[Dartmouth] The Gate (10 Edward) | 94 m | 32 fl | U/C

[Jringe01]

Any renderings yet?

[Jonovision]

The base for the crane is going in for this one.

[Jstaleness]

Nice. 32 floors is a nice addition to the downtown area. Hopefully the Post office site gets started again soon too.

[Dmajackson]

HalifaxDevelopments.ca (Photo by David Jackson)

[kph06]

Crane is going up here. It is from Sivret Construction, the same as the building on the harbour off Windmill.

[Dmajackson]

This is not my rendering and I have no idea where Developments HFX got this but it does seem to match this location.


Developments HFX on Facebook

[Drybrain]

Good god that’s mediocre. A little peeved that the first-tier proposals and projects like Spring Garden West, Promenade and The Post seem to be held up/delayed/what have you, even as the second-tier roster of projects is going like gangbusters.

(That said, I was driving passed the Kevel the other day, and the ground level is shaping up really nicely there.)

[Saul Goode]

That's about as appealing as a hemorrhoid.

[HfxGuy]

Hopefully the developer has second thoughts, and changes the cladding colour from the current awful combination of brown, red and white.

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

That's about as appealing as a hemorrhoid.

Bloody stool for sure.

Lots of room to improve here.

Fully agree with the above comment, it's SO Halifax to block and delay the very best proposals while second rate move forward.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by kzt79

Bloody stool for sure.

Lots of room to improve here.

Fully agree with the above comment, it's SO Halifax to block and delay the very best proposals while second rate move forward.

I don’t think the better projects are being actively blocked by the city—apparently The Post needs to be reworked to fit in more units to be economical for the developer (according to some posts on this forum a few weeks ago). I don’t know what the holdup with Promenade and SGW are—I assume market conditions, or some other choice on the part of the developer?

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I don’t think the better projects are being actively blocked by the city—apparently The Post needs to be reworked to fit in more units to be economical for the developer (according to some posts on this forum a few weeks ago). I don’t know what the holdup with Promenade and SGW are—I assume market conditions, or some other choice on the part of the developer?

You're right, it's not all of them but I'm pretty sure there was a heritage structure issue with one of the sites. Isn't that where they tried and failed to move a house? I admit I may be confused on this.

[someone123]

It is not an architectural marvel but in the context of a development for a parking lot on a side street in DT Dartmouth it's not too bad. It'll add some activity for Portland Street businesses. If 3-4 more parking lots like that got built on that neighbourhood would be in a good spot. In particular, it would be good to tie King's Wharf in with Portland Street and fill in that small lot at Portland and Victoria Rd.

I think the SGR projects would change the feel of the city in a positive way. There's been a lot of development on Spring Garden but it's concentrated on that small 5 block strip, and the rest of the street on the way to Oxford has its moments but is hit or miss and kind of underwhelming. SGR and Robie is a location where a landmark development makes sense. One issue around there to contend with is that a number of older buildings have decent density but poor street level interaction.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by kzt79

You're right, it's not all of them but I'm pretty sure there was a heritage structure issue with one of the sites. Isn't that where they tried and failed to move a house? I admit I may be confused on this.

That was the Promenade Robie South project--they dropped a house by accident and that resulted in a couple of years of delay (the heritage retention was part of the development agreement). I believe council approved an alternative DA fr this a few months ago, so it should be ready to go--I hope so, as there are a number of historic just empty and in limbo on the site.

But really it's the Spring Garden West project I think could be more transformative for the area. All the tenants on the affected block were moved out late last year, and I had heard it was to start in spring, but the empty buildings are still standing and no sign of work has commenced.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

But really it's the Spring Garden West project I think could be more transformative for the area. All the tenants on the affected block were moved out late last year, and I had heard it was to start in spring, but the empty buildings are still standing and no sign of work has commenced.

I wonder if they went back to the drawing board due to zoning changes potentially enabling 40 storeys on this site?

It's semi-common in Vancouver for projects to sit in limbo as they get upzoned (netting millions for the land owner). The upzoning can perversely slow the supply of new housing. This article explains one example: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/curv-tower-vancouver-receivership-speculation.

[terrynorthend]

I'm not sure the upzoning will affect these developments. While they did get the bump to a theoretical 40 floors, the FAR here remains at 8.0. I imagine these designs already maximized that available square footage.
It is of course possible the developer may go back to the drawing board to increase the height while decreasing the floorplate to extract a higher rentpremium on the upper floors, but it sounds like we're at a plateau on maximum rents now due to slowing immigration and population growth coupled with rising vacancies.

Originally Posted by someone123

I wonder if they went back to the drawing board due to zoning changes potentially enabling 40 storeys on this site?

It's semi-common in Vancouver for projects to sit in limbo as they get upzoned (netting millions for the land owner). The upzoning can perversely slow the supply of new housing. This article explains one example: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/curv-tower-vancouver-receivership-speculation.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by terrynorthend

I'm not sure the upzoning will affect these developments. While they did get the bump to a theoretical 40 floors, the FAR here remains at 8.0. I imagine these designs already maximized that available square footage.
It is of course possible the developer may go back to the drawing board to increase the height while decreasing the floorplate to extract a higher rentpremium on the upper floors, but it sounds like we're at a plateau on maximum rents now due to slowing immigration and population growth coupled with rising vacancies.

Yeah, it seems as if rents have peaked and are now drifting down a little. The explosion of high-end rental units lately also makes me wonder if demand is saturated for those kinds of units.

Having said that, though rents and population growth have both come down, they're both still considerably higher than they were when these projects were proposed.

[MastClimberPro]

The deeper pocketed and well organized developers are slowing but not much. They believe the immigration will come back and student population will rebound, combined with a hiring bump from the ship yard as the newer ship contract accelerates.

As far as I know the number of cranes is still growing so the folks with the bucks are still betting on the city.

[Dmajackson]

HalifaxDevelopments.ca (Photo by David Jackson)

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

HalifaxDevelopments.ca (Photo by David Jackson)

Looks brand new, out of the Crate.