General Updates and News

[Good Baklava]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Why did all this happen, you ask? This timeline lays it out clearly for you. Incompetence by HRM; incompetence/gullibility by the Imagine Bloomfield community group; incompetence by the provincial NDP govt; and incompetence by Housing NS. There is lots of blame to go around. None of it belongs to BANC. I'm sure that must be disappointing to you.

I was familiar with the whole story, every bit of it. Thanks for spending the time to type it just for me, although my question remains unanswered. I was expecting “incompetence” to be one of the first answers flung my way, and naturally you had to be that person.

Indifference was my personal suspicion. The means, talent and vision were all there. Housing just wasn’t enough of an issue at the time. The question of “why” is directed at indifference, and why when housing finally becomes an issue the site gets sold off.

You can clearly see, I was critical of both provincial and municipal actors. Banc may not have been the source of that indifference but they are more than happy to have the site in their hands is my point.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Good Baklava

Yes everyone knows it was idle public land for ages. Everyone knows proposals for social ownership never amounted to anything. These points need no repetition.

Who benefits from HRM leaving the site idle though? - Halef. Who has promised all 22 million would go towards housing? - Silence…
Banc developing and owning the site now offers a better short term deal vs. being idle, but did cost an asset that will sting for decades ahead.
Why did proposals for social ownership never amount to anything?

Not expecting anyone to answer these, but there could be some recognition these are questions lacking adequate answers.

A small contribution to your question about social housing proposals. A friend of mine had a very bad year about a decade ago with both job loss and a divorce in the same year. He wound up living in the social housing project long Gottingen street just before the Macdonald Bridge.

I visited him at a shared unit that he and a downtown restaurant employed cook were sharing. My buddy at least ate well with the talents and leftovers from his roommate. My friend has some organizational skills and a degree in environmental science, so to keep himself sane ,he volunteered to help manage the housing project.There was a hodge podge of like minded and well meaning folks that joined the board of the housing project to "give back". In a very short time frustration set in with the clashing personalities and the maze of government regulations, rules , funding applications and lack of talent and resources to replace even something as simple as a window.


My friend tried but with the help of his parents and a better job he has moved to the Fall River area and his Teenage kids don't hate him like his ex tried to engineer.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Thanks to all for the reminder. It appears that my memory has blocked out most of this sordid mess. Hopefully BANC will do something good there, but forget about the old school I posted above, that is part of the Halifax Explosion history of the area. I'm sure it has gone past the point of being usable in any future development (not that the developer would give a crap if it were - nor, perhaps does anybody else really care).

Let's just hope that the increase in building stock that's happening in the city outpaces the population increase such that the market can at some point provide sufficient affordable housing for everybody who needs it.

I'm getting tired of attempting to discuss it here, to be honest. Hopefully empathy and compassion wins out in the long run, but my hope for that is running thin.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Good Baklava

Fact check: it’s a former HRM site now owned by BANC, although Halef is promising a design soon.

Housing NS had the means to make something happen, but cleaned its hands before housing became a larger part of political discourse.

With land acquisition being such a barrier to social ownership projects, selling off any public land negates such an opportunity. Who benefits? Halef of course.

Originally Posted by Good Baklava

Who benefits from HRM leaving the site idle though? - Halef. Who has promised all 22 million would go towards housing? - Silence…
Banc developing and owning the site now offers a better short term deal vs. being idle, but did cost an asset that will sting for decades ahead.
Why did proposals for social ownership never amount to anything?

Not expecting anyone to answer these, but there could be some recognition these are questions lacking adequate answers.

Originally Posted by Good Baklava

I was familiar with the whole story, every bit of it.

Well, you'll have to excuse me for misunderstanding, given the amount of shade you were throwing at Mr. Halef and your question as to why previous proposals never amounted to anything.

[someone123]

Another aspect is that the municipality will get property tax payments from the new owner. Those will go up to the extent that the property value is increased by development.

The financial calculus for holding on to land with no clear plan is somewhat worse for HRM than it is for other entities.

[ColSJ]

Hello! I visited Halifax in mid-august and noticed a gaping hole between Hollis and Lower Water Street next to the Maple. I'm curious if there are plans for this lot and if so could someone point me in the direction to details?

[bluenoser]

Originally Posted by ColSJ

Hello! I visited Halifax in mid-august and noticed a gaping hole between Hollis and Lower Water Street next to the Maple. I'm curious if there are plans for this lot and if so could someone point me in the direction to details?

Right this way: [Halifax] Ralston Building Redevelopment | 66 m | 22 fl | Demo

This may not be 100% up to date / accurate, but I think Canada Lands Company is intending to sell the lot, which comes with (requires?) the design they developed.

[mleblanc]

5670 Spring Garden Rd conversion into apartments is finishing up, looks like it is opening January 2022 and being called the Muse:

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by bluenoser

Right this way: [Halifax] Ralston Building Redevelopment | 66 m | 22 fl | Demo

This may not be 100% up to date / accurate, but I think Canada Lands Company is intending to sell the lot, which comes with (requires?) the design they developed.

My understanding is that the requirements from Canada Lands that would attach to the sale are more at the level of urban design than detailed building design. Similar to what was done and then ignored for the RCMP site that was sold near Windsor Park.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by mleblanc

5670 Spring Garden Rd conversion into apartments is finishing up, looks like it is opening January 2022 and being called the Muse

Always hard to know what to make of these renderings. I assume they won't be tearing out the trees in those planters? The idea of installing some lighting and greenery on the wall of the building next door is nice but I wonder if it is for sure going to happen or is some artistic license.

These small/narrow old office buildings are actually kind of a benefit for the city now. The ones with very deep floors are not as nice for residential conversions.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by someone123

Always hard to know what to make of these renderings. I assume they won't be tearing out the trees in those planters? The idea of installing some lighting and greenery on the wall of the building next door is nice but I wonder if it is for sure going to happen or is some artistic license.

These small/narrow old office buildings are actually kind of a benefit for the city now. The ones with very deep floors are not as nice for residential conversions.

I found this oddly, search for Richmond Yards:



Looks like a rendering for the Ralston site?

[teddifax]

I believe when they put the site out for proposals, this is one of the renderings showing what could be expected from developers.

[Dmajackson]

East West Street


Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)

34Eleven


Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)

[kph06]

A crane is up on the Wedgewood area. I remember seeing a proposal a few years ago from WM Fares for the final buildout of this multi unit area. I think it will be higher than the other buildings which are all in the four floor range.

[Dmajackson]

The Biscuit General Store is now open at The Zion (Gottingen & Falkland).


Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)

[Keith P.]

Seems like a poor location for such a store.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

The Biscuit General Store is now open at The Zion (Gottingen & Falkland).


Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)

This building looks pretty good--when it's dark and you can only see the facade illumination.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

This building looks pretty good--when it's dark and you can only see the facade illumination.

I'm kinda torn on these buildings. I wish they were better but I think in aggregate they do make for more interesting streetscapes than the bland blockbuster style stuff which tends to be lower variance and have fewer stylistic "misses".

I wish there were more good quality restoration and re-creation projects. Halifax has a lot of so-so streetscapes that would be great with 1 or 2 solid buildings built in an older vernacular style. It feels like more progress happened along those lines in the 90's or 2000's (to be sure, mixed in with a huge amount of schlock) even though the city is growing more now and property values are much higher. If somebody produced a kind of marriage of those "White Rose" scaled infill projects mixed in with a bit more art and craftsmanship the results would be great.

I'm looking forward to the proposals for the corner of Barrington and South and those Killam-owned houses along Hollis. Nothing is guaranteed but there is a possibility for those projects to strike a balance between historic character and medium scale density. The old parts of the South End and North End have so much potential.

[Dmajackson]

Originally Posted by kph06

A crane is up on the Wedgewood area. I remember seeing a proposal a few years ago from WM Fares for the final buildout of this multi unit area. I think it will be higher than the other buildings which are all in the four floor range.

I can't find the specifics either but it is part of the Wedgewood Court community and will be 62 Armstrong Court. I drove up the cul-de-sac yesterday but I couldn't get a good look at the site but the hole does appear to have a small footprint (for a suburban apartment building).

[DigitalNinja]

Looks like it may be this:

https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/fil...ll/community-councils/200121hwcc1312.pdf

7 story addition to one of the buildings?

https://www.halifax.ca/sites/default/fil...ity-councils/200218hwcc1012staffpres.pdf