[Halifax] CLC Oxford Street (former RCMP) | ? m | 25 fl | Proposed

[teddifax]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hunt

And the CH has confirmed. https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/bu...illion-552096/

And to think that before the Centre plan and this being sold, it was suggested buildings may have been up to 25 floors.... what a waste of prime space... if the Government is to build a school, maybe sell off some of the land to a developer and recoup some of the school costs..... that is a huge property to have just a school on it.

[Good Baklava]

Since they’re building a school it would be nice to squeeze in family oriented units, maybe even some off-market stuff reserved for single parents.

[Citizen_Bane]

It's a 10k sq. m lot. Is this not the perfect spot for a stadium or what? ������

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Citizen_Bane

It's a 10k sq. m lot. Is this not the perfect spot for a stadium or what? ������

I hope you're joking, but in case you're not: no, it's a terrible location for a stadium. I can envision total, paralytic gridlock in the North End on event days.

But to be fair, HRM really doesn't have a perfect, or great, or even really good place to put a stadium, in my opinion.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

I hope you're joking, but in case you're not: no, it's a terrible location for a stadium. I can envision total, paralytic gridlock in the North End on event days.

But to be fair, HRM really doesn't have a perfect, or great, or even really good place to put a stadium, in my opinion.

Probably your last statement is accurate, given our obsolete and undersized road network and public transit systems.

But given that, this would be an ideal location for a stadium if one was to be built. Central to access from both the 103, 102, and the MacKay bridge. It's as good a spot as we could offer up in a universe of bad locations.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Central to access from both the 103, 102, and the MacKay bridge. It's as good a spot as we could offer up in a universe of bad locations.

While the proposed location is, as you point out, "central" to the 102, 103 and MacKay, it doesn't offer immediate access and the volume of traffic trying to get to and from them via city streets would be crippling.

Halifax just seems to me to be cursed when it comes to the viability of a stadium. I can't think of another city (anywhere!) approaching 450K in population which doesn't already have a decent stadium, but where to put one is real problem. Experience shows that to give it the best chance of success (and in what I'd call a marginal market like Halifax, especially if we think a CFL team should be part of it, it needs to have everything possible going for it), it should not only have easy highway and mass transit access but should also be near - ideally within walking distance of - bars, restaurants, hotels and other urban attractions and amenities. In other words, places where people would actually enjoy being before and after games and concerts.

That means downtown, or near it, but clearly that's impossible on the peninsula. The necessary road network and public transit systems are non-existent and creating them likely wouldn't be feasible, even if cost were no object - and there's nowhere to put the damn stadium anyway.

Locating it off the peninsula means you miss the downtown amenities and atmosphere. One can argue for places like Dartmouth Crossing or Bayers Lake, but even though they at least offer food, drink and accommodations, those places have all the atmosphere and appeal of exactly what they are: cold, sterile, pedestrian-unfriendly big-box retail and business parks. I don't know anyone who'd want to hang out there before or after an event. Oft-mentioned Shannon Park is far from ideal, the surrounding area lacking any real amenities at all. It would have to be built into a destination from scratch, which seems to me to be an unrealistic aspiration at this stage of the city's development.

I think your last sentence is bang on, and if our universe is one of only bad choices, I don't think picking the best of them is the way to go.

I'd like to be convinced otherwise, but I just don't see it.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

Experience shows that to give it the best chance of success (and in what I'd call a marginal market like Halifax, especially if we think a CFL team should be part of it, it needs to have everything possible going for it), it should not only have easy highway and mass transit access but should also be near - ideally within walking distance of - bars, restaurants, hotels and other urban attractions and amenities. In other words, places where people would actually enjoy being before and after games and concerts.

That means downtown, or near it, but clearly that's impossible on the peninsula. The necessary road network and public transit systems are non-existent and creating them likely wouldn't be feasible, even if cost were no object - and there's nowhere to put the damn stadium anyway.

Given that it is HRM Council's goal to make DT inaccessible to motor vehicles, few want to go there now anyway, so the longer-term prospect of bars and restaurants flourishing even in a post-pandemic environment seems unlikely. If you are a tourist arriving by vehicle, god help you.

Locating it off the peninsula means you miss the downtown amenities and atmosphere. One can argue for places like Dartmouth Crossing or Bayers Lake, but even though they at least offer food, drink and accommodations, those places have all the atmosphere and appeal of exactly what they are: cold, sterile, pedestrian-unfriendly big-box retail and business parks. I don't know anyone who'd want to hang out there before or after an event. Oft-mentioned Shannon Park is far from ideal, the surrounding area lacking any real amenities at all. It would have to be built into a destination from scratch, which seems to me to be an unrealistic aspiration at this stage of the city's development.

If not these lands then I think DC or BL is the only semi-viable choice. As you note, Shannon is pie in the sky at best and it would be a hugely expensive proposition to build out the desired amenities around such a facility there, especially with limited prospects for ongoing patronage when an event is not occurring, which would be most of the time.

I think your last sentence is bang on, and if our universe is one of only bad choices, I don't think picking the best of them is the way to go.

I'd like to be convinced otherwise, but I just don't see it.

Well, if all you have are bad choices, your options are to (a) pick the least bad or (b) abandon the idea entirely. But I agree with your earlier comment that it is somewhat mind-boggling that a city of this size has no stadium of any reasonable size, even forgetting about the CFL. It is a head-scratcher how HRM can spend a billion dollars a year on all sorts of things people do not necessarily want but cannot manage to do things like this.

[Mr. Hunt]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Speculation is that it could be the location of the new French-language school.

Speculate no more: https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/local-ne...insula-3618721