General Updates and News

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by JC1994

I've been waiting for Silver Dragon to go along with the tire shop nextdoor.

Me as well.

And, aren't the ugly vinyl buildings down the street also up for demo?

New era coming for this area... anything would be a massive upgrade at those corners.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Meh. Looks like a natural progression for this area, as things have been going. To me this looks like the most obvious stretch in the city to run LRT someday, if that ever happens here.

I wonder if new residential starts are going to hit a (figurative) brick wall as demand levels off, or if it will keep going, as suggested in the article I posted recently. Time will tell, but I hope it doesn’t end up as another empty lot.

[someone123]

I'm sure there will be construction and financing cycles, but there's a lot of fundamental demand from years of underbuilding and population growth, and population growth is likely to continue in the long run. There was a lot of news coverage of the drop-off in immigration, and population growth did slow, but the year up to 2025 in Halifax would still have been above average in the 2015-2020 period.

It makes sense to develop these corridors and they'll be better locations for mixed-use buildings rather than houses on busy streets with reduced lots. It can be sad to be uprooted and move, but this has been planned for a long time and hopefully it's win-win for a lot of residents. Generally speaking, upzoning and adding transit will increase property values. Sometimes tenants do get screwed, and NS should look at better tenant protections since rents are so much higher now. In some places you get a payout as a long-term tenant if your apartment will be redeveloped, and I think that's fair.

[Insigne]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

It makes sense that both property owners would want to cash in at this point. The other spot nearby that one would think would be in play would be what's left of the former Eastlink property further along Bilby and the large empty parking lot adjacent to it.

I suspect this will be Bragg development as they own the building behind it on Bilby, the brick building on the corner of Agricola and I wouldn't be surprised if they owned all the properties between them. The Scotia Tire property was sold in 2021.

[someone123]

Maybe this has already been posted but WM Fares has a few new renderings (new to me at least):

https://www.wmfaresarchitects.com/kentstreet
https://www.wmfaresarchitects.com/mu-8-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1dewinds (Fenwick)
https://www.wmfaresarchitects.com/youngdemone

It's hard to tell exactly what the sites are since the backgrounds look AI generated. I think Kent Street is for the land being cleared just above Barrington, but doesn't include the corner. It's nice to see some better looking projects going in around this area. It was always a strange mix of slightly run-down places and nicer new builds plus some great heritage houses. Maybe these will tip the scales.

[Dmajackson]

Originally Posted by someone123

Maybe this has already been posted but WM Fares has a few new renderings (new to me at least):

https://www.wmfaresarchitects.com/kentstreet
https://www.wmfaresarchitects.com/mu-8-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1dewinds (Fenwick)
https://www.wmfaresarchitects.com/youngdemone

It's hard to tell exactly what the sites are since the backgrounds look AI generated. I think Kent Street is for the land being cleared just above Barrington, but doesn't include the corner. It's nice to see some better looking projects going in around this area. It was always a strange mix of slightly run-down places and nicer new builds plus some great heritage houses. Maybe these will tip the scales.

I've managed to identify them. A trick is to click on them to see all of the renderings, and find the one from the front side which they put the civic address on.

So Kent Street is civic #5222 which is exactly where you mentioned. Fenwick is civic #5645 which puts it as replacing the row of houses between The Vuze and the former Worker's Comp Offices. Young + Demone is civic #5833 which is on Demone Street and is the gravel lot formerly home of The Lions Head Tavern.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

So Kent Street is civic #5222 which is exactly where you mentioned. Fenwick is civic #5645 which puts it as replacing the row of houses between The Vuze and the former Worker's Comp Offices. Young + Demone is civic #5833 which is on Demone Street and is the gravel lot formerly home of The Lions Head Tavern.

Interesting, thanks. These all seem like good developments, although I wish more parking lots around Fenwick would be developed instead of houses and small apartment buildings.

[connect2source]

"Westin" sign also being installed on the east facing side of the Westin Nova Scotian, should look nice from Dartmouth, always questioned why there wasn't a harbour facing sign in the past.
Photo By Me :
August 22 2026

[kwoldtimer]

Apologies if there is a thread somewhere for this, but what's the plan for the old central library? I wandered by on a visit this week and thought it looked like a fine building.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Apologies if there is a thread somewhere for this, but what's the plan for the old central library? I wandered by on a visit this week and thought it looked like a fine building.

After a decade or so of vacancy, HRM the Good still has no plan.

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

I'd like to see the library facade re-utilized/fashioned into a standalone monument as a central feature of city central square type park atop a covered transit turn-around terminal servicing a pedestrian-only Spring Garden Road and area.

SGR Square by A.J. Forsythe, on Flickr

[Antigonish]

Weren't there remains from unmarked graves found on that site? Also consider the building probably has asbestos insulation and I can't see the building repurposed or a new building built on the site without 1000 red-tape drawbacks.

Maybe a transit loop/transfer spot is the best option for that site.

[connect2source]

Several houses along Inglis, between Robie and Wellington, are boarding up and awaiting demo.
August 23 2026
Photo By Me :

[someone123]

That stretch of Inglis is kind of funny. It appears to be newer housing than some of the blocks past Robie. It seems like an area where more density makes sense.

The library is one of many stalled situations related more to municipal political roadblocks than anything else. It's a memorial to WW2 and it's built on a graveyard, so it's not necessarily suitable to sell off as surplus, but the city is in a kind of forever financial crisis mode (where they fritter away money but won't spend on anything substantial).

[ArchAficionado]

There is already the row of apartments that face the park on wellington st, and this is the busier block of inglis with the bus stops for the smu commuting students and the university on the other side, with the park in behind the houses. Of anywhere in the deep south end, this is one of the most sensible places for gentle density in my opinion (4-5 story midrise apartments with townhouse duplex units on the streetfront/facing the park, e.g.)

[worldlyhaligonian]

Question for the forum: is sewage infrastructure a problem in HRM? I keep seeing all these accounts spamming 'what about the sewage infrastructure' on the HFX Developments FB page in reference to developments (along with 'who can afford this').

Is sewage a real issue in the core?

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

Question for the forum: is sewage infrastructure a problem in HRM? I keep seeing all these accounts spamming 'what about the sewage infrastructure' on the HFX Developments FB page in reference to developments (along with 'who can afford this').

Is sewage a real issue in the core?

Halifax water thinks so. The leadership has been publicly calling for a huge infusion of Capital for decades as they trot out that Halifax's ancient ( in North American terms) pipes are ready to go at any time. Most other water services fix things as the problems burst.

I think the organization feels somewhat entitled after the success of the 386 Million dollar water and sewage project to divert waters from the harbour years ago.I do not recall how much of that was Fed or Provincial funds.The next big ticket for them is a new HQ for MANY millions.

[IanWatson]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

Question for the forum: is sewage infrastructure a problem in HRM? I keep seeing all these accounts spamming 'what about the sewage infrastructure' on the HFX Developments FB page in reference to developments (along with 'who can afford this').

Is sewage a real issue in the core?

Depends on where in the city. Generally, there’s no overall capacity issue, but there are localized capacity issues. E.g. development of the Young Street area has been held up by servicing capacity issues.

Also, any servicing problems are little-p problems, not Problems. HRM considers servicing as part of approvals and sometimes upgrades need to be made, but it’s not like the commenters are highlighting some big roadblock to development like they think they are.

[Keith P.]

The other thing that can make a sewer upgrading into a "Big P Problem" (I like that term!) is Halifax Water itself. You would think they would be able to handle replacing/adding pipes in the ground since that is mostly what they do, but their ineptitude and slow-moving bureaucracy often seems to take center stage and make a little problem into a Problem.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Halifax Water is perplexing. It’s almost like they have appointed themselves as being stewards of the environment, existing for the purpose of punishing regular citizens for the evils of using water.

It seemed to ramp up a few years ago, with their insisting on installing “smart meters” in your house that report back to HW 24/7, and charging you $50 per billing period if you choose not to participate in that system. Big Brother has to know who is using how much water and when so they know who to punish if we have a dry spell and they put restrictions on usage. I can’t say how much my water bill has increased over the past 10 years, but I would suggest that it has almost doubled, with the same or less water usage.

Meanwhile, the customer connect system that nobody asked for was hacked and customer data leaked, twice in two years their purification system went down and the backup system didn’t kick in (and apparently there was nobody onsite capable of dealing with it), so much of the city had to go on a boil order for a couple of days. There were a couple of times when water in my neighbourhood was shut off out if the blue for planned maintenance with the only notification on their website, like anybody checks that every day. They used to send out notices weeks in advance to customers, so they could plan ahead, but instead have put the responsibility on the customer to read through every water repair that’s happening in the city to find out if they will lose their water service sometime in the future.

Their attitude feels like we need to thank them for the privilege of using their water rather than HW being a taxpayer/customer funded organization that exists to provide an essential service for the citizens of the city. It seems like they have been following along with NS Power and got a copy of their playbook to use for themselves…