Development Rumours

[Keith P.]

Having the entrance to the residential on Green Rd is probably unavoidable given the site but unfortunate.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Maybe it will cause upgrades to Green Rd? An entrance on a non-busy street is probably better for the residents, and retail on Wyse is the only acceptable option for the businesses.

[Colin May]

The eastern section of Green Road,which abutts much of the McDonald's outlet, is part of Dartmouth Common and therefore cannot be developed for any purpose other than as public space. (See section 66 of the HRM Charter.)
The remainder of Green Rd to Wyse Rd is a public road.
In other news, I suggest people read the the article in the Globe and Mail today where Mayor Chow relates how downtown Toronto office workers are spending days working at home and days working in the downtown towers. The monetary gain to employees results in a loss to downtown snack/coffee shops

Quote " Downtown office vacancies. The rate right now is 17.4%—

It’s connected with congestion. Because people are saying, “We don’t want to travel.” So, I’ve met with four bank CEOs now, and one more to come. They’re all saying that, at most, it’s three days a week. I said, “How do I get it to four days? And five days?”

You want people here five days a week.

I want them to be here at least four days, if not five. And they said, “It’s not possible.” I said, “We need to figure out a way to have more people coming.” So, they are working with the city, looking at congestion, looking at revitalizing the downtown, because the small businesses that rely on the office people coming back are not doing very well. The food court is empty. "
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...ty-in-decline/

Could this be the start of more people working several days at home and not downtown ?

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Colin May

In other news, I suggest people read the the article in the Globe and Mail today where Mayor Chow relates how downtown Toronto office workers are spending days working at home and days working in the downtown towers...Could this be the start of more people working several days at home and not downtown ?

You need the Globe and Mail to tell you this?

Could this be the start? Seriously? Good grief. Open your eyes. It's not exactly an emerging trend. This exact phenomenon has been unfolding right here (and across the country) for a couple of years already.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

You need the Globe and Mail to tell you this?

Could this be the start? Seriously? Good grief. Open your eyes. It's not exactly an emerging trend. This exact phenomenon has been unfolding right here (and across the country) for a couple of years already.

The impact of work-from-home seems to vary quite a bit nationwide. There is this widely cited data on downtown recovery that uses cellphone data as a proxy for downtown activity. As of the most recent update, Halifax's is among the most "recovered" Canadian downtowns, whereas Toronto (and Montreal) continue to lag. It also recovered earlier than most. My guess is that work-from-home has affected many downtowns similarly, but we've had a lot of downtown residential growth, which has offset some of that decline.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

The impact of work-from-home seems to vary quite a bit nationwide.

No doubt. But that doesn't change my point.

[Colin May]

Mayor Chow is concerned that the COVID change in commuting will become permanent, other mayors have the same concern and are openly musing about the challenge of converting office space to residential space. The broader discussion involves the view that commuting to a central area is 'old' planning and costly for employees in terms of money and time.

[ns_kid]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

You need the Globe and Mail to tell you this?

Could this be the start? Seriously? Good grief. Open your eyes. It's not exactly an emerging trend. This exact phenomenon has been unfolding right here (and across the country) for a couple of years already.

Your statement is true, but the trend has been emerging for much longer than two years. The pandemic clearly accelerated it and made it more visible, but organizations have been working to reduce their expensive downtown footprints since at least the late 90s with the growing efficacy of digital communication.

My former national organization recognized this as early as the mid-aughts in ways both large and small. Large, by scrapping the long-held imperative to locate major offices in urban cores; small, by reducing the number of employees working there through alternate arrangements like telework, work-from-home, and hotelling (replacing individually-assigned offices and cubicles and associated data lines with communal space one had to book in advance to use).

The truly regrettable part, in my view, was that the pandemic resulted in a massive dump of employees into workspaces that were less than ideal, whereas before a more orderly approach allowed us to address issues like the need for secure and ergonomically-sound workspaces.

In any case, I would argue this trend started a couple of decades ago, not four years ago, and is not going to be substantially mitigate by any mayor or chamber of commerce booster.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Colin May

Mayor Chow is concerned that the COVID change in commuting will become permanent, other mayors have the same concern and are openly musing about the challenge of converting office space to residential space. The broader discussion involves the view that commuting to a central area is 'old' planning and costly for employees in terms of money and time.

I suspect this is a hangover from zone-based planning that will continue to result in headaches to many North American cities for a long time. Form-based planning will differ from this, but won't result in an overnight change.

I bet that commuting from the 'burbs somewhere central has mental/emotional costs as well as physical health impacts as well. If city planning starts to focus on health, I suspect we'll start to see changes in land-use as well as form... and probably a much more decentralized model for living and working, but still with cultural/entertainment zones albeit probably some decentralization there too in terms of neighbourhbood-focused versus city/catchment area-focused.

[Jreeb]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

The impact of work-from-home seems to vary quite a bit nationwide. There is this widely cited data on downtown recovery that uses cellphone data as a proxy for downtown activity. As of the most recent update, Halifax's is among the most "recovered" Canadian downtowns, whereas Toronto (and Montreal) continue to lag. It also recovered earlier than most. My guess is that work-from-home has affected many downtowns similarly, but we've had a lot of downtown residential growth, which has offset some of that decline.

I think a contributing factor to Halifax's recovery is our commute times. While some may complain about bridge congestion and Bedford Highway congestion, our traffic is still nowhere as bad as Toronto. That being said, it is still a barrier to get people back into the office. If you need to commute 30-45 minutes each way to get to work, you are losing an hour to an hour and a half of your time everyday. On top of this, another deterrent to the return to office is the cost of parking. I'm pretty sure parking at Purdy's is north of $200 a month. My company did a survey on ways to get our employees back into the office and the number one response was to pay for parking. While I don't think many company's would ever pay for everyone's parking, this just shows what some people's priorities may be.

I live within walking distance of my office and enjoy going in. However, any day I go in, there would be at most five other people there. Pre-covid, there was around 20 people in daily. While commuting and parking may not be the only reasons keeping people from returning to office, I think they are some of the larger ones. I'm sure the concept of a downtown office district will always exist but I am curious if we will see the growth of more satellite offices outside of the city core that are closer to those that live in the suburbs. The best example of this that I can think of is IBM's building in Bedford.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Jreeb

...I am curious if we will see the growth of more satellite offices outside of the city core that are closer to those that live in the suburbs. The best example of this that I can think of is IBM's building in Bedford.

This started years (if not decades) ago in some sectors. Virtually all of the major national insurance companies moved out of the downtown core several years ago, most to business parks like Burnside.

[Musquodoboit County]

A good ferry network bringing people to downtown Halifax from the Bedford basin will be a great help to attracting companies and there offices to downtown. I see that there's talk of a plan for the downtown waterfront including a new ferry terminal location. Where that location happens to be will possibly be a case for an office district

[Keith P.]

“Just when I could finally afford to live in a condo downtown, they move my office to Bayers Lake!!!”

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Musquodoboit County

A good ferry network bringing people to downtown Halifax from the Bedford basin will be a great help to attracting companies and there offices to downtown. I see that there's talk of a plan for the downtown waterfront including a new ferry terminal location. Where that location happens to be will possibly be a case for an office district

I think a ferry might be part of it... but I think on the whole, improvements have to be made to the convenience and reliability of transit.

There's probably an approach that accepts some may never come back and looks at reclassifying space downtown from business to residential, makes it easier for people to get back and forth without clogging restrictive road infrastructure, and recognizes "downtown" shouldn't be the only "complete community" and looks to bolster healthy, walkable, connected, and complete communities off the peninsula and outside the circ.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by eastcoastal

I think a ferry might be part of it... but I think on the whole, improvements have to be made to the convenience and reliability of transit.

There's probably an approach that accepts some may never come back and looks at reclassifying space downtown from business to residential, makes it easier for people to get back and forth without clogging restrictive road infrastructure, and recognizes "downtown" shouldn't be the only "complete community" and looks to bolster healthy, walkable, connected, and complete communities off the peninsula and outside the circ.

I couldn't agree more. And it's not a bad thing, actually - while it might upend the old-fashioned "urban" mindset, a number of 'complete communities' vs one centralized downtown surrounded by a bunch of half-dead suburban communities would result in a city that is much more functional overall.

It could put an end to the mindless daily migration of everybody to the same small, congested area of the city to work, only to be reversed at the end of the work day. It's a ridiculous waste of time and resources (not to mention a generator of carbon/pollution/or whatever you choose to call it), and hopefully will soon become a thing of the past.

In an interesting twist of fate, it could return the city to its roots - a conglomeration of smaller, almost independently-operating towns and villages that worked well on their own, and that many people spent most of their time in, before things became bigger and conglomerated, and more centralized.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

... In an interesting twist of fate, it could return the city to its roots - a conglomeration of smaller, almost independently-operating towns and villages that worked well on their own, and that many people spent most of their time in, before things became bigger and conglomerated, and more centralized.

Yes... and I think it probably means that for day-to-day, we all have the opportunity to live in complete communities, there is probably still some centralized infrastructure: major cultural/entertainment venues, specialized healthcare services, etc.

[IanWatson]

AllNS has an article on Southwest this morning, primarily about Seton Ridge starting.

However, it also mentions that their next urban project will probably be Lucknow Street next to Park Plaza Apartments. In disappointing news, it sounds like a redevelopment of the Gottingen Staples might be a long ways off.

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

AllNS has an article on Southwest this morning, primarily about Seton Ridge starting.

However, it also mentions that their next urban project will probably be Lucknow Street next to Park Plaza Apartments. In disappointing news, it sounds like a redevelopment of the Gottingen Staples might be a long ways off.

Southwest has sold (or is selling) the Staples property so it won't be up to them.to develop it

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by terrynorthend

Southwest has sold (or is selling) the Staples property so it won't be up to them.to develop it

Southwest now says it's no longer on the market and its potential is being re-assessed now that the allowable density may be increased significantly.