From todays Herald:
Discover Dartmouth?
Kids’ science centre in Halifax touted as new feature for Alderney Landing
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
The head of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commis sion is trying to lure the Dis covery Centre from Barrington Street to Alderney Landing.
But the executive director of Alderney Landing says even though it would be nice to have the children’s science facility on the Dartmouth waterfront, it wouldn’t fit in the cultural centre.
“The Alderney Landing oper ation is a weekend, evening kind of location for cultural en tertainment — major shows outside and major shows in side," the commission’s Tim Olive said Friday.
“During the days, generally speaking, the building is way underutilized. The Discovery Centre, on the other hand, if they were in there, they would assume management of the en tertainment facility, so we would not lose that in Dart mouth. But what we would gain is a daily, seven-day-a-week Discovery Centre that would encourage and invite people . . . to visit what would then be a new and enlarged science cen tre."
Alderney Landing would re tain its entertainment facili ties, Mr. Olive said.
But “there are things that would not stay there," he said. “For example, we have a build ing that’s owned by the tax payers that have subsidized leases . . . in a cultural centre competing with businesses in the downtown core."
There is a restaurant, a deli, a liquor store and other businesses operating in Alderney Landing, Mr. Olive said.
“It makes sense, if that’s what they have to do to make the place run," he said. “To operate the cultural side of it, then they had to do that. The question you have to ask your self is, though, how do we better utilize the building for its original purpose?"
But Bea MacGregor, execu tive director of Alderney Land ing, argues there’s no room at the facility for the Discovery Centre.
“We need more space, not to chop up what we currently have," Ms. MacGregor said. “Basically we’re at maximum capacity. We do have some downtime in January and that’s really about it."
Alderney Landing hosts 400 events a year that attract about 300,000 annually to downtown Dar tmouth, she said.
“It would be completely inaccurate to say that our board is not supportive of having the Discovery Centre on the Dart mouth waterfront," Ms. Mac Gre gor said.
But it wouldn’t fit in Alderney Landing, she said.
“We don’t have enough square footage," Ms. MacGre gor said. “I do not see how this is in the best interest of the tax payers or the community or the downtown to just throw out ev erything that Alder ney Land ing does because Tim Olive thinks it’s a good idea."
But Mr. Olive said it’s up to the city, which owns the facility, not Alderney Landing, to de cide what occupies the build ing.
“HRM makes that decision, not the board of Alderney Land ing," he said.
The city might even be will ing to sell Alderney Landing to the Discovery Centre, Mr. Olive said.
That “would substantially improve (the Discovery Cen tre’s) chance of capital fund raising, plus it would give them a chance to expand that build ing — to really rebuild it to their specifications," he said.
“Dan English, the CAO, has made it very clear that his door is wide open for a proposal from the Discovery Centre. The issue where we became involved was the Discovery Centre wanted all sorts of information on the building, space, costs, the ser vice costs and everything else, and they weren’t getting that information from Alderney Landing."
The Discovery Centre has not approached the city with a plan to move into Alderney Landing, said Shaune MacKinlay, a spokeswoman for the munici pality.
“We’ve asked them for a proposal and there’s been no pro posal forthcoming from them," Ms. MacKinlay said.
It is, however, on the science centre’s radar.
“Alderney Landing is one of our options," said Jill Wagner, the Discovery Centre’s director of business development.
“We’re looking at several lo cations including where we are now. . . . Our current location is still on the table."
The non-profit centre, which attracts more than 80,000 vis itors a year to its present loca tion at Barrington and Sack ville streets, is also looking at Dartmouth Crossing and Nova Scotia Power’s new offices on Lower Water Street, she said.
The three-floor science cen tre now occupies about 2,323 square metres.
Ms. Wagner said the centre could use another 900 to 1,400 square metres of space. The fa cility also needs more parking, she said.
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I like the idea of it moving to the Dartmouth waterfront. But taking over all of Alderney Landing is a bit much. That building is already very diverse and well used all year round between the festivals and the plays and the concerts and the market. It would be ashame to just oust all of those uses for the Discovery Centre.
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