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  #21  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 1:51 AM
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Originally Posted by mcmcclassic View Post
I agree majorly with this idea. I've mentioned to my buddies many times that the corner of Spring Garden and South Park st where the DQ is could pull off a tower. I think a tower there would compelete that entire stretch of South Park up to Citadel Hill.
Agreed. It is time for this site to be redeveloped. Such a prominent corner, a gateway to SGR, and will continue the trend of framing the Public Gardens. This is long overdue
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  #22  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 4:56 PM
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Agreed. It is time for this site to be redeveloped. Such a prominent corner, a gateway to SGR, and will continue the trend of framing the Public Gardens. This is long overdue
I think I would go one step further and say that entire block would be a good candidate for towers completely. The Trillium is a good start, but if the DQ could be combined with a couple of the adjacent parcels to create one large parcel - you could have a nice large tower on that corner.

I'd also say it's time to take down that awful commercial building and replace it with something more residential in flavour, with a couple floors of office. Then repeat that for the rest of the block. That block is one of the few in that area not covered by a viewplane; hence the taller heights.

The other thing I'd suggest is redeveloping those parking lots. Those are subject to a viewplane and judging by adjacent building heights, you'd probably get 2 levels of commercial and 4 to 5 (maybe 6) of residential above. For the smaller parking lot (closer to the NSLC) I'd say that might be a good location for perhaps a boutique hotel, with 2 towers of 5 to 6 stories and restaurants below. Then the bigger parking lot could be residential with some ground floor commercial.

I'd also like to see the Bay move into downtown. So many of the Bay's locations are typically downtown; but not in Halifax (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton they are in key downtown locations). I'd love to see them move into maybe City Centre Atlantic by taking those two older building next to CC and merging it into the existing mall with 2 or 3 floors. It would put them right across from Mill Brothers; which did a great job on their storefont. If not, they could potentially move into Park Lane or that other mall with the Scotia Bank in it (and Roots) - I can't think of the name.
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  #23  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 4:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Bedford_DJ View Post
Here's a logical one in the "bomming" part of town;


The radio/tv concrete block building on North Street between Robie and Agricola. Its currently broken into seven lots (three on Agricola, one on Willow, one on North, and the building itself is two lots).

I figure there's two possible scenarios;

1) The street layout could be left as is providing for continuous street frontage and more potential for high density. Low-rise retail/office use along North Street, townhouses or detached lots along Willow Street, a mid-rise along Agricola, and set back in the lot two high-rise towers with acess off of North Street.

2) Another idea would be to install a dividing street in line with John Street (a block south). This would increase street frontage and reduce the developable amount of land but could be good for the neighbourhood if done correctly. Willow would see townhouses rising and North would still see retail/office building(s). The new street would have townhouses to the west and a mid-rise building to the east acting as a base for a single high-rise tower placed near the centre (around the current radio tower location). Agricola would still get a mid-rise building with ground floor retail and possibly a second entrance to the high-rise.

With the McCully project abandoned I think the Agricola building should be office or hotel space to make the neighbourhood more attractive to all people. If developed correctly it could be as changing for the neighbourhood as Glastone Ridge.
I'm really pleased with how well this thread has sparked discussion, I must say!

This site would be very doubtful I think since that's the central switching office for Aliant.

Unless their technology changed incredibly, I think they would be using that building for a long time. But we can always dream!
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  #24  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 5:20 PM
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Originally Posted by halifaxboyns View Post
The other thing I'd suggest is redeveloping those parking lots. Those are subject to a viewplane and judging by adjacent building heights, you'd probably get 2 levels of commercial and 4 to 5 (maybe 6) of residential above. For the smaller parking lot (closer to the NSLC) I'd say that might be a good location for perhaps a boutique hotel, with 2 towers of 5 to 6 stories and restaurants below. Then the bigger parking lot could be residential with some ground floor commercial.
The parking lots are supposed to be included in the RFP that HRM has been saying they are going to issue for the part of the Infirmary lands that aren't getting used for the central library. When we will see that, who knows. They have been talking about it forever.

Quote:
I'd also like to see the Bay move into downtown. So many of the Bay's locations are typically downtown; but not in Halifax (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton they are in key downtown locations). I'd love to see them move into maybe City Centre Atlantic by taking those two older building next to CC and merging it into the existing mall with 2 or 3 floors. It would put them right across from Mill Brothers; which did a great job on their storefont. If not, they could potentially move into Park Lane or that other mall with the Scotia Bank in it (and Roots) - I can't think of the name.
The Bay in Halifax is doing virtually no business now, and I think such a move would kill them totally.
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  #25  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 6:48 PM
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The "opportunity site" map is pretty dated. There's no Salter's Gate even. It's also a little misleading in that for example the Ralston Building is considered part of an "opportunity site".

I guess it's normal to expect the HRM to move at a glacial pace but it seems very odd that they are waiting so long to release the RFP for the Queen Street lands. They should have developed the Clyde Street lots years ago.
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  #26  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 7:51 PM
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Yeah the bay is not doing well no matter what - but certainly if HRM's economy grew to support such a thing; maybe Holt Renfrew? Would certainly be interesting and give Mills Brother's a run for their money!

I'd love to see what they come up with for the parking lots - certainly anything is better than now.

If the hotel market is as soft as people keeps saying - then perhaps instead of a hotel; maybe just lots of nice condos.
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  #27  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 7:59 PM
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Originally Posted by halifaxboyns View Post
Yeah the bay is not doing well no matter what - but certainly if HRM's economy grew to support such a thing; maybe Holt Renfrew? Would certainly be interesting and give Mills Brother's a run for their money!
Mickey MacDonald bought Mills a few years ago, changed management, and tried to make it into a Holt Renfrew-like experience. He then discovered there was no such market in Halifax, while simultaneously alienating the south end matrons who used to be his clientele, since their type of clothes were no longer available there. It is not doing so well at the moment as a result.
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  #28  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 8:35 PM
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Originally Posted by Keith P. View Post
Mickey MacDonald bought Mills a few years ago, changed management, and tried to make it into a Holt Renfrew-like experience. He then discovered there was no such market in Halifax, while simultaneously alienating the south end matrons who used to be his clientele, since their type of clothes were no longer available there. It is not doing so well at the moment as a result.
That's a shame - since their storefront is quite nice. I think it really adds to the Spring Garden Road experience.

I wonder if it might pick up if more condos went in the block where Trillium is going?
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  #29  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 8:45 PM
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The condos do help to provide a market for local retail but I would guess that when you're talking about a specific specialty store the effect is much smaller. Mills might be in a better position since they can tailor their merchandise more than most.

I would really just like downtown retail to fill out a bit more with different types of stores, including a couple of larger chains. There are no household items downtown, there's no electronics, no major bookstore like Chapters even. A person living downtown in a condo still has to drive out to Bayers Lake or the Halifax Shopping Centre for most things.

It would be even better if the downtown could attract something unique to the region, like an urban format IKEA (they exist, but that one's a bit of a stretch).

Part of the issue is that there just aren't any sites for these sorts of stores to move into. The city wants to use SGR and Queen for the library and possibly keep the old library site, the Roy Building is sitting empty in limbo, and so on. One big potential spot would be the Dairy Queen building and adjacent lot at Spring Garden Road and South Park; that is another extremely good corner for retail.
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  #30  
Old Posted Mar 24, 2010, 10:50 PM
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Part of the issue is that there just aren't any sites for these sorts of stores to move into. The city wants to use SGR and Queen for the library and possibly keep the old library site, the Roy Building is sitting empty in limbo, and so on. One big potential spot would be the Dairy Queen building and adjacent lot at Spring Garden Road and South Park; that is another extremely good corner for retail.
I don't really think big stores like that should be in a main downtown location like SGR, but then I think to Vancouver and can see the case to allow them. I stayed at the Westin Grand a couple months ago and about a block up was an IGA market garden and above it a homesense (above that was condos).

The only places I could think of that a big store like that might fit would be into Spring Garden Place and then next to City Centre Atlantic (where the CIBC is and then those 3 older buildings on the other side). You could take take down the CIBC and move it inside City Centre and then put a big box retail in that space and above. Same with the other two buildings. The only other spots that might work would be the parking lots - since they could be redeveloped - but being off SGR I don't know how well that would work.

The Sam the record man space on Barrington might have been a good spot for something; but I don't know if it would be enough space.

I still think that perhaps Gottingen Street and Arigcola might be really great spots to redevelop with these sorts of stores on the bottom and then some condos above.
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  #31  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2010, 1:49 PM
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I never even thought of the Bakery. Anyone live in that area? Would the residents around be opposed to a Tower on that site? Nearest one is Atlantica Hotel right?
I live in that area (just south of Jubilee). I would LOVE TO see a tower development along Quinpool. Quinpool certainly has a ton of potential, and adding more residents to the area would only further expand the range of services etc that would be viable along Quinpool. The down-side is traffic, but that is true independent of any new development. Maybe if a new development incorporated a significant amount of underground parking that would help, because then it could be viable to get rid of on-street parking and have it be a full 4 lanes the whole way (or maybe even have a reversing lane so that it was 3and1 depending on the dominate traffic direction being out or inbound.
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  #32  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2010, 2:26 PM
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I want to see a tower on the lot next to the Atlantica and the space between the Atlantica and as far down as Edward Jones redeveloped into a tower at about half the height of the Atlantica... it would be a perfect step down on either side of the hotel.
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  #33  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2010, 5:29 PM
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Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian View Post
I want to see a tower on the lot next to the Atlantica and the space between the Atlantica and as far down as Edward Jones redeveloped into a tower at about half the height of the Atlantica... it would be a perfect step down on either side of the hotel.
The Atlantica...I remember that? Isn't that the former Holiday Inn at the Willow Tree Corner?

As sad as this might sound - i'd like to see a couple Willow Trees go back up on that corner in honor of it's nickname
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  #34  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2010, 5:32 PM
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Originally Posted by beyeas View Post
I live in that area (just south of Jubilee). I would LOVE TO see a tower development along Quinpool. Quinpool certainly has a ton of potential, and adding more residents to the area would only further expand the range of services etc that would be viable along Quinpool. The down-side is traffic, but that is true independent of any new development. Maybe if a new development incorporated a significant amount of underground parking that would help, because then it could be viable to get rid of on-street parking and have it be a full 4 lanes the whole way (or maybe even have a reversing lane so that it was 3and1 depending on the dominate traffic direction being out or inbound.
Underground parking always helps - it takes the cars from being visible. I've talked about a redevelopment concept for Gottingen street and most of it hinges on the on street parking being removed and a common parking garage being constructed on the vacant lot between the church and old building on Cunard Street (to replace all the on street parking and provide a little more).

One option to make quinpool work a bit better would be with a redevelopment of the Quinpool Centre Mall. They could dig up the parking lot in stages and build a couple levels of underground parking, with their at grade lot - then you remove the on street.

The only catch will be how to deal with on street parking around the street - it may have to go permit only (in the event people don't want to pay for it).
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  #35  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 7:24 PM
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Is there anywhere along Windsor (other than the forum lands and to DND property) that might be a good spot to develop?

What about Dartmouth? I'd certainly like to see the golf course viewplane removed and downtown Dartmouth start sprowting towers for sure (especially if you wanted to let them go way higher than the Ramparts in Halifax).
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  #36  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2010, 3:58 PM
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I don't think I would want anything that would be too tall in downtown Dartmouth. It would look too out of place. Something like Mississauga. I'm happy with the Kings Wharf tower at its height. I think anything bigger then that in the area would look silly and out of place. Not too say I don't want more smaller towers in the area. More buildings between 10 and 20 storeys would fit nicely.
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  #37  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2010, 4:33 PM
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I don't think I would want anything that would be too tall in downtown Dartmouth. It would look too out of place. Something like Mississauga. I'm happy with the Kings Wharf tower at its height. I think anything bigger then that in the area would look silly and out of place. Not too say I don't want more smaller towers in the area. More buildings between 10 and 20 storeys would fit nicely.
What would you think if someone wanted to build a very well designed observation tower in Dartmouth? (since it wasn't permitted in Halifax - because of the ramparts by-law). Something about 600 feet tall - this would provide a great panoramic view of the whole HRM (on a clear day). The city would look great at night. (I wonder if this would exceed the ramparts height in Halifax - is this By-Law valid in Dartmouth?)
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  #38  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2010, 8:26 PM
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Originally Posted by fenwick16 View Post
What would you think if someone wanted to build a very well designed observation tower in Dartmouth? (since it wasn't permitted in Halifax - because of the ramparts by-law). Something about 600 feet tall - this would provide a great panoramic view of the whole HRM (on a clear day). The city would look great at night. (I wonder if this would exceed the ramparts height in Halifax - is this By-Law valid in Dartmouth?)
I don't believe the rampart heights rules were ever applied in Dartmouth because the downtown Dartmouth Bylaw is the one that was originally passed by the City of Dartmouth - other than a few amendments, it still stands.

I'll ask a friend who works in the Dartmouth Development Office and get confirmation on that - but I think that would be a great idea for something along the waterfront - if encorporated into a boardwalk.

As to limiting building heights to those of that new development at the slips (sorry I can't think of it) for this side might be okay. The city probably hasn't reach a point where buildings should go that much higher. But I wouldn't want to limit them should there be a need to go higher.
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  #39  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2010, 9:34 PM
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I wasn't thinking an observation tower at first but now I like the idea. Does anyone know the deal with the property across from Metropolitan Place and that adult playground on Wyse Rd? It used to have an old school or something on it up until a few years ago. It now has a parking lot. I think something would fit nice in there between Metropolitan Place and Queens Square down the street.
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  #40  
Old Posted Apr 20, 2010, 5:24 PM
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With the recent developments on the Salter block - I wanted to float the idea of talking about the block that is south of the Twisted Sisters location. It contains two Federal Government Buildings (from birds eye on Bing, they appear to be 4 stories for one and 10 stories for the other).

I had a look at the site on HRM GIS and there is a view plane that cuts the corner by Salter, but otherwise the site is free and clear of any other restrictions other than the rampart height.

Certainly the parking lots on the site are quite a waste of what could be valuable downtown land - that has some good height potential. This might be an excellent location for either a combo office tower/high class hotel (Fairmont maybe?) and then with some sort of observation deck on top? I know it had been talked about before - why not encorporate it here?

I suggest Fairmont because of the really nice hotel they built in Vancouver - the Pacific Rim. If the hotel market is saturated - could still be office only or even residential with ground floor commercial (Halifax dt could use some more density). The site would be big enough for probably two towers, maybe even three. Thoughts?

Also the Marriott site might also be good for re-development to something taller?
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