Hopefully the restoration on that side will soon be wrapped up if it isn't already. Looks like some of that metal (and the horizontal strip) will be removed and the lower granite blocks have not been cleaned. I'm curious to see what the main entrance will look like. The door was nondescript before the restoration work, judging from Google.
The municipality should work to turn this into the highest quality heritage area possible:
Source
It's not far off yet when you look at the details, there are a lot of small holes, historic buildings with ugly do-overs, or instances where cheap vinyl siding and windows were used. Heritage preservation rules combined with a relatively modest budget (perhaps just a fraction of what this area delivers in relative additional tax burden compared to many suburbs) would turn it into a remarkable area.
There are so many almost-great streetscapes in Halifax where 80% of the buildings are historic and have amazing character and 20% are poorly maintained or had weird renovations/redevelopments.