General Updates and News

[sdm]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

"It won’t be happening next year, but it will be happening as soon as they can be there."

The Halifax regional school board is now in the building, located next to the ferry terminal, and has not announced when it intends to move.

[/email])

That's funny, according to industry reports and allnovascotia.com the Schoolboard is moving into a new building under construction in City of Lakes business park by Oct next year. The article states the building is the former blue cross building.

[kph06]

Source: The Chronicle Herald

Building will keep office space

Fri. Nov 13 - 4:46 AM

The former Revenue Canada building on Barrington Street in Halifax has traded hands but will remain office space.

Canada Lands Co. has reached a deal with a Halifax company for the sale of the Sir John Thompson Building.

"The transaction will close at the end of this month and Universal Property Management Ltd. plans to upgrade this facility and it will be maintained as office space," said Gordon McIvor of the Crown corporation.

[kph06]

Source: The Chronicle Herald

Municipality appeals ruling on building

Fri. Nov 13 - 4:46 AM

Halifax Regional Municipality is appealing a ruling from the provincial regulator that gave the go-ahead to an eight-storey institutional building and seniors care facility slated for land just south of the Public Gardens that belongs to the Anglican Church.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board released a decision last month overturning a ruling from one of the city’s development officers. Andrew Faulkner nixed the 150-unit project because the land is zoned for park and institutional use; he said the top four floors would be residential.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

^ Is this decision really worth fighting? Personally I think it's a terrible idea to have the former commons zoned entirely public/institutional in the first place.

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by Halifax Hillbilly

^ Is this decision really worth fighting? Personally I think it's a terrible idea to have the former commons zoned entirely public/institutional in the first place.

Agreed. And this project sounds like it is more or less institutional anyways. I got the impression the residential component was for older folks, sort of like a pro-independence extended care facility. Not unlike the Berkeley.

[spaustin]

It does seem a little strange at first glance. These aren't apartments or condos they're offering. Isn't there a component of "institutional" in long-term care?

[sdm]

Originally Posted by sdm

That's funny, according to industry reports and allnovascotia.com the Schoolboard is moving into a new building under construction in City of Lakes business park by Oct next year. The article states the building is the former blue cross building.

School board moving offices to Burnside for next fall

By PAT LEE Staff Reporter
Fri. Nov 13 - 4:46 AM


Halifax regional school board will move into newly renovated offices in Burnside next fall, says board chairman Irvine Carvery.

The board will occupy offices at 7 Spectacle Lake Dr. in a building owned by Ben McCrea’s Armour Group that was the former home of Blue Cross.

Mr. Carvery said Thursday that the building will need extensive renovations to meet the board’s needs, along with the construction of a 30,000-square-foot addition that will include covered parking.

Board offices are currently housed in the former Dartmouth city hall on Alderney Drive.

The Burnside building will also be large enough to house board staff working in Cole Harbour in the Gordon Bell Building.

"It brings all of our staff together under one roof," Mr. Carvery said, and the board will also have enough meeting room to host professional development functions instead of renting outside space.

"We won’t need to go out and rent World Trade Centres anymore," he said.

The new site will total 73,000 square feet.

He said the renovated building will also have an in-house daycare and cafeteria, both things not found at the current site.

"Staff at the school board deserve new modern facilities because they do very important work for our classrooms," he said.

The board’s lease expires at its current location at the end of September.

This week, Halifax regional council approved a plan for the Dartmouth Heritage Museum Society to move into the waterfront building after the school board moves out.

The society will have to do some fundraising to pay for renovations and to move Dartmouth’s 45,000-artifact collection to the site. The artifacts are now in storage in a Burnside warehouse.

Dartmouth used to have its own museum on Wyse Road, but that building is now demolished.

( [email protected])

[Keith P.]

Ka-ching ka-ching. That space ain't cheap. Hold on to your wallets, because we are getting double-dipped: the added cost of Irv's gold-plated offices, and the likely huge cost of retrofitting Dartmouth City Hall to be a museum, plus of course the ongoing operting cost of such a place, since no museum makes a dime. All from the bottomless bucket of cash known as the HRM taxpayer.

[ZET]

Originally Posted by kph06

Source: The Chronicle Herald

Municipality appeals ruling on building

Fri. Nov 13 - 4:46 AM

Halifax Regional Municipality is appealing a ruling from the provincial regulator that gave the go-ahead to an eight-storey institutional building and seniors care facility slated for land just south of the Public Gardens that belongs to the Anglican Church.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board released a decision last month overturning a ruling from one of the city’s development officers. Andrew Faulkner nixed the 150-unit project because the land is zoned for park and institutional use; he said the top four floors would be residential.

Someone should say it, so I might as well, it will be a tragedy to lose those two beautiful old buildings on Tower Road; nothing wrong with them a little TLC wouldn't take care of. I can't see why all that land is needed. ZET

[Dmajackson]

Originally Posted by terrynorthend

Agreed. And this project sounds like it is more or less institutional anyways. I got the impression the residential component was for older folks, sort of like a pro-independence extended care facility. Not unlike the Berkeley.

Looking at the services in the URB files it is exactly the same as the Berkley services. They vary depending on your level of independance and well to be frank how wealthy you are (the cheapest in the Berkley's around $2'000/month).

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Halifax Hillbilly

^ Is this decision really worth fighting? Personally I think it's a terrible idea to have the former commons zoned entirely public/institutional in the first place.

Seems like one of those silly compromises done for sentimental reasons that has lots of real negative consequences. It doesn't make any sense to concentrate all institutional and public buildings together and there's no real difference between institutional/office/residential, aside from the fact that areas without a good mix and up very dead at certain times.

I'm also wondering, along with others here, why the HRM thinks they'll win this one. Have they ever won an appeal of a NSUARB decision? Do they even have a real case with this - i.e. have they pointed out something that went wrong with the process?

[Empire]

Originally Posted by ZET

Someone should say it, so I might as well, it will be a tragedy to lose those two beautiful old buildings on Tower Road; nothing wrong with them a little TLC wouldn't take care of. I can't see why all that land is needed. ZET

I agree. Those houses reflect a style of architecture that will never be replicated again in Halifax. They add so much more to city than an ugly, cheap Shannex style "home" will. Has anyone seen the new Motherhouse built and operated by the Shannex group? Typical, despicable, Halifax fly under the radar cheap crap.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by ZET

Someone should say it, so I might as well, it will be a tragedy to lose those two beautiful old buildings on Tower Road; nothing wrong with them a little TLC wouldn't take care of. I can't see why all that land is needed. ZET

My first guess would be parking 150 is a lot of units.

Seems like one of those silly compromises done for sentimental reasons that has lots of real negative consequences. It doesn't make any sense to concentrate all institutional and public buildings together and there's no real difference between institutional/office/residential, aside from the fact that areas without a good mix and up very dead at certain times.

Does anyone know how far back this institutional/public rule dates? It may simply be really outdated, and may have made sense when insitutions were smaller scale. Regardless it's produced dead zones like University Avenue which is both a planning and design disaster.

[Dmajackson]

The building under renovations at the corner of Almon and Windsor;



Mosque between Chebucto and North;

[someone123]

Looks like there will be a third Horizon Court highrise in Dartmouth, 19 storeys: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1153137.html

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by someone123

Looks like there will be a third Horizon Court highrise in Dartmouth, 19 storeys: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1153137.html

Hopefully they can do something with the plans so that it is more architecturally appealing than the other two.

[hfx_chris]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

Hopefully they can do something with the plans so that it is more architecturally appealing than the other two.

The newer one I found a bit disappointing, but I still find the older tower looks great.

[Jstaleness]

Does anyone know whats happening at the old Superline on North Barrington. I drove by today and I saw crews there tearing up the pavement. I'm assuming they are tearing out the old tanks? Its small but it would be nice to something other than a close gas station. I can go to Bedford to see those.

[planarchy]

There was a short interview on CBC this evening with a representative from the YMCA where they discussed the redevelopment of the South Park Branch on the current CBC site. A website is now up for the project:

http://www.newhalifaxymca.ca/

A brief summary of the project includes the following:

Total development: 500,000 square feet.
Including:

71,000 square foot YMCA
6,000 square foot public atrium
35,500 square feet of office retail and community space
211 unit residential development
100 room boutique hotel
375 underground parking spaces

More info available on site.

[sdm]

Originally Posted by planarchy

There was a short interview on CBC this evening with a representative from the YMCA where they discussed the redevelopment of the South Park Branch on the current CBC site. A website is now up for the project:

http://www.newhalifaxymca.ca/

A brief summary of the project includes the following:

Total development: 500,000 square feet.
Including:

71,000 square foot YMCA
6,000 square foot public atrium
35,500 square feet of office retail and community space
211 unit residential development
100 room boutique hotel
375 underground parking spaces

More info available on site.

no pic's of the building itself.

They should change the hotel idea to more residential. There is enough rooms in existing, and in the pipeline (1200 to be exact).