Park. Upon completion of these
studies, staff will return to Council for formal initiation of the
secondary planning process.
• As part of this review:
- Redesignate the lands proposed to be developed for
industrial uses before 2031 as Urban Settlement;
- Redesignate the lands proposed to be developed for
industrial uses beyond 2031 as Urban Reserve;
- Apply the Business/ Industrial sub-designation to all
lands envisioned for long-term industrial development.

[Musquodoboit County]

Ok so basically the ragged Lake area will likely be for when Burnside has maximize its foot print and can't expand further. Basically ragged Lake will be the overflow of Burnside. That seems to be a long ways away. Burnside has a lot more room to grow now. It's a shame that Prospect Rd near ragged Lake wasn't designated for residential because of access to the long Lake provincial park.
Btw what an opportunity for the city to build around a "provincial park". The cost of that park would not come from the municipality but instead from the province.

[gohaligo]

I think Banc Properties purchased The Exhibition Park site (10000 acres?) from the province in the 2015/16 time period. The agreement I believe prevents Banc from developing the site for 8 years. This expires soon. Banc has done a layout for phase 1. Banc also plopped a Tims and a gas station on the site. Details are posted on here somewhere but I can't find it.

I think one major issue is that it's outside the serviced boundary. The city seems to want to develop along 100 series highways (101, 102, 103, 111 and 107)

[Keith P.]

This dropped today. I think this is a paywalled link:

https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada...alifaxs-exhibition-park-lands-100952796/

A snippet from the story:

HALIFAX, N.S. — A Halifax developer wants to build about 5,000 housing units in Halifax’s Exhibition Park lands.

In November 2015, the province sold the 44-hectare Exhibition Park lands to Banc Group Inc. The negotiated price was listed at $2.5 million, with the understanding Banc Properties will assume costs of any renovations, estimated to be $3 million.

Fathom Studio, on behalf of Banc, recently applied to HRM for this major housing development.

“I am concerned about the increase in proposed units, which has been creeping steadily upward,” said Coun. Patty Cuttell (Spryfield - Sambro Loop - Prospect Road).

In 2021, the developer was looking at 1,844 units — a mix of semi-detached, townhomes and multi-unit buildings. At that time, in a letter to HRM, a representative at Fathom said it’s an ideal site for future development.

“The intent is to keep the Exhibition Park building while starting to develop the surrounding lands. Eventually, the plan needs to consider the removal of the existing building, though that is not part of the current short or medium term plans,” wrote Rob LeBlanc, a senior planner with Fathom in the 2021 letter.

That proposal has grown to more than 5,000 units, and now the development will be larger than what is proposed for Port Wallace in Dartmouth (up to 4,900 units), Cuttell said.

There is not a lot of publicly available documentation on the development application yet. Cuttell introduced a notice of motion at Halifax regional council last week that there will be a request to initiate public participation on this development.

She said that once council approves the request for public consultation, more information on the development will be posted on the municipality’s website.

She said there will be a comprehensive neighbourhood planning process which will involve public engagement and detailed reviews of technical studies and plans.

[Musquodoboit County]

I've always thought that this area would be THE best spot for major development. It has it all! 100 series highways, Bayer lake, and long Lake provincial park,

[OldDartmouthMark]

I'm guessing that there is no longer much need for facilities like Exhibition Park? I suppose younger generations don't tend to be drawn to events like craft shows, etc.?

I agree that it seems like a good place to pack 'em in, though. We need housing more than anything now, although I have to say that I would much rather see height increases for the buildings yet to be built on the peninsula and DT Dartmouth area before expanding housing on the outskirts of the city.

I suppose both would be the best case scenario, until vacancy rates start to rise to reasonable levels again, at least (with the associated price drops).

[Keith P.]

Most of what Exhibition Park could be used for could easily be accommodated in other facilities if we had any - places like the Forum, the Sportsplex in Dartmouth and the 4-pads - but those have largely been sacrificed in worship to the hockey gods. Ex Park is painfully basic, a classic example of 1970s NS govt penny-pinching when new, with very few amenities and prior to its sale, virtually zero maintenance or improvements over the years. I don't know if it has anything substantive done to it since it was sold. There may be a need for another space like that - I don't know - but that place is well past its best-before date.

[alps]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Most of what Exhibition Park could be used for could easily be accommodated in other facilities if we had any - places like the Forum, the Sportsplex in Dartmouth and the 4-pads - but those have largely been sacrificed in worship to the hockey gods. Ex Park is painfully basic, a classic example of 1970s NS govt penny-pinching when new, with very few amenities and prior to its sale, virtually zero maintenance or improvements over the years. I don't know if it has anything substantive done to it since it was sold. There may be a need for another space like that - I don't know - but that place is well past its best-before date.

Do you know about the history of that place? Was it originally built by the province?

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Ex Park is painfully basic, a classic example of 1970s NS govt penny-pinching when new, with very few amenities and prior to its sale, virtually zero maintenance or improvements over the years. I don't know if it has anything substantive done to it since it was sold. There may be a need for another space like that - I don't know - but that place is well past its best-before date.

Honestly, it was crap from the day it was built.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by alps

Do you know about the history of that place? Was it originally built by the province?

That is my recollection. Certainly they owned it for a very long time.

[OldDartmouthMark]

I've attended events there many times, and can say that it was functional, but not a thing of beauty. It wouldn't be hard to sell me on the idea of a low-bid government contract, but I can't recall the details even though I do vaguely remember when it was built.

There was even an automobile race track on site a couple of decades ago, but it was gone before I got around to attending any races. Info: https://www.canadianracer.com/track-display.asp?trackid=mpds&querytype=detail&extra=history

My only question is, with this being demolished, and the Halifax Forum being put out of commission for a gutting and rebuild, will these activities grind to a halt, or just move further out from the city?

[Keith P.]

More today from the Chronicle Herald and their excellent reporter Jen Taplin. I believe this is a paywalled link:

https://www.saltwire.com/halifax/news/ex...ut-group-concerned-about-park-100953632/

Of course the usual suspects like Mr. Williston are already popping out of their hidey-holes.

Pictures of the renderings and some story snippets:

GOODWOOD, N.S. — Nestled up to Long Lake Provincial Park, nearly 6,000 housing units will go tall instead of spreading out.

Rob LeBlanc is the partner and founder of Fathom Studios which is designing a new neighbourhood on the 44-hectare Exhibition Park lands in Goodwood for owner Banc Group Inc. In an interview, he said the 5,000-housing-unit estimate, reported earlier this week by The Chronicle Herald, is actually 5,867 with about 45,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

“It’s an area that could be a gateway into (Long Lake Provincial Park) with a bunch of entries into that big provincial park. We’re only roughly about two kilometres from Bayers Lake so it’s close to shopping, services and retail and recreation,” LeBlanc said.

The two tallest buildings are 18 storeys high, but most of them are eight storeys and some are 14 with street walls and stepbacks to minimize shade and create building articulation so they don’t look like Lego blocks, he said. There are no single-family homes in the project, rather multi-unit buildings, townhomes and stacked townhomes.

Of course, they might not get what they want. The application with HRM was recently filed and after a vote to proceed from council, it will go into negotiation and public consultation.

“The development itself is imagined as an urban village, surrounded by provincial park land. It’s got a large urban park in the centre of it that’s kind of the village square for the development.”

This has Martin Willison worried. He’s a retired biology and environmental studies professor who lives close to Long Lake Provincial Park and is involved in the leadership of the Long Lake Provincial Park Association.

“We’re not aware of all the details but we’ve seen a proposal and it has apartment buildings lined up right against the edge of the park which will result in a very intense usage,” he said.

He’s concerned about fire risk after the situation last spring, as well as overuse of the park leading to contamination of the lake with blue-green algae.

And there was a long-term plan to have a parking lot and main entrance where the development is going now, Willison said.

“Where now will be the main entrance to Long Lake Provincial Park in the future and where will be the parking for this main entrance?”

LeBlance said they’ve done a wetland delineation study and more than 17 acres of the 100-plus acres on the property have been preserved for conservation.

There is more detail found in the story which I will not include here.

[Dmajackson]

This is going before Regional Council next week for initiation.

Exhibition Park Initiation Report

I'll rename the thread to match the standard for this type of development.

[AnotherNorthender]

Very preliminary, but seems like a lot of surface parking. Great spot for density with its location being pretty close to downtown and bayers lake.

[MeEtc]

Banc wants to spend a ton of money to develop this land, meanwhile they don't have the cash available to demolish and redevelop Bloomfield? sounds pretty suspect to me.

[Musicman Halifax]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

I'm guessing that there is no longer much need for facilities like Exhibition Park? I suppose younger generations don't tend to be drawn to events like craft shows, etc.?

I agree that it seems like a good place to pack 'em in, though. We need housing more than anything now, although I have to say that I would much rather see height increases for the buildings yet to be built on the peninsula and DT Dartmouth area before expanding housing on the outskirts of the city.

I suppose both would be the best case scenario, until vacancy rates start to rise to reasonable levels again, at least (with the associated price drops).

Actually ex-park is heavily used. It hosts events that cannot be hosted at other venues in HRM. It will be missed by many event conveners.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Musicman Halifax

Actually ex-park is heavily used. It hosts events that cannot be hosted at other venues in HRM. It will be missed by many event conveners.

I can corroborate that statement. Most yearly trade shows that exhibit in Halifax such as the boatshow, seascapes lifestyle, Home hardware and the ABDSA show have exhibited at both the exhibition grounds and the Convention center downtown. The exhibition center is FAR easier to navigate for set up, parking, Customer access and convenience. For a large section of Atlantic Canada's population the further from Downtown the better.

The running joke for the Home Hardware show was asking the store owners how many two fours it took to get their rural customer base to hop on their chartered Buses to travel to "The City".

[alps]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

That is my recollection. Certainly they owned it for a very long time.

I dug into it a bit. Apparently it opened in 1984 for the Atlantic Winter Fair, which is surprising as it looks a lot older.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by alps

I dug into it a bit. Apparently it opened in 1984 for the Atlantic Winter Fair, which is surprising as it looks a lot older.

Province of N.S. building, so zero maintenance and not built well to begin with. Just look at the aerial shot of the place. It already looks like a demolition site.