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  #61  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2007, 11:29 AM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Found some more renderings...



Its interesting to see all the work they did for the mid-town. Could they not re-use the design somewhere else in the city? Sort of reminds me of the Martello
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  #62  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2007, 12:28 PM
terrynorthend terrynorthend is offline
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Found some more renderings...



Its interesting to see all the work they did for the mid-town. Could they not re-use the design somewhere else in the city? Sort of reminds me of the Martello
Yes, this is on Argicola across from the Liquor Store. It's a cool addition to the Neighbourhood with FRED, Creative Crossing, the new development proposed for Charles St. I believe there is a development agreement outstanding for the building on the southwest corner of Agricola and North. (Was Phoencian Foods)
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  #63  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2007, 4:55 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Yeah, It was some kind of residential development, I think affordable housing or seniors housing or something of that nature.
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  #64  
Old Posted Nov 5, 2007, 4:17 AM
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They already have the foundation in for the Time And Space building. I didn't know what it was, but I saw them pour it about a month ago. Looks really good.
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  #65  
Old Posted Nov 5, 2007, 5:13 PM
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I was in Burnside the other day and it seems there's a lot going on in that area. There's a new crane up to work on a 6 storey office block and some more offices going up along Commodore Dr.
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  #66  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2007, 4:20 PM
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Developer tries to save apartment project
Sale of unfinished building delayed
By STEVE PROCTOR Business Editor
Tue. Nov 6 - 6:32 AM

The head of a Dartmouth development company says he will finish construction of a stalled South Street apartment complex if he can reach a deal with the trade unions whose members were working on the building.

The unfinished 10-storey building at 5620 South St. was supposed to be auctioned off Monday as part of a foreclosure, but just as the sale was set to begin in the Law Courts Building lobby, a sheriff announced the sale would be delayed until Nov. 16. About 50 people, including bankers and high-profile developers, had gathered in anticipation of the auction.

Construction of the building was halted two weeks ago after Banc Properties of Dartmouth initiated foreclosure through the courts to recover $3.64 million it was owed on a second mortgage. Since that time, 20 companies, including construction firms and building material suppliers, have placed liens against the property totalling almost $4 million.

Besim Halef, head of Banc Properties, said Monday he has offered to pay the workers 25 cent on the dollar of the money they’re owed. If they accept that, he said, he will take over the $10.5-million first mortgage and finish the building himself. About $4 million worth of further work is required.

Steve Tsimiklis Holdings Ltd. and its principal, Steve Tsimiklis, were developing the $15-million building when the company ran into financial problems

Liens against properties normally disappear in a foreclosure sale.

Halifax developer Jim Spatz, chairman of Southwest Properties, was on hand for the auction Monday. He said he has been negotiating with Mr. Halef for the past week and will use the delay to continue those discussions.

He said the large crowd does not necessarily mean there was going to be a lot of bidding. He remembers a decade ago when the half-completed spa project in Blandford went up for auction and the courthouse in Bridgewater was packed with people. As it turned out, Mr. Spatz was the lone bidder.

Mr. Halef said if he can’t formalize a deal with the trades, the auction will go forward on Nov. 16.

( sproctor@herald.ca)
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  #67  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2007, 7:59 PM
Halifax Hillbilly Halifax Hillbilly is offline
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Strict building limit a threat to Halifax job growth

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist
Tue. Nov 6 - 6:34 AM Chronicle-Herald

IMAGINE a Halifax in which no one was allowed to build anything downtown that is higher than six storeys; some people have that dream.

But those knowledgeable about development issues say such a restriction would not only put a freeze on new construction but also discourage new business from locating in the downtown area.

Faced with the high cost of construction, Haligonians should also get used to seeing more of the relatively inexpensive low-rise, red brick boxes so many of us like to complain about.

But this is not a dream. That type of height restriction is being promoted for the downtown core by the much-vaunted HRM by Design planning process, all in the name of heritage preservation.

While a vocal group doesn’t want to see any change to the way downtown Halifax appears today, developers I’ve talked to argue that such a move would actually lead to the decay of what could be described as some of the city’s most valuable real estate assets. And in the process, the city and the province could end up losing valuable new sources of revenue because new business, seeking to locate in the downtown, will be forced to look elsewhere due to the height limits on new construction.

Stephen Lund knows this has the potential to put the kibosh on a significant industry which has suddenly found Halifax on the map.

Lund is CEO of the government’s Nova Scotia Business Inc. and is in charge of trying to attract new industry to Nova Scotia. He says he’s concerned the city’s planning process may take Halifax out of the running to become a centre for financial services.

"You know we have a reputation for being anti-development. I think now is the time to change that perception," Lund told me in a phone call from Boston. "I’m not suggesting that we populate the whole downtown with skyscrapers. I’m just saying we need to use some common sense."

Financial services companies considering Halifax, he says, all want to locate in the downtown business district in a "cluster."

"They want to be downtown in a core of the city, they want a floor plate big enough to accommodate a good portion of their team and not be spread out in a whole bunch of different offices," says Lund.

He believes the ability to attract financial services companies to Halifax is one of the biggest opportunities the city has.

"If you take a look at the growth over the last number of years, it’s being driven by these companies. . . . And they’re bringing in high-paying jobs.

"They want to be downtown for a couple of reasons: one, because they want to be in a cluster with all their competitors and their providers, but they also realize the name of the game is people. It’s . . . all about getting people, and they want to be able to get the young dynamic people that are driving cities today. So they don’t want to be stuck out anywhere else."

Lund says there must be some compromise worked out to allow our heritage to be respected but to also allow economic growth.

Attracting the world’s biggest financial companies to the downtown, generating significant tax revenue for the city and the province, creating thousands of jobs for young, talented people, and keeping them downtown to live and work, thus reducing the traffic into the city, are all highly attractive reasons for easing the restrictions on downtown development.

Nova Scotia has stability and good talent and those are valuable commodities, he says.

Halifax has great universities and community colleges and for the most part, when people join companies in Nova Scotia, they tend to stay with those companies if they’re treated well. In contrast, some of the companies looking at Halifax have had difficulty with significant employee turnover, and a major appreciation in salaries, and it’s becoming an issue for them in other locations around the world.

"(Financial services) companies are all looking for young, smart, dynamic people to join their organization. I’m not interested in seeing the city stagnate; I think we all want to see a great vibrant city," says Lund, pointing out that the plan to allow highrises to be built only near the downtown, in the area now called the Cogswell interchange, isn’t good enough.

"(Cogswell) is not considered downtown core because it is separated (from the downtown) by Scotia Square. It’s on the periphery, and if you’re on the periphery, (the financial services company) might as well go to any other periphery (in another city).

"We know we have a short window (of opportunity) here. . . . If we miss it, you know, it might take a decade to recover."

If someone wants to build something on Cogswell land and have it sit empty, they’re welcome to do it, says Lund, but the interest is downtown.

"(HRM by Design) has got to work for everybody, but to suggest we can put (a new financial centre) somewhere else outside the core, it’s just not going to work."
Cogswell Interchange isn't close enough to downtown for office towers? That's funny because Purdy's Wharf worked out pretty well.
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  #68  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2007, 8:19 PM
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I find Roger Taylor a bit annoying.
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  #69  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2007, 8:57 PM
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Me too! He always writes these huge long rants about the same old thing, but never looks at solutions to the problems.
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  #70  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2007, 10:49 PM
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Most of his arguments are, in my opinion, perfectly valid. The downtown is going to decay further unless there is a significant amount of new construction because it is constantly in competition with growing suburban retail areas, office parks, and other downtown cores of other cities where it is very easy to build. Companies that are just looking for office space will go to the suburbs and companies looking for downtown office space will simply avoid Halifax entirely. To some degree, this seems to be what's happening at the moment.

I don't agree with the claim that Cogswell is too far from the core, but even so there are no concrete plans to redevelop the interchange at this point. Companies interested in locating in downtown Halifax today are not going to be interested in maybe getting a shot at office space available 5-10 years down the road.

I'm not sure if people want Halifax to be a backwater or if they're just clueless when it comes to these issues, but either way that's definitely what has been happening.
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  #71  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2007, 11:44 PM
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I'm not sure if people want Halifax to be a backwater or if they're just clueless when it comes to these issues, but either way that's definitely what has been happening.
I don't think people wish Halifax to be a backwater. The average sally or Joe just don't realize how connected all these issues are. Reading some comments on the dailynews(always enlightening ) and you realize how out of touch most are.
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  #72  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2007, 1:24 AM
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Saying the Cogswell site is outside the core, to me, is like saying... uh... well, something that makes no sense...
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  #73  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2007, 2:39 AM
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Originally Posted by skyscraper_1 View Post
I don't think people wish Halifax to be a backwater. The average sally or Joe just don't realize how connected all these issues are. Reading some comments on the dailynews(always enlightening ) and you realize how out of touch most are.
Tell me about it...it is painful to read and amazes me on how much people don't understand things.
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  #74  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2007, 12:19 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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The issue is that Halifax IS backwater, ignorance breeds further ignorance. We really need to take a global approach, see whats happening in other places, cities that don't are destined to go nowhere.
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  #75  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2007, 11:51 PM
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Most of his arguments are, in my opinion, perfectly valid. The downtown is going to decay further unless there is a significant amount of new construction because it is constantly in competition with growing suburban retail areas, office parks, and other downtown cores of other cities where it is very easy to build. Companies that are just looking for office space will go to the suburbs and companies looking for downtown office space will simply avoid Halifax entirely. To some degree, this seems to be what's happening at the moment.

I don't agree with the claim that Cogswell is too far from the core, but even so there are no concrete plans to redevelop the interchange at this point. Companies interested in locating in downtown Halifax today are not going to be interested in maybe getting a shot at office space available 5-10 years down the road.

I'm not sure if people want Halifax to be a backwater or if they're just clueless when it comes to these issues, but either way that's definitely what has been happening.
Yeah I agree. But I think its more that people just don't understand the extent of these issues.

I agree with the developers in that it probably will hurt the core and it will also hurt the image of Halifax, to the big corporations who might be thinking about locating here. They'll just look elsewhere, and Halifax will loose out.

Like I said before, the heritage trust just has to much to say and complain about.

What good is preserving the past if we can't have a future!
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  #76  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2007, 8:21 PM
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Saying the Cogswell site is outside the core, to me, is like saying... uh... well, something that makes no sense...
it's like saying purdy's wharf is outside the core. well, it is...sort of.
but last time i checked, they're doing just fine.
in fact, more development around the interchange lands would help connect purdy's with the rest of the financial core.
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  #77  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2007, 8:27 PM
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Like I said before, the heritage trust just has to much to say and complain about.

What good is preserving the past if we can't have a future!
good point BUT..halifax is lucky to HAVE so much that deserves to be preserved. many cities don't.
what i don't understand is how forcing delveopers to put up a bunch of cheap 6 storey slabs done in faux heritage style enhances the REAL heritage properties. that's where the disconnect is in my mind.
the heritage people don't seem to understand that these low rise slabs don't achieve ANYTHING. they don't protect existing heritage buildings. they don't enhance real heritage properties. they don't fully take advantage of the sites they are built on.
they look like what they are....compromise buildings by committee.
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  #78  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2007, 10:26 PM
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good point BUT..halifax is lucky to HAVE so much that deserves to be preserved. many cities don't.
what i don't understand is how forcing delveopers to put up a bunch of cheap 6 storey slabs done in faux heritage style enhances the REAL heritage properties. that's where the disconnect is in my mind.
the heritage people don't seem to understand that these low rise slabs don't achieve ANYTHING. they don't protect existing heritage buildings. they don't enhance real heritage properties. they don't fully take advantage of the sites they are built on.
they look like what they are....compromise buildings by committee.
I agree with this completely.

Somehow, "heritage preservation" has gone from being preservation of real heritage buildings to being preservation of the overall "feel" of the whole downtown area and now some people want to take it even further and claim that all new buildings should resemble old ones. This is a horrible idea for all kinds of reasons, the two most important being that (1) the scale and needs of the city have changed and (2) technology, building materials, and labour costs have changed.

I'm all for preservation but I'm not in favour of harmful restrictions on development aimed at recreating a period that no longer exists and that few people would actually relive if they were given the choice.

If these people want to reconstruct heritage buildings then they should voluntarily give up their social security and medical services and offer to work as manual labourers for $1 an hour. A few of them would also spend decades learning stonemasonry skills and then work for $2 an hour. Such a system would allow us to actually recreate 19th century buildings in an economically viable way.
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  #79  
Old Posted Nov 9, 2007, 1:25 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Lol.

Whats with the red metal on the brick building on the left side of this pic, it wasn't there before:


Where was the heritage trust on that one, it looks terrible last time I remember being in the city. Hopefully its just temporary.
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  #80  
Old Posted Nov 9, 2007, 4:44 PM
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It does look terrible, but the red metal cladding's been there for as long as I can remember.

I'd say it's a minor issue compared to the gaping holes that run along Sackville Street for the equivalent of three blocks (and there's another one up a few blocks, one above the Herald building, which will soon be empty).
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