Critics compare convention centres
Ottawa’s an inspired work of architecture, Halifax’s an ‘expensive parking garage’
By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Sat, Oct 23 - 4:53 AM / Chronicle Herald
The $159-million convention centre proposed for Halifax.
An artist's drawing of the $180-million convention centre planned for Ottawa.
Ottawa gets a spectacular domed convention centre that is winning raves around the world. Halifax gets a pig in a blanket.
This was the consensus Friday among some observers of the debate over a proposed new convention centre for Halifax. They had their calculators ready to compare dollar values of the $159-million proposal for downtown Halifax and the $180-million Ottawa Convention Centre scheduled to open in April.
"It is time for a serious pause to consider what is being received for the investment," said Christine Macy, dean of the faculty of architecture and planning at Dalhousie University.
Macy said it does not take an architect or an accountant to compare visuals and determine something is amiss.
"Ottawa gets a marvellous structure that brilliantly takes advantage of its place overlooking the canal," she said. "And for almost the same amount of money, Halifax is getting two storeys underground, effectively a very expensive parking garage."
Ottawa’s downtown convention centre is more expensive but provides a lot more space and reflects inspired design, Macy said. She said all of Ottawa is buzzing with excitement over the new complex.
"The Halifax project, at least what we’ve seen of it, is an uninspired sort of office complex of the sort that would have been built in the 1980s," she said.
The most vocal opponent of the concept of a new Halifax convention centre is the Coalition to Save the View. Members of that group complain that the hotel and office towers that developer Rank Inc. would build as part of the convention centre complex would block the view of Halifax Harbour from the entrance to the Citadel National Historic Site.
Macy and others contacted Friday said they have no affiliation with Save the View.
Andrew Smith, an accountant and developer of the Glubes Loft Townhouses, a condominium complex on Cornwallis Street, said he has a background in property taxation. By his calculation, the convention centre would cost more than $1,000 per square foot to build. He said he arrived at this number by dividing the $159-million cost by the 115,000 square feet of usable space.
"This is like paying more than $1 million for a 1,200-square-foot bungalow," Smith said. "This does not make sense."
John Wesley Chisholm, a filmmaker and entrepreneur with a finance degree from Dalhousie, said number-crunching raises questions about the value of the convention centre.
"We’ve not seen the sort of five-year projections on revenue and expenses that any business would be required to provide before borrowing," he said.
Chisholm questioned why the project is advancing without public consultation.
Rank Inc. has not participated publicly in the debate over the convention centre.
Premier Darrell Dexter announced on Oct. 13 that the province would cover its share of the cost. Halifax Regional Municipality is now conducting its own assessment, and the proposal still must win support from the federal government.
CBC News reported recently that the Ottawa convention centre has already booked more than 80 major international and national conventions for the next three years. Some are predicted to bring as many as 6,000 delegates to the national capital.
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