[Halifax] Saint Lawrence Place | 40 & 18 m | 13 & 5 fl | Completed

[Jstaleness]

There is a backhoe onsite this morning. Appeared to be working inside the construction fence. Not sure if it's related to the project or not as there was also some city work going on nearby on Joseph Howe.

[-Harlington-]

^^^^



Some activity :

[-Harlington-]

Excavation to begin at Halifax development





November 22, 2011 - 7:19pm By REMO ZACCAGNA Business Reporter


Excavation work on a mixed commercial and residential development on Joseph Howe Drive is expected to begin in the coming days.

The $30-million development is being built on the site previously occupied by St. Lawrence Catholic Church, Rectory and Centre, located between Dutch Village Road and Joseph Howe Drive north of the Bayers Road intersection.

Preliminary work has begun at the site and all that remains before excavation can begin is a blasting permit, said developer Wadih Fares, president of the WM Fares Group.

“We should be getting that in the next few days,” Fares said.

The excavating work, which is needed to make room for two levels of underground parking, is expected to last until January or February. Complicating matters is the presence of pyritic slate bedrock that needs to be removed, Fares said.

The project will include a 13-storey, 131-unit residential tower facing Dutch Village Road. The commercial part of the project will be a five-storey building facing Joseph Howe Drive with 32,000-square-feet of retail and office space.

“We’re going to do both at the same time,” Fares said. “We’re doing excavation for both buildings and all the work right to the ground level for both buildings, and we’ll see what happens. But we’re moving all the way with the residential tower.”

The development will incorporate several contemporary and sustainable energy features.

“The outside envelope will be all window walls and composite panels and that’s something different, I think,” Fares said. “It’s used a lot in Toronto, but probably for the first time, we’re going to use it ourselves.”

Fares declined to specify how much he paid the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of Halifax for the site, although it was previously reported to be in the neighbourhood of $2.5 million.

“We were very fortunate that we were able to negotiate a deal with the church. I think, at the end of the day, both parties came out winners in this.”

(rzaccagna@herald.ca)

[worldlyhaligonian]

[worldlyhaligonian]

The website has a new render: (Credit: wmfares properties website)

I really like it now... way less bland/suburban.

[cormiermax]

I love it, very interesting design.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

The website has a new render: (Credit: wmfares properties website)

I really like it now... way less bland/suburban.

Cool... definitely way better than that last render we saw.
Glad this is moving ahead.

[Jstaleness]

The orange, purple and green is neat too! I wonder if those can be illuminated? LED lighting perhaps. Liking the new render.

[-Harlington-]

Originally Posted by Jstaleness

The orange, purple and green is neat too! I wonder if those can be illuminated? LED lighting perhaps. Liking the new render.

Yeah i was thinking the same thing,
I hope they do illuminate them, that would look cool .

[someone123]

That is a big improvement over the old design. I like it.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see projects like this going up in many unconventional areas. Fairview/Dutch Village have been stagnant for many decades. In fact most of Halifax felt like it was sort of treading water for a while but is now improving very noticeably (even Gottingen has had multiple privately-funded condo projects). I can see Halifax really coming into its own during the next decade or so. It stacks up very well against other North American cities and could attract a lot more attention than it does currently.

[cormiermax]

I think what we're seeing is Halifax making it's transition from a small quiet city too a mid sized centre with growing importance not only regionally but also nationally. Its something that's really exciting too watch.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by cormiermax

I think what we're seeing is Halifax making it's transition from a small quiet city too a mid sized centre with growing importance not only regionally but also nationally. Its something that's really exciting too watch.

I think its about 10 years away from critical mass... but its getting there.

I like this discussion on dealing with brownfield sites, I think there are certain areas like windsor park or shannon park that could be turned completely into densely populated developments, helping serve the local businesses and downtown.

[someone123]

Halifax has a serious problem with underused prime land. The waterfront for example is still pretty much 50% parking. The ability to effectively develop these lots will partly determine how healthy the urban core and the municipality's bottom line will be in a couple of decades. It's easy to imagine 500,000 more people living in exurbia and creating a large structural deficit vs. infill saving money, raising property values, and just generally making the city more vibrant and interesting.

[Northend Nerd]

The new rendering looks awesome! Very excited to see this begin!

[Empire]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

The website has a new render: (Credit: wmfares properties website)

I really like it now... way less bland/suburban.

Much better design. The previous design was too 90's Halifax. This area, plus the stretch between Young and the Windsor St. exchange is the new frontier.

[resetcbu1]

Wasn't this originaly only 11 floors as well?

Love the new design, much more urban feel. I like the way it seems the urban centre is spreading out in HRM to include these areas, also the north end and Dartmouth seem much revitalized as well in the past few years , the changes are comming quick too

[worldlyhaligonian]

Lol, I hope the extra 2 stories sneaked by... that's how pathetic Halifax is with height.

We should be seeing more slim buildings in the 16-20 story range... better land use IMO... but we all know what happened with the original 6955 bayers proposal. I believe the children would have been negatively impacted somehow? lol

[resetcbu1]

It'd be great to see 16-20 story towers every where, I too prefer the taller, slim, small foot print building enables more versatility, but wait the children... the biggest problem facing children is being coddled and sheltered from every little thing on earth

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by resetcbu1

It'd be great to see 16-20 story towers every where, I too prefer the taller, slim, small foot print building enables more versatility, but wait the children... the biggest problem facing children is being coddled and sheltered from every little thing on earth

I totally agree that slim higher density towers are a needed addition to many areas, and are often going to be a better choice from a land usage perspective. I would hesitate to say that we should do this "everywhere" though, as I am always a bit leary of us ending up with the sort of British Housing Estates effect sometimes.

I do love proposals like this one for this sort of site, and ones like the Bayer's Road project are perfect cases of ones that would have been better if slimmer and taller. But equally I wouldn't want to see blocks of 20 story tenements, so I think that planning-wise it needs to be taken into account that we have to mitigate against the "projects" effect.

[someone123]

Is height actually related to the social problems in some public housing projects?

Uniacke Square is arguably the worst in Halifax and it is townhouses. At the other end of the scale there are many high-end apartment buildings and condos that don't seem to have problems.