Ok, so all these new developments going up in downtown Halifax are including street-level retail space, which is great. Good design principles in action. But guess what? We have a ton of retail space downtown already, and lots of it is SITTING EMPTY! I’m no expert, but it seems to me that unless someone decides to actually do something about the underlying causes of this — high rents, high taxes, lack of initiatives to put gov’t facilities downtown, perceived lack of parking, red tape, lack of a strong vision and plan for downtown by the powers that be — all this nice, new downtown retail space could be destined to stay empty. Will someone in a position of power and leadership please DO something? —Lover o’ Downtown
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2014.
High-end chain stores will arise specializing in $$$$ restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and pricey specialty shops catering to the ‘Their Shit Smells Like A Lilac Sachet’ south end crowd – the rest of us will continue to scrounge for a deal at Value Village, grateful that we aren’t so stupid as to define ourselves by our conspicious consumption of Visa charges.
…and the city with the province can then crow: ‘Hey, we told you we’d create jobs and we did! Yay for us! We’ll keep three people from moving to Alberta! Double Yay for us!’
They are sitting empty because the rent is too high. More competition will further fuck with them.
Bastard Fish is right – rents for retail spaces are way too high, and for some bone-headed reason, they’d rather let them sit empty and get NO rent than drop the prices and get revenue coming in. Your property is only worth what someone’s willing to pay for it – that includes rent.
Rent isn’t that expensive when you put it into perspective. Spring Garden Road has an average of $70 per square foot, which puts it at the fifth highest in the country. However, side streets average $25 to $55 per foot on lease rates which is a significant drop and kind of cancels out “the rent is too high” argument.
So, in all of the east coast is there a street that mimics Spring Garden, or our downtown in general?
Good to see some development finally downtown … but I have to say that Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street are just plain “shabby”. Spring Garden reminds me of Vancouvers’ Granville Street in the 70’s. Waterfront development is coming along nicely though. Patiently waiting for Halifax to “grow up” … this pathological desire by certain special interest groups to “preserve heritage” is sadly misguided. Time will tell.
as long as people believe they need to move to the suburbs to complete their lives, the cities will keep dying.
You need urban density to support street level commerce in a sustainable way.
This city is clueless.
You said it yourself, OB: “[You’re] no expert…”
Please bitch about things with which you are familiar and able to defend/discuss/debate.
As someone who knows a few things about this…
The problem always comes down to urban density. Much of our taxes are used to pay for sprawling developments and services as we expand outwards. The more we sprawl, the more we pay. It’s a big cost to most cities facing this challenge, since the “cost per square footprint” increases.
Mixed use developments are ideal, but rely on a constant flow of residents and people living/working within the urban areas to balance out the tax rates and owner income.
Although it might work in movies, you can’t simply “build it and they will come”. Successful cities around the world have an appropriate urban density and find ways to limit sprawl (see the Netherlands and their “taxation rings”).
If we can’t find a solution to the ever increasing sprawl in the area, the downtown will remain underutilized and overpriced. Unfortunately, most people still believe that owning a large home on a large piece of land and 3 cars is a reasonable expectation in this day and age.
J
Is it possible to rent a square foot just so I can say “I have a nice little spot downtown”I can afford 25 bucks a month for a side street.
You think it’s pricey here (and RELATIVELY, it sure as fuck is…)
in other places, real estate is truly becoming insane.
http://bostonrealestateobserver.com/boston…
http://theexpiredmeter.com/2009/01/invest-…
and the truly crazy where I wouldn’t even be able to afford to live in my own car
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/us/12par…
Fuck Halifax, it’s for homless people and douchebags with more money than brains. 400,000 for a 750sqft condo overlooking an abandoned oil refinery? Get fucking bent!
This city could work if we just accepted medium density urban living as an alternative to sprawling suburbs.
There’s a middle ground somewhere; we don’t need all high rise buildings or 2 story homes – a little innovative density increase can go a long way. Think of the Quinpool area, it could easily house twice the amount of people without ever going over 3 or 4 story’s, while maintaining the a vibrant and diverse community.
There’s some kind of allergic reaction to medium density in Halifax…and so the downtown dies a little each day.
Jhey is right— density is the answer, but 90% of the people that can support a high end shopping district don’t want that sort of thing because it messes with the skyline. Luckily, those people will die in the next ten to fifteen years. Maybe then we’ll do okay.