[Halifax] Barrington Espace | ? m | 5 fl | Completed

[kph06]

There is a concrete pumper truck currently onsite pumping concrete to the upper floors.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by kph06

There is a concrete pumper truck currently onsite pumping concrete to the upper floors.

PROGRESS! Maybe Starfish will have this closed off before the frigidly cold months of January and February. Thanks for the update kph06

[SekishikiMeikaiHa]

Progress! Putting up the back wall:

[SekishikiMeikaiHa]

Turning into a weekly update :

[eastcoastal]

This is agonizingly slow - particularly given the great construction weather. Wasn't this supposed to be ready for move in Fall 2011 at one point?

[kph06]

A couple photos by me from this afternoon:

[someone123]

Thanks for the photos. Looks like they did some cleaning on the middle facade. It looks nice, but there is still a lot of restoration work to be done on all 3 facades (windows, cornices, storefronts).

I think the block will be pretty good when this project is complete. The Canada Permanent Building on the corner has upper-floor apartments, and Barrington Espace will have some upper storey offices. Looks like the NS Furnishings Building has apartments too. Part of the problem with Barrington is that there is not much usable space above the storefronts and there are too many vacant lots nearby so overall density is low.

The retail landscape has changed. A bunch of types of retail are no longer needed (camera stores dead due to digital cameras, book stores dying due to Amazon) and there's increased competition from suburban retail. As a result, if the street is to be vibrant it has to rely more on its own local population (residents and, to a lesser extent, office workers) and has to provide unique amenities. The 1950's style scenario of people taking the trolleybus to Barrington to buy a vacuum cleaner does not exist anymore, and efforts to recreate that sort of retail will fail.

[Jonovision]

I'm still praying that they put in an H&M in this space. But something tells me we will have to wait until we get a lot more residential density downtown before that happens.

[haligonia]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

I'm still praying that they put in an H&M in this space. But something tells me we will have to wait until we get a lot more residential density downtown before that happens.

I'm pulling for a tenant like H&M too. It would be such a draw for the street.

[someone123]

I think a tenant like H&M would strongly prefer Spring Garden Road, but it will be interesting to see what happens with these new storefronts. I don't think Barrington has any large, modern storefronts. The nicest is probably the former Eaton's building and that is unfortunately taken up by provincial offices.

[Nifta]

Do you really need population density to draw in shoppers? I mean, how many people live adjacent to Bayer's Lake or Mic Mac Mall?

[someone123]

Lots of people live right next to Bayers or Mic Mac. The difference is that in the case of the suburban retail areas, "close" is determined by driving time because there is lots of parking. In the core, for most people, distance is determined by walking or transit times because driving downtown is inconvenient and a lot of the sort of people who live in urban centres don't tend to own cars.

If you are choosing a site for a Wal-Mart or Sobeys, you might decide that you want, say, 20,000 people within a 10 minute travel time. In Clayton Park, a 10 minute drive stretches out over a large area along the 102 highway and you can rely on the driving population because it is probably 90% of all households. On the Peninsula, the 10-minute driving area is much smaller because the roads there are slower, and the driving segment of the population might only be 60% or less.

I think that downtown retail can attract some suburban shoppers, but residential infill at this point would be a lot more fruitful and would produce a wider range of positive benefits. It seems unlikely that a street like Barrington can be successful from suburban shoppers alone; that's been a core strategy downtown for decades and it has worked poorly. Barrington is certainly not going to beat the suburban retailers in a race to provide lots of parking, and it's not going to be the closest destination for the suburban population.

[Northend Guy]

I heard last week that the owners have a tenant for the top two floors of this building - some sort of tv studio...not sure of the details beyond that.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by Northend Guy

I heard last week that the owners have a tenant for the top two floors of this building - some sort of tv studio...not sure of the details beyond that.

I wonder if Global started a trend of moving the TV studios into the core? This could be very exciting. If ATV were to move it's studio space out of that horrible spot on Robie, we could see that building get redeveloped. If I remember correctly, that whole area was pegged for 19 stories in the Regional Centre Plan. Even under the current LUB provisions, they could do a DA for 19 stories under 'schedule q'.

[Nifta]

But will we still have television when the building is completed in the year 2073?

[musicman]

I am going to guess it is not CTV. I work for them and i have heard not even a whisper of this around the studio. Besides CTV's footprint is much larger than Global's, more gear trucks cars, ect. It would be damn near imposible to have a station with zero secured parking...

[SekishikiMeikaiHa]

Things are moving at warp speed now :

[teddifax]

It has been a long time coming, but finally taking shape!

[halifaxboyns]

When I was in Halifax, I stood and looked down on this project from Brunswick and kept thinking I should snap a picture and post it on here since most of the pictures come from Barrington Street.

Glad to see someone had the same idea! I suspect it's moving fast now because the expiry of the Roy Building DA will be coming up either this year or next...so they will want to get this building finished, occupied and then start on the roy asap to avoid an extension request (not that I think that regional council would say no).

[someone123]

Thanks for the updates!

I'm a little disappointed by the plain grey wall, but it doesn't really matter since this view will eventually be covered by the Nova Centre anyway. The Barrington side looks great so far. I love that scale consistent mid-sized scale.