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What got my attention is that half of $20 million has already been raised. Not only will this be an improved attraction for the city, hopefully the concrete, unfinished section of the NS Power headquarters will be clad in an acceptable exterior finish.
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Here's the interesting thing about that one block of concrete -- it is essentially the LAST element of the industrial footprint that used to have a grip on the south downtown -- unless you want to count the grain elevator and the container pier itself (the latter of which ain't going anywhere).
If you look at old pictures of the city, the south downtown used to be immersed in concrete and rusting steel from factories and light industry, large land-based oil tanks, and from the structure in question itself. At one point that was just part and parcel of being a port city, but somewhere in the 70s it started to have an adverse effect, and was probably a large contributing factor in the south downtown being a problem area from then all the way up into the mid-90s.
It's taken a long time, but the area has finally come around. There's still improvements to be made, but all that unused industry is gone, as are, I think, most of if not all the seedier elements. I don't know if Hollis is free of the hooker stigma but it's been a LONG time since I heard the things said about it when I was in High School, and I'm thinking that activity moved uptown into the north end.