From:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/45479-spatz-sees-hole-heart-halifax
Spatz sees a hole in the heart of Halifax
December 22, 2011 - 6:54pm BY CHRIS LAMBIE BUSINESS EDITOR
Halifax developer Jim Spatz wants to fill the hole at the centre of the city he calls a doughnut.
The CEO of Southwest Properties Ltd. said human density on the peninsula has dropped drastically over the past 50 years.
“We’ve developed like a doughnut as a city; we’ve got a hollow centre and all the growth is happening on the outside,” Spatz said Thursday.
“We’ve got people getting on highways, getting frustrated by traffic and burning gas. We’re a very non-green city that way.”
The office market downtown is almost as bad as it was in 1990, “when the real estate world imploded,” he said.
“The downtown is ceasing to become a desirable place to have your office. The first reason it’s weak is because there’s no density downtown.”
There are some good bars and restaurants at the city’s core, he said.
“But it’s not at all vibrant and it’s a big mistake as a city to think that won’t hurt us in a lot of ways.”
He shakes his head over the recent uproar from community groups over the city selling the former St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School property to Jono Developments Ltd. That company, headed by Joe Metlege, has proposed a mix of residential, affordable housing and community space for the former school site.
“The people in that neighbourhood have to understand that it will improve their neighbourhood if they find a way to welcome lots of new neighbours in,” Spatz said.
“It will improve the services and the amenities and everything around them.”
Opponents have labelled the school sale as gentrification. That label rankles Spatz.
“What is better than a neighbourhood that’s mixed and diverse?” he said.
“And I don’t just mean young and old. I don’t just mean racial diversification. Socio-economic diversification’s a good thing. It’s not a good thing for a city to have some areas that are poor and others that are extremely wealthy.”
Spatz has a massive project of his own on his plate. He’s hoping to start construction in 2014 on the Rockingham property where the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse once stood.
The 10-year, $500-million project is slated to include various kinds of residential options, from single-family dwellings to townhouses, apartments and condominiums. Five per cent of those will be dedicated as low-income housing. About 4,000 people are expected to live there once the project’s completed.
“It’s a piece of land that was land-banked by virtue of its ownership by an order of nuns starting in the 1800s,” Spatz said.
“It’s right in the city, a kilometre from the peninsula, so you’re not far from the heart of things there.”
Southwest was already negotiating with the Sisters of Charity for the 25-hectare property long before the federal government announced this fall that it is handing $25-billion worth of work to Irving Shipbuilding. That means Irving’s Halifax Shipyard will be buzzing over the next three decades.
“It just makes the story a little better for us, too, for sure,” Spatz said.
“You’re on four-lane highway all the way to the shipyard and the shipyard is just under five kilometres from our site — those are all good things.”
Southwest is also working on a green apartment building in the city’s south end that should be ready for tenants in about five months.
“We are starting to get inquiries, which is very cool,” Spatz said of the $15-million Grainery Lofts, a 113-unit, six-storey project on South Bland Street.
He fears Irving’s massive shipbuilding contract will drive up prices in Nova Scotia, including construction costs. He refers to the phenomenon as the Norway effect.
“In Norway, when they discovered and started to develop North Sea oil, they were short on manpower for this big boom so a lot of people just migrated to that industry because the wages were so much higher,” Spatz said.
“It sort of forced sectors of their economy out of business. So we need to be careful in Nova Scotia with regard to making sure that we take this amazing opportunity and meet it the right way.”
That includes training unemployed people with skills needed by the shipbuilding industry, he said.
Spatz points to Newfoundland, where unemployment still sits at 13 per cent despite the fact companies trying to build refineries, mines and oil platforms can’t find people to do the work.
“They need to start training right away” in Nova Scotia to avoid the same fate, he said.
Unemployed Nova Scotians “and groups in our society that have had endemic unemployment for generations” should be targeted with training and education specific to shipbuilding, Spatz said.
“By 2050, almost all of the people of the world will live in cities. That’s going to happen in Nova Scotia,” he said.
“If they need to move to Halifax if they’re unemployed, give them training and give them good jobs. Most will come. You can’t force people. You’re not going to put them in handcuffs and take them to the community college and then get the RCMP to take them to work at the shipyards every day. That’s not going to happen. But most people will come.”
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