Bayers Lake plan hiked
Halef: Project now worth $350 million
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Sat, Sep 3 - 4:54 AM
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1261511.html
Besim Halef is amping up his plans for Bayers Lake Business Park.
What had been billed as a $250-million commercial development that would add about a million square feet of retail space to the park has grown to a $350-million project, the president of Banc Developments Ltd. said Friday.
"We believe it will be close to
two million square feet," Halef said. "When you have more buildings, you’re going to spend more money."
He came up with the conclusion about two weeks ago that Banc’s original plan for the 81 hectares of land the company is buying from Halifax Regional Municipality was just too small.
"It is going to be rejigged," Halef said of the plan. "I’m going to maximize the space requirement."
He’s also considering minimizing the office space originally planned for the project.
"Retail, commercially, is more viable for us than office," Halef said.
He hopes to start $50 million of road work in the park this winter.
"We’re finalizing the concept design on Bayers Lake so we’re hoping to be in the ground sometime either late this year or early next year.
"Once we do the construction, as of right now, we can build right away. So by the time we build the road, we’ll probably have a couple buildings at the same time."
Banc’s deal for the land, located behind the Kent Building Supplies outlet on Chain Lake Drive, is slated to close at the end of October.
Halef declined to say what he paid for the land or name any of the businesses that will move into the newly developed area.
"We have inked deals. We have letters of intent and offers to lease.
"We certainly are looking at
a couple of big boxes and the rest are medium box stores that will be coming in. We have a considerable amount of interest."
Some tenants could start moving in at the end of 2013, Halef said.
"At the present time, we are only looking at really selling to two or three because, obviously, those are key box stores that they normally own. But the rest of the development, we’re going to build and lease."
Meanwhile, Halef said Home Depot is still preventing Banc from luring big box retailers to the Bedford Commons power centre.
Banc launched a lawsuit in July to try and force the home renovation giant to lift restrictive covenants it had placed on properties in the Damascus Road area.
The problem dates back to 2006, when Banc inked an agreement with Home Depot of Canada Inc. to sell the building supply outfit a parcel of land in Bedford. As part of the deal, Banc agreed in February 2007 to place restrictive covenants on other nearby parcels of land it owns that would prevent anyone else from setting up a hardware or home improvement outlet on those locations.
Home Depot never built an outlet on the land and sold the property to Plazacorp last year. The covenants are still in place and Home Depot has refused to budge.
"They hired Cox & Palmer as their lawyer to fight us, so it looks like we’re going to go to court," Halef said.
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