Downtown development hits brakes
Ramia: Investors waiting to see what happens with delayed convention centre
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Thu. Apr 8 - 4:54 AM
Delays for the proposed Halifax convention centre will further stall development in the city’s core, says a downtown business advocate.
The province has extended Rank Inc.’s deadline a second time so the developer can come up with more detailed plans for a new centre. Rank’s original February 2010 deadline was previously extended to April 19. The company now has until July 19 to produce a design and facility management plan, financing plan and price for the project.
"You’ve got a lot of developers, certainly quietly — and it seems like it’s becoming more vocal — saying, ‘I want to wait and see what the province and the city are going to do downtown before I invest my money down there,’ " said Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission.
Joe Ramia, Rank’s lead investor, said he’s hearing the same thing from other developers.
"Some of them would love to see this project go (ahead) to create excitement so they can kind of use it and get their own developments going," Ramia said.
"They’re all seeing it as kind of a sparkplug to get downtown moving again. They’re afraid to spend money not knowing where the city and where the province stand."
After July 19, the province will review Rank’s submission and decide whether it wants to negotiate a contract with the developer to build a new convention centre, said Cathy MacIsaac, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal.
Similar projects have come with price tags between $100 million $200 million, said MacIsaac, noting the province is talking with the city and the federal government about helping with the cost.
Ramia’s whole Nova Centre Global Trade and Finance project, which also includes private-sector plans for a hotel with residential units, retail complex and financial centre office tower, is slated to cost between $300 million and $400 million to build.
Rank doesn’t want to rush into the project, Ramia said. His designers wanted to take advantage of efficiencies created if they focus on the whole complex.
"We want to do the right thing, not the fast thing," he said. "For us to delay, it’s costing me lots of money. As you know, I’m sitting on two city blocks."
Ramia still hopes to start pouring concrete in 2010, but the project won’t be completed until 2013.
"The beauty is, once they make a decision, then the activities will start. There is, in labour alone, close to possibly $200 million. That’s how much of an impact this will have on the province and the city."
The former Herald building on Argyle Street has been demolished to make way for the project.
While bar baron Victor Syperek is enjoying the sunshine on his patio, he’s anxious to see the convention centre built.
"I’m just astonished at the decline of downtown Halifax when the province and city are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the outskirts," said Syperek, who owns the Economy Shoe Shop complex and Seahorse Tavern directly across the street from the former Herald building site.
"Unless they do something very quickly, downtown’s going to die."
World Trade and Convention Centre officials have said their present facilities are inadequate for many organizations interested in holding meetings in Halifax, resulting in about 80 per cent of potential convention business seeking accommodations elsewhere.
"We’re not at all concerned," Fiona Kirkpatrick Parsons, a Trade Centre spokeswoman, said of the delay announced Wednesday.
"The extension . . . really speaks to the need for a detailed and accurate response . . . It’s one of the most significant projects that would ever be undertaken in this city, or certainly to date, so therefore its got to be as thorough as possible."
(
clambie@herald.ca)
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