Office, residential space planned for Herald lands
By BILL POWER Staff Reporter
Thu. Mar 27 - 5:33 AM
City officials are discussing possible sites for a new trade and convention centre in downtown Halifax. (Peter Parsons / Staff)
At least one prime potential site for a new convention centre in downtown Halifax is about to be redeveloped into office, retail and living space.
The group that owns The Chronicle Herald site, one of the larger and more obvious locations for such an ambitious project in the central business district, expects to file an application for a development agreement for a major project on the two-acre property within weeks, spokesman Joe Ramia said Wednesday.
"We are proceeding with our plans for the property and this involves the application for a development agreement, since we are looking at something in excess of 40 feet," said Mr. Ramia, a principal with Argyle Developments Inc.
He said the necessary paperwork should be filed at city hall in about two weeks.
"I cannot divulge specifics other than to say we are planning a significant mixed commercial and residential development for this site," he said.
The Chronicle Herald site figured prominently in talks Tuesday on a possible new trade and convention centre for the heart of Halifax.
Mr. Ramia said he will investigate fully the proposal for a new convention centre, but said it is premature to speculate on any potential involvement in such a project by his group.
A new convention centre suggested by both Premier Rodney MacDonald and Mayor Peter Kelly would be about 150,000 square feet, or about three times larger than the existing convention, centre built in 1984.
The Herald property, a waterfront site and a possible redevelopment of the Cogswell interchange were on the list of possible convention centre locations that emerged Tuesday.
Scott Ferguson, executive vice-president for Trade Centre Ltd., said Wednesday that significant activity in the industry in major Canadian centres like Vancouver and Ottawa has raised the bar for the future of the entire convention industry.
"Ottawa has just announced a new 200,000-square-foot convention centre to open in about two years, while Vancouver is in the midst of a 400,000-square-foot redevelopment of its convention space. Toronto has three big centres, each approaching about a million square feet," he said.
He said it is difficult to bid on conventions of more than 1,000 participants for the 50,000-square-foot convention centre in Halifax that is connected to the Metro Centre.
Many people in the Halifax development community will closely watch what unfolds with the convention centre in the coming weeks, even if they don’t build the complex, said Ralph Medjuck, chairman and CEO of Centennial Group Properties.
"Convention centres are rarely profitable in and of themselves, so there will be many questions to be asked about the level of government involvement and also about the location and magnitude of this project," he said.
Bob Mussett, senior vice-president and senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis Ltd., a commercial real estate broker, said restraint should be the operative word when it comes to talk about replacing the existing centre.
"I think an annex that would allow the existing operation to attract bigger conventions makes sense, rather than building something entirely new," he said.
The province owns the World Trade and Convention Centre and operates it through Trade Centre Ltd. Halifax Regional Municipality makes annual contributions toward operating costs.
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