Halifax's booming population puts a squeeze on performance venues

[Keith P.]

Yes, it was a herculean effort that apparently has cost $950 million USD to date and of course is not completely done yet as many of the areas just have bare floors and remain unfinished. The restoration work to repair/replace most of the architectural features that were destroyed or stolen by local vandals/scavengers took a big chunk of that sum. It is a shame that the City of Detroit was in such dire financial straits over the decades that they just allowed that to happen. But the city in those years was an awful place to be.

One thing that concerns me here is that it seems it could easily return to being largely unused unless tenants embrace the location, which is very much an open question. The former wasteland around it has been cleaned up and made into parkland but that is a very large building sitting pretty much alone that needs lots of people working in it to be viable. That part of Detroit in general and nearby Michigan Ave. in particular is pretty barren at present. I know Ford stated early on that they would move their EV unit into it but I have to think it would need more than that.