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  #601  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2018, 11:54 AM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Yikes! What a shame that one of the most visible buildings in the area will be left in limbo like this.

One would have to wonder if leaving it half-finished over the winter will result in damage that will have to be undone at some point.
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  #602  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2018, 1:49 PM
Takeo Takeo is offline
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Originally Posted by atbw View Post
I had actually toyed with the idea of renting a place there, but the fold-out beds and cabinet windows pushed me away. I'm glad I stayed away. Who is the owner on this anyway?
Yah not really a fan of cabinet windows. Why do you want to see your plates? Also hate the actual windows in this building. They’re so tiny and too high up. Most amazing views in the city but the only place in the unit you can enjoy it is standing right in front of the windows. If you’re sitting down all you see is wall and sky.
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  #603  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2018, 4:49 PM
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I wish they had started by building the other new infill structures and adding in street-level improvements. The old Fenwick was not the most beautiful building but I don't think it was that bad. Did it urgently need these renovations?

I think the same developer also bought the church that used to be by Brunswick and Cogswell, demolished that, then moved on to the Fenwick development. So the North End has been left with an empty lot for maybe a decade or more now.

HRM needs to find ways to increase the costs to developers of leaving ugly sites like these. It shouldn't be financially attractive to use empty lots as land banks for decades, but that is how it works today because empty lots pay comparatively low taxes, parking generates some revenue, and land prices have been going up. United Gulf has made money just by hanging onto the TexPark site that HRM stupidly transferred to them around 15 years ago.
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  #604  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2018, 10:07 PM
HRMjoe HRMjoe is offline
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Clearing up some questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Metalsales View Post
The owner is suing the contractor for 6million. Not sure exactly what for but supposedly the original tag to do the project was $10.5m and they have tried to find another contractor to complete the work and could only get a price of ~$14m

This project was shopped around for so long before they started that it was well known that it would not go well

this is Joe Metlege the actual owner of the Vuze tower. I apologize in advance for this long post, but I'd like to clear up a few rumors :

There has been ongoing work inside the building, over the last 24 months we have completely renovated from the 33rd floor down to the 15th (198 units so far) and by renovate I mean re-construction, completely gutted the building to the concrete and installing new plumbing, electrical, life safety, 3 of 4 elevators completely replaced (including large touch screens like in the Nova Center, and also increased the speed to 700ft/min..fastest in Nova Scotia), new windows/doors, poured new slabs on the 32 and 33rd floor to increase the footprint, and countless other major upgrades (north of $40 million so far).

Given the extend of construction, in an urban setting, with no tower crane, and also pre-wiring, and plumbing the future buildings (as we are sharing cooling plants and electrical volts of the tower to feed the next 3 buildings that will sit on the podium through the new upgraded/sized systems installed for the tower). I think our crews and contractors have done exceptionally amazing.. most other new construction buildings 65-100 units are 20+ months these days just due to the difficulty of getting qualified trades as everyone is busy on all the construction going on in the city.

As for occupancy, the envelop is completely weather tight, as the metal panels are purely aesthetic and provide no weather proofing element, so the many great tenants we have are not affected (other then the fact that the building envelope is at a pause.. but in fairness, the units are priced lower to factor in this inconvenience)

I've noticed from posters like 'eastcoastal' and from 'metalsales'.. (who i suspect is one of the suppliers who wasn't awarded work on the job given some of the past posts that ive read from; who has tried to project 'inside knowledge' of which i'm confident has none.) : the job was shopped around a lot due to the complexity of the project, and the lack of experienced trades who are able to work on a 33 story building. The exterior contractor (triumph) was awarded a 'design-build' contract (far from the cheapest price) to do the envelop work. Templeton discovered that the engineering done by Triumph was flawed in certain areas, and as such has placed a stop work order on them until they rectify their errored design.. this has caused Triumph to sue their engineer and his insurance company, and as such, we are suing Triumph (unfortunately that's how it goes).

Templeton always pays its bills, and there is no dispute (by any of the parties involved) that the error is an engineering problem by triumph and their engineer (and before you ask, safety measures have been engineered and implemented until a final resolution takes place), the big delay is between what the insurance company is going to pay for and how much triumph is going to have to pay for.

As for if we are bankrupt? lol.. Templeton is financially solid, in fact, we are starting the next building (4 story along fenwick street) in January, simultaneously with the tower.. we unfortunatley can't start the other 2 on the podium because of the exterior delay and the lay down space that's being taken up.. but our plan is to building those two little podium buildings at the same time as the 10 story on South Street.. which will start upon completion and occupancy of the low rise on fenwick (which is expected to finish about 12 months +/- from start).

hope this clears up some questions, and thanks for everyones interest in development in Halifax, it's cool to see so many people take an interest in the skyline of the city.

Joe

Last edited by HRMjoe; Nov 5, 2018 at 3:43 PM.
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  #605  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2018, 4:10 PM
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Hi Joe.

I think its very great and professional of you to come one this forum and provide us the other readers and the city some updates on this as we all are interested in the progress and development in the city and especially the old fenwick tower (vuze) i know i hope your development nothing but the best and cant wait to see it be completed.

thanks for posting i enjoyed reading a bit more on it.

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  #606  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2018, 5:16 PM
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This already looks far better...

Fenwick Tower, Halifax, Nova Scotia, during 2018 renovations by Coastal Elite, on Flickr

Fenwick Tower, Halifax, Nova Scotia by Coastal Elite, on Flickr


...than this did.

South Street, Halifax by John Douglas, on Flickr

I think most of us on this forum will be glad to know that it will be finished and as one of the most prominent buildings on Halifax's skyline it won't be an eye-sore for years to come.
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  #607  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2018, 5:35 PM
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Yes, thanks for the information. The need for staging space explains why it was more convenient to do the Fenwick renos before adding more buildings onto the site.
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  #608  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2018, 5:41 PM
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I think most of us on this forum will be glad to know that it will be finished and as one of the most prominent buildings on Halifax's skyline it won't be an eye-sore for years to come.
I don't think the old concrete Fenwick was the most beautiful building and I am happy that 60's/70's-style exposed concrete has gone out of style.

However, Fenwick gets maligned a lot by South End NIMBYs who hate it because it is tall and would hate any tall building and tolerate ugly short buildings. They try to argue that tall buildings should not exist at all in residential areas and a simple argument that tall = ugly = Fenwick is a way to achieve that.

I think it's impressive that somebody built a 30+ storey building in circa 1970 Halifax and I don't believe it destroyed the South End or in fact had any significant negative impact on the area. Whatever subjective negative aesthetic impact it had was hugely outweighed by the affordable, convenient housing option it provided to generations of students and renters.

When it comes to local media like the Herald we hear the homeowner perspective a lot more than we hear the student/renter perspective. There are a lot more students and renters in the South End than there are well to do retirees in Victorian houses who worry that they can sometimes see buildings off in the distance or that their central urban neighbourhood doesn't feature tomb-like silence at night. We also hear from affordable housing advocates but people rarely make the connection that the ambitious housing developments of today are the affordable housing of tomorrow.
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  #609  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2018, 6:22 PM
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Originally Posted by someone123 View Post
I think it's impressive that somebody built a 30+ storey building in circa 1970 Halifax and I don't believe it destroyed the South End or in fact had any significant negative impact on the area. Whatever subjective negative aesthetic impact it had was hugely outweighed by the affordable, convenient housing option it provided to generations of students and renters.
I lived a couple of blocks from Fenwick for 15 years. I honestly never even gave it's height a second thought. You didn't even particularly notice it from Fenwick St. I shopped at the Sobeys across the street a lot and it didn't stand out in any way. When the Shoppers was built in the adjacent new Medical Center building I used that a lot too. There, walking to and from it, all you really noticed was the rather unattractive podium with the angled driveways and their concrete side walls, which stood out like sore thumbs. If those walls could go away and get replaced with lower curbs, some different design elements could be introduced at street level and would do wonders for the street-level presence.

I will add my kudos to Joe M. for posting the info here.
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  #610  
Old Posted Nov 4, 2018, 6:35 PM
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I lived a couple of blocks from Fenwick for 15 years. I honestly never even gave it's height a second thought. You didn't even particularly notice it from Fenwick St. I shopped at the Sobeys across the street a lot and it didn't stand out in any way. When the Shoppers was built in the adjacent new Medical Center building I used that a lot too. There, walking to and from it, all you really noticed was the rather unattractive podium with the angled driveways and their concrete side walls, which stood out like sore thumbs. If those walls could go away and get replaced with lower curbs, some different design elements could be introduced at street level and would do wonders for the street-level presence.
I live in a lowrise condo building and it turns out I am only about 20 meters away from ~20 storey co-op housing towers that look very similar to the old Fenwick. These towers near me are the type of development that would cause a South End NIMBY to go into convulsions at a public information meeting. Not just tall buildings but tall buildings and poor people! In the less politically-correct days of the 90's and early 2000's, it was more common to hear South Enders explicitly complain about poor people having housing options in their neighbourhood (e.g. what will happen if nurses can afford to live here and not just doctors). Not sure if that still happens.

99% of the time I forget the buildings are there. Usually if I notice them it's because somebody put up Christmas lights. They have never had a negative impact on me in any tangible way, and I don't think they have any negative impact on housing values here. In fact it's probably the opposite since people value the convenience of more businesses within a close distance and for that you need more density. Not a Blade Runner hellscape but more than the Elysium (for the few) of detached houses inhabited by empty nesters.

I agree that with Fenwick what is most noticeable is the street level appearance when you're walking along by that particular block. That has almost nothing to do with the building's height.
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  #611  
Old Posted Nov 5, 2018, 4:14 PM
eastcoastal eastcoastal is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HRMjoe View Post
this is Joe Metlege the actual owner of the Vuze tower. I apologize in advance for this long post, but I'd like to clear up a few rumors :

There has been ongoing work inside the building, over the last 24 months we have completely renovated from the 33rd floor down to the 15th (198 units so far) and by renovate I mean re-construction, completely gutted the building to the concrete and installing new plumbing, electrical, life safety, 3 of 4 elevators completely replaced (including large touch screens like in the Nova Center, and also increased the speed to 700ft/min..fastest in Nova Scotia), new windows/doors, poured new slabs on the 32 and 33rd floor to increase the footprint, and countless other major upgrades (north of $40 million so far).

Given the extend of construction, in an urban setting, with no tower crane, and also pre-wiring, and plumbing the future buildings (as we are sharing cooling plants and electrical volts of the tower to feed the next 3 buildings that will sit on the podium through the new upgraded/sized systems installed for the tower). I think our crews and contractors have done exceptionally amazing.. most other new construction buildings 65-100 units are 20+ months these days just due to the difficulty of getting qualified trades as everyone is busy on all the construction going on in the city.

As for occupancy, the envelop is completely weather tight, as the metal panels are purely aesthetic and provide no weather proofing element, so the many great tenants we have are not affected (other then the fact that the building envelope is at a pause.. but in fairness, the units are priced lower to factor in this inconvenience)

I've noticed from posters like 'eastcoastal' and from 'metalsales'.. (who i suspect is one of the suppliers who wasn't awarded work on the job given some of the past posts that ive read from; who has tried to project 'inside knowledge' of which i'm confident has none.) : the job was shopped around a lot due to the complexity of the project, and the lack of experienced trades who are able to work on a 33 story building. The exterior contractor (triumph) was awarded a 'design-build' contract (far from the cheapest price) to do the envelop work. Templeton discovered that the engineering done by Triumph was flawed in certain areas, and as such has placed a stop work order on them until they rectify their errored design.. this has caused Triumph to sue their engineer and his insurance company, and as such, we are suing Triumph (unfortunately that's how it goes).

Templeton always pays its bills, and there is no dispute (by any of the parties involved) that the error is an engineering problem by triumph and their engineer (and before you ask, safety measures have been engineered and implemented until a final resolution takes place), the big delay is between what the insurance company is going to pay for and how much triumph is going to have to pay for.

As for if we are bankrupt? lol.. Templeton is financially solid, in fact, we are starting the next building (4 story along fenwick street) in January, simultaneously with the tower.. we unfortunatley can't start the other 2 on the podium because of the exterior delay and the lay down space that's being taken up.. but our plan is to building those two little podium buildings at the same time as the 10 story on South Street.. which will start upon completion and occupancy of the low rise on fenwick (which is expected to finish about 12 months +/- from start).

hope this clears up some questions, and thanks for everyones interest in development in Halifax, it's cool to see so many people take an interest in the skyline of the city.

Joe
Thanks for stopping by and adding some perspective to our conspiracy theories! Hope this gets resolved soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing the build-out.
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  #612  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2018, 9:32 AM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by eastcoastal View Post
Thanks for stopping by and adding some perspective to our conspiracy theories! Hope this gets resolved soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing the build-out.
Ditto to that!
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  #613  
Old Posted May 25, 2019, 3:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HRMjoe View Post
this is Joe Metlege the actual owner of the Vuze tower. I apologize in advance for this long post, but I'd like to clear up a few rumors :

...

As for if we are bankrupt? lol.. Templeton is financially solid, in fact, we are starting the next building (4 story along fenwick street) in January, simultaneously with the tower.. we unfortunatley can't start the other 2 on the podium because of the exterior delay and the lay down space that's being taken up.. but our plan is to building those two little podium buildings at the same time as the 10 story on South Street.. which will start upon completion and occupancy of the low rise on fenwick (which is expected to finish about 12 months +/- from start).

hope this clears up some questions, and thanks for everyones interest in development in Halifax, it's cool to see so many people take an interest in the skyline of the city.

Joe
Work has commenced on the four storey building on Fenwick Street. Hopefully Joe can provide some details on timeline and how work on The Vuze is progressing?

Project Website has some renderings.
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  #614  
Old Posted May 27, 2019, 12:22 PM
HRMjoe HRMjoe is offline
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Originally Posted by Dmajackson View Post
Work has commenced on the four storey building on Fenwick Street. Hopefully Joe can provide some details on timeline and how work on The Vuze is progressing?

Project Website has some renderings.
Hey all.

yes, work has started on the 4 story building fronting Fenwick Street. The Tower cladding replacement has started back up this time with a new Company I have found from Turkey. They have completed many projects around Europe and the Middle East, including some American Embassy buildings. I have decided to ensure Saftey and quality by removing every panel installed on the tower, and installed newly designed rail systems and panels. That's the bad news (at least for my pocket book), however I'm confident that when my lawsuit against Triumph (the former cladding company) makes it to court (in probably 4 years), I'll be reimbursed the majority of these expenses.

The good news is we are expecting by Jan 2020 for the cladding to be completed assuming it ever stops raining, (we have had to push our schedule back 2 months due to the rain this season). We also anticipate the interior of the Tower to be completed by that time as well.

We also anticipate the low rise on Fenwick Street to be completed by May 2020.

thanks for your interest/patience, and support guys!
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  #615  
Old Posted May 27, 2019, 1:29 PM
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Thank you, Joe, for the update and for being so ready to engage with the community here in the forum and elsewhere.
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  #616  
Old Posted May 29, 2019, 1:55 PM
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Originally Posted by HRMjoe View Post
Hey all.

yes, work has started on the 4 story building fronting Fenwick Street. The Tower cladding replacement has started back up this time with a new Company I have found from Turkey. They have completed many projects around Europe and the Middle East, including some American Embassy buildings. I have decided to ensure Saftey and quality by removing every panel installed on the tower, and installed newly designed rail systems and panels. That's the bad news (at least for my pocket book), however I'm confident that when my lawsuit against Triumph (the former cladding company) makes it to court (in probably 4 years), I'll be reimbursed the majority of these expenses.

The good news is we are expecting by Jan 2020 for the cladding to be completed assuming it ever stops raining, (we have had to push our schedule back 2 months due to the rain this season). We also anticipate the interior of the Tower to be completed by that time as well.

We also anticipate the low rise on Fenwick Street to be completed by May 2020.

thanks for your interest/patience, and support guys!
Just a question, but why would you not support a local company who are more then able to complete this work? Last time you went to Ontario, and obviously that has not gone well. So now go further with a company who is probably not familiar with our codes and regulations?

I hope it works out for you, but I hate seeing people bypass local efforts, just to save a few dollars, then it end up costing them more in the long run.
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  #617  
Old Posted May 29, 2019, 4:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Metalsales View Post
Just a question, but why would you not support a local company who are more then able to complete this work? Last time you went to Ontario, and obviously that has not gone well. So now go further with a company who is probably not familiar with our codes and regulations?

I hope it works out for you, but I hate seeing people bypass local efforts, just to save a few dollars, then it end up costing them more in the long run.
regarding code.. local engineers are designing and inspecting the systems so there's no concern about that.. as far as why not local, basically comes down to two main issues; 1. there just isn't experienced companies coordinating/sequencing and running jobs on towers of this size. doing a 33 story tower isn't the same as a 10-15 story tower and most of the Halifax based companies simply don't have the experience to do the job. Secondly, simply, the one or two that are capable, simply don't have the time as they are on so many jobs, taking on a job of this size isn't something they have manpower for.

keep in mind it makes everyones life easier if local workers and companies can do jobs..
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  #618  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2019, 2:32 AM
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I wonder how many buildings have been completed start to finish in the time it's taken for this re-clad to still be only halfway done.

Amazing project management
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  #619  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2019, 2:47 AM
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I believe they had a problem with the company doing the work and I believe had to basically start over.....
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  #620  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2019, 1:38 PM
OldDartmouthMark OldDartmouthMark is offline
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Originally Posted by steve61 View Post
I wonder how many buildings have been completed start to finish in the time it's taken for this re-clad to still be only halfway done.

Amazing project management
Please read posts by HRMjoe on this page of the thread.
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