Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
Not sure how busy this area is normally but there's tons of parking all around here, including apparently unmetered street parking on some of the side streets. There has been a pattern in Halifax of concern about parking with new developments and predicting problems that haven't materialized, at least in terms of the retail units sitting empty or businesses closing down (the easily objectively verifiable outcome). Personally, I don't think the phenomenon of developers accidentally building new structures that kill off demand for the spaces they are adding is common. And sometimes they take a long view with ground floor spaces that would in any case not be that appealing to live in. There's potentially a lot of construction going in around here in the next few years.
This proposal looks quite nice. Fathom has a lot of good projects in the works. I like that they beefed up the podium a bit since this is such an open area. I think podiums on modern towers are often a bit too small. It makes sense to have medium scale or large scale podiums in busy commercial areas and along wide streets.
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I understand what you're saying, and I agree it's a nice proposal. I'm in favor of it.
I'm simply observing that I know the area very well and the existing parking area is heavily used and largely spoken for, and patrolled. It will not be an easy in-and-out for potential customers of retail spaces on the ground floor, unless the developer also makes provision for customer parking within the complex - which seems doubtful. It's a pretty compact site to begin with and simply building in enough parking for residents will be costly enough.
There is limited street parking, but none that is attractively close for retail custom. It would take a particularly attractive retail outlet for me to want to park a block or two away and cross one or more very busy multi-lane intersections to get to it. It would have to be real "destination" retail because it's not apt to attract much drive-by custom. I think most consumers would likely pass it by for somewhere more convenient.