An observer might look at the gigantic hole in the ground between Argyle and Market Streets, feel the blasting for excavation and see the bulldozers loading up dump trucks to haul away the rock and think, “that new convention centre is really moving along.”
That observer would be wrong.
In fact, the city has not received a development application for the convention centre, says spokesperson Shaune MacKinlay. Like any other property owner, developer Joe Ramia is free to dig all the holes he wants on his land, but he can’t start building anything until he submits a pre-application for consideration, then a formal development application. That development application then will go before the design review committee, and finally before regional council, before anything can be built.
Oh, and Grafton Street, which no longer exists? Ramia has received a temporary encroachment permit from the city, the same permit a neighbourhood would need to close a street for a block party. Should the city reject Ramia’s development plans—an unlikely scenario, admittedly—he’d have to rebuild the street. Presumably Ramia will one day ask for a permanent encroachment, but first there must be a public hearing and then a ruling by council, before he receives it.
More problematic is the still-unsettled management of the new convention centre. Last June the city and province signed a memorandum of understanding stating only that a “public sector entity” will operate the convention centre, details to be worked out later. Both the city and the province say they’re in “negotiations,” but neither side will say who’s negotiating what.
Since the MOU was signed, Trade Centre Limited, the operator of the existing convention centre, was the subject of a blistering critique issued by provincial auditor general Jacques Lapointe, who said the organization exhibited “very poor” financial management practices and is in need of a “major overhaul.” Lapointe lambasted TCL president Scott Ferguson, who submitted undocumented expensive claims worth many thousands of dollars, including for unspecified entertainment costs.
Despite those problems, it appears that the city and province are poised to establish TCL as the “public sector entity” in charge of the new convention centre, with Ferguson continuing at the helm. And, no doubt, since the new convention centre will be larger than the existing one, TCL execs, including Ferguson, who last year was paid $174,494, will get big raises.
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This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2013.
This article is pointless. Tim could have conveyed this in a 140 character tweet and still have enough characters left over to do his regular bash of anything Richard Butts says and take another jab at all attempts to move this city out of the stone age. I’m just happy Tim doesn’t volunteer at the post office around Christmas time responding to letters to Santa because the next generation of Haligonians would be a group of cynical pricks.
Thanks Tim Bousquet for this ongoing communication. Goodness knows our governments are not doing a good job at it.
To recap:
The point under discussion is a large government investment in a second convention centre and the best use of a keystone piece of downtown real estate to bring more prosperity to Nova Scotia.
– No development plan or permit in place
– No decision or process regarding the street (a whole downtown cit block) which they… destroyed
– No plan on temporary parking
– Businesses suffering all around
– No tenant for the larger building which is integral to the plan
– No business case to support the project according to our Auditor
– Disgraced and dissolute management team
– Dwindling industry/ internationally disproven strategy for development
– Current Convention Centre a long-term proven loser
– No plan for old convention centre
– Historic high vacancy rates downtown
– Lots of private sector alternatives being undermined
– Unknown and escalating cost of management and promotion
– No established public benefit
– Little/no public support outside self-interested boosters
– No critical discussion from any opposition party or politician at any level of government
– No alternatives being considered
– No apparent way out
– Anyone who questions the project is accused of hating Halifax and the future
– Government at all levels obsequiously grovelling to land speculator
– One big hole in the ground…
Ya want to another thing about this whole construction thing? How about ~12 hrs/day, 7 days a week work. My GF and I live nearby and are woken up EVERYDAY at 7am by the excavators and drills. On 2 occasions at least they were working till past midnight.
Don’t even get me started on the blasting and the cracks in our apartment walls that have
appeared ….
Instead of spurring growth downtown, its at the very least sped up our decision to get out as it’s driving us bloody crazy with the noise.
I’ve basically resigned myself that everything about this convention center is gonna be a disaster, a debacle and if they stay under twice what the original budget was i’ll be shocked
Cushman Wakefield release a report tonight that says the second convention centre will push downtown vacancy rates to 20%.
Vacancy rates are already at an astounding 13.9%
Needless to say this is unprecedented and would certainly lead to a total collapse of the commercial real estate bubble…
Nice going land speculators.
I did a quick Google search regarding John Wesley Chisholm’s post about a Cushman Wakefield report stating that the Nova Centre will push downtown vacancy rates to 20%. Instead, I found this 2013 Cushman Wakefield report which indicates modest expansionary demand growth for Halifax. Here is a link (see page 21/23 of the report) – ” http://www.slideshare.net/MichaelCaplice/cushman-wakefield-2013-canadian-office-outlook ” . The Cushman Wakefield report indicates that the convention centre will add 200,000 square feet of office space; hardly enough to “lead to a total collapse of the commercial real estate bubble…”
John Wesley Chisholm: Could you please provide a link to the report that you referred to?
Indeed, that Cushman Wakefield report also contains this passage; “Halifax¹s office market is likely to remain stable from a demand perspective through 2013, though suburban markets will see the bulk of relocating tenants until additional new product is added to the downtown market. In the longer term, projects relating to the execution of the massive $25-billion shipbuilding contract should strengthen the overall economy.”
So, I dunno where bubble-bursting talk comes from. Halifax is very definitively not in a bubble. A “bubble” is a situation in which demand and prices are driven to unreasonable extremes by irrational market exuberance. When something comes along to pop that exuberance, the bubble deflates. Halifax is not in a bubble. Our real estate is priced more or less where it should be (unlike Vancouver and Toronto, which are considered over-valued, possibly to the point of a bubble).
Mr. Chisholm is correct, however, in that downtown class-A vacancy rate is quite high, so whenever I hear people talking about how we need this or that project I have to wonder where the demand is. We need residential development downtown much more than office development.
Anyway, we can argue about the merits of the Nova Centre, and definitely, there are legit issues, and I think the rosy projections of its successes are exaggerated. But it’s also not a guaranteed flop. We should all be hoping, in fact, that it doesn’t flop.
Sorry fenwick,
I just saw your query.
The information I posted is from an All Nova Scotia article on the subject the day before.
You should contact them or look on their sight for the full article if you have a registration with them. The way the site works I can’t repost it.
Thank you John Westley Chisholm. The allnovascotia.com edition was February 8th 2013 – “Condos Coming as Downtown Offices Empty”. Andrew MacDonald, the author of the story, used only one broker at Cushman & Wakefield Atlantic. The story pointed out that tenants tend to migrate to newer stock (class A space), which the Nova Centre will contain (but only 200,000 square feet). I think that having newer class A space will tend to keep tenants in downtown Halifax instead of having them relocate to the suburbs. Also, downtown Halifax currently has a large number of condos and apartments planned, which I think will be good for the downtown core (over the past 20 years many towers in downtown Toronto have been condos and I think it has led to a more vibrant downtown Toronto).