[Halifax] Long Lake Village

[TheGreenBastard]

Originally Posted by Jonovision

It would be better if these buildings were left as drawings and never built. They look like crap and completely overwhelm the lake and surrounding area.

Agreed, they do look like crap. Hideous, and uninspired.

[Phalanx]

Whatever do you mean, comrade. Is fine example of Soviet architecture:

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Phalanx

Whatever do you mean, comrade. Is fine example of Soviet architecture:

That was my first impression as well. Surely we can do better.

[kph06]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Construction permit has been issued for the first aria at the park building. Foundation work appears to be commencing.

Quick update, after almost a year and a half work is nearing completion on the first floor parking garage concrete walls and columns. There is usually activity on site but progress is slow. At this rate completion would honestly be the mid 2020’s. I assume once the foundation is complete one of the big form work companies will be brought in to get things moving.

These sites along with a third smaller one are up at council this week for ammendments. Sounds like it is just moving residential and commercial densities around so all three buildings have a mix.

[Corker]

Atlantic Developments has applied for an amendment for one of the lots to change it from a 2 story commercial to a 6 story apartment with commercial.

An article from the Herald last week on the homeowners in the neighbouring property:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/15...rtment-construction-in-long-lake-village

Although you can never know what will happen with neighbouring properties, I'm somewhat sympathetic in this case as this couple bought the home (and would have been one of the early buyers when this development started a few years ago) based on a planned development. One 12 story apartment building is still slowly being constructed and I believe a second one is planned, both further down the street. It's just unfortunate for them that the neighbourhood they were buying into is not quite the one they are getting.

[Hali87]

40440878_587220568347284_3010487915164729344_n by Hali87, on Flickr


40430492_237068606957263_7899516567648468992_n by Hali87, on Flickr


40411051_2144665912521645_1532017553197498368_n by Hali87, on Flickr

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by TheGreenBastard

Agreed, they do look like crap. Hideous, and uninspired.

I wonder if there's any chance the real thing will look any better than the renderings? (Rare, I realize!) I thought this company had done some other reasonably decent looking builds.

[Dmajackson]

Originally Posted by kph06

Quick update, after almost a year and a half work is nearing completion on the first floor parking garage concrete walls and columns. There is usually activity on site but progress is slow. At this rate completion would honestly be the mid 2020’s. I assume once the foundation is complete one of the big form work companies will be brought in to get things moving.

I drive by this site a couple times a week now and after almost FIVE YEARS since construction started the buildings are still nowhere near completion. There is not a bit of exterior finishing done and I honestly get a good chuckle at just how ridiculous this project is. It's a good thing it's on the edge of the city and not somewhere highly visible.

Sometime in the next few years I'll grab a construction photo of this project.

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

I drive by this site a couple times a week now and after almost FIVE YEARS since construction started the buildings are still nowhere near completion. There is not a bit of exterior finishing done and I honestly get a good chuckle at just how ridiculous this project is. It's a good thing it's on the edge of the city and not somewhere highly visible.

Sometime in the next few years I'll grab a construction photo of this project.

I drive by here very occasionally as well and agree the snail's pace of the "progress" is truly astounding. This pre-dates and goes well beyond the COVID issues. Is there some problem with the builder or development? Wow.

[kph06]

Originally Posted by kzt79

I drive by here very occasionally as well and agree the snail's pace of the "progress" is truly astounding. This pre-dates and goes well beyond the COVID issues. Is there some problem with the builder or development? Wow.

I'm by quite a bit as well and I would say it actually sped up (VERY relative terms) during Covid. A few years ago it was very off and on, a floor or so a year. They are now onto the second half.

I remember the developer popped into the forums a couple years ago and answered some of the criticism over the speed at which Q-Lofts was built. I believe he said he uses a different model, Q-Lofts was condo and I think he said he finances the projects himself. I think it is a smaller crew and the slower pace is what meets his plans.

In the last year though it has definitely had more attention. I think Polycorp had other projects in the Valley, maybe those crews are available here now. It is all insulated concrete forms (ICF), so a different method of building than most. At this rate, I bet the second half will be structurally completed in the next year to two. I assume the housing market has added motivation to expand the work crew.

[IanWatson]

Polycorp has indeed been doing a lot of work in Wolfville, so that is likely a factor.

Peter Poly has also been really vocal in the UARB hearings regarding the new water and wastewater charges for new development. I kind of wonder if he was hoping to have those overturned and was holding off until the UARB made a decision on those charges.

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by kph06

I'm by quite a bit as well and I would say it actually sped up (VERY relative terms) during Covid. A few years ago it was very off and on, a floor or so a year. They are now onto the second half.

I remember the developer popped into the forums a couple years ago and answered some of the criticism over the speed at which Q-Lofts was built. I believe he said he uses a different model, Q-Lofts was condo and I think he said he finances the projects himself. I think it is a smaller crew and the slower pace is what meets his plans.

In the last year though it has definitely had more attention. I think Polycorp had other projects in the Valley, maybe those crews are available here now. It is all insulated concrete forms (ICF), so a different method of building than most. At this rate, I bet the second half will be structurally completed in the next year to two. I assume the housing market has added motivation to expand the work crew.

Interesting. These towers are (were?) to be condos, right? Or have they converted to apartments?

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Polycorp has indeed been doing a lot of work in Wolfville, so that is likely a factor.

Peter Poly has also been really vocal in the UARB hearings regarding the new water and wastewater charges for new development. I kind of wonder if he was hoping to have those overturned and was holding off until the UARB made a decision on those charges.

He's also been quite vocal in the media recently re: rental framework.

[kzt79]

Apparently these towers will be apartment rentals rather than condos offered for sale.

[teddifax]

Drove by this yesterday and they had equipment doing some sort of landscaping to the side facing Dunbrack and the north side also.... this building has not had any addition/work done on the actual building since last summer at least.

[kzt79]

I assume there are no issues with this partial construction being basically exposed to the elements for so many years?

[teddifax]

I have wondered about the building structure as it was quite a while before they even put in the actual windows with the wood framing all exposed.... The second tower isn't even started... how many more years will this take!?

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by teddifax

I have wondered about the building structure as it was quite a while before they even put in the actual windows with the wood framing all exposed.... The second tower isn't even started... how many more years will this take!?

Might be ready by 2035-40 at current pace?

[terrynorthend]

Ha. Who knew "mid 2020's' would be so wildly optimistic here. This one takes the cake for 5 Moe's.
At any rate a recent Saltwire article jogged my memory that this still exists. Couldn't see it behind paywall, but apparently it's still proceeding. Very. Slowly.

Originally Posted by kph06

Quick update, after almost a year and a half work is nearing completion on the first floor parking garage concrete walls and columns. There is usually activity on site but progress is slow. At this rate completion would honestly be the mid 2020’s. I assume once the foundation is complete one of the big form work companies will be brought in to get things moving.

These sites along with a third smaller one are up at council this week for ammendments. Sounds like it is just moving residential and commercial densities around so all three buildings have a mix.

[Keith P.]

More details from the Saltwire article:

Clad in air and vapour barrier and new windows, the building sits on a hard scrabble plot of land at the corner of Dunbrack Street and Cowie Hill Road. Follow the sloped asphalt driveway past the unsightly structure and the first half-dozen floors of what will be a 12-story build comes into view.

It’s one of the countless construction sites dotted throughout Halifax Regional Municipality. But this building has been like this for a few years, remaining mostly untouched since 2021.

Across the intersection of Dunbrack and Cowie Hill is the entrance to Long Lake, a 2,000-hectare park popular with hikers, mountain bikers, dog walkers and swimmers.

The parking lot and trail system officially opened on Earth Day in 2016, the same year the Polycorp Group of Companies began foundation work on Aria at Long Lake across the street.

Polycorp’s website for Aria at Long Lake describes the project as “where the city meets nature.”

“From the whisper of trees to the buzz of downtown in just minutes. Introducing Aria, a new opportunity to live a connected life,” reads the website.

By 2018, the parking garage was completed. Three years later, the top floor was done.

Peter Polley, Polycorp founder and president, said the 10-storey, 96-unit building is ready for the drywall to be installed and “should have people in there by next summer.”

“I realize we are painfully slow,” Polley said in an interview late Thursday afternoon. “I’m half-embarrassed it has taken this long but it’s a labour of love.

“We run a very small operation and there's not enough hours in the day to get everything done.”

On a recent Saturday, a lone construction worker was high on an aerial lift toiling away on the fifth-floor windows.

Polley said while these two apartment buildings are under construction, his company was building four others and finishing another.

“We had seven different apartment buildings being built simultaneously,” he said. “They overlapped. And I’m doing this myself out of my pocket ... with no family money.”

Polley boasted that the Aria “will probably be the most energy efficient building in the city when it’s done.” It will include 240 EV chargers.

“I’m trying to build a better mouse trap,” Polley said. “It is cutting edge. No one is building something like this.

“The electrical service running into that building is probably – and I’m not exaggerating – the biggest electrical service for an apartment building in the country. It took about two years for it to come in. Before we had it installed some idiot broke into the building and damaged a bunch of it trying to steal the copper. That all had to be reordered and reassembled. That took time.”

While Polley has acquiesced that construction has been slow, he takes umbrage at the buildings being an eyesore.

“If you stand back and look at it, it actually isn't,” Polley said. “It might be annoying that it’s not done and you might be wondering what the hell is going on there. But if you look from a distance at the building wrap on it, it’s a funky white and red.”

This project is down to just one Moe, apparently.