The Halifax skyline is changing before our eyes. Whether that’s good or bad is matter of opinion, but the first significant change was nearly universally panned on social media.
Over the weekend, Twitter was abuzz with word that the iconic sign on the Morse’s Teas building on Hollis Street was being painted over. Sure enough, the block lettering was whited out, and now there is simply a white band where the words “Morse’s Teas” once were.
In 2007, the city’s Heritage Advisory Committee OKed structural changes to the building, but insisted “that the Morse’s Teas sign band be maintained as a distinctive feature of the building,” according to minutes from the meeting. There has been no subsequent reversal of that policy.
The building is owned by Louis Reznick of Starfish Properties, who told the CBC that he was restoring the building to a previous incarnation known as the Jerusalem Warehouse. Problem is, there’s no known photographic or other evidence that there was every a “Jerusalem Warehouse” sign on the building, and Reznick never had the change approved in any event.
Halifax council Tuesday asked for a report on the sign, which should be delivered on November 13.
A more substantial alteration of the skyline is United Gulf Developments’ proposed Skye Halifax project, which if built would see two 48-storey apartment buildings rise on Grafton Street. United Gulf had previously proposed the 24-storey Twisted Sister towers on the same site, but failed to start construction before the development agreement expired.
The Skye proposal utterly violates the height and massing standards outlined in HRM By Design, the set of planning rules that govern development downtown. If development proposals fall within the HRM By Design standards, then they are approved as a matter of course. Developers are free to put forward proposals like Skye that fall outside the HRM By Design standards, but if so, Halifax council has the option of rejecting them without consideration, or can take the additional step of holding a public hearing and then voting for approval or disapproval.
The Skye proposal is so large that besides breaking the spirit of HRM By Designs’s design standards, groups like the Downtown Halifax Business Commission fear it would max out the rental market and kill all hope of any further development for another 20 years or so.
For those reasons, many councillors wanted to reject Skye outright Tuesday, but a council majority agreed to kick the entire issue forward to November 13, the first sitting of the newly elected council. In practical terms, this means that Skye’s most vocal council critics, including out-going councillors Dawn Sloane, Sue Uteck, Jackie Barkhouse, Debbie Hum and Bob Harvey, will not be present for the vote. Approving a public hearing is a two-step process, requiring a “yes” vote both on November 13 and the following meeting, November 20. If approved, a hearing would likely be scheduled sometime in the new year.
Another skyline issue facing the new council is the convention centre, which is approved by all governments, but for which there is still no management agreement. Mayor-elect Mike Savage has close personal connections to Trade Centre Limited, as well as at least one significant campaign contribution from a TCL exec. At the same time, there appears to be a deal in the works to outsource both the city’s and the province’s back-end financial departments to IBM, which is rumoured to be a tenant for the office building above the convention centre. –
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2012.
The skye proposal would look very nice downtown if it gets approved. With those and all the new taller building apartments going up around larry uteck and in bedford then maybe we can get more reasonable renting markets in and around halifax
Brandon – Pie in the Skye development is of little use to renters. The developers aren’t interested in providing cheaper apartments. Halifax needs a reduction of 3-5,000 students. Andy Fillmore says Skye proposal is not appropriate and if approved would send the message that Halifax By Design is worthless and all the work that went into it was a waste of time.
The downtown developers are each trying to knock each other out of the game by being the first to build one big building and filling the market for 5 -10 years.
If by “nice” you mean sticking out at twice the height of the tallest downtown building, then yes, it’ll be quite lovely. However, I don’t think it will look nice, myself. But, that’s neither here, nor there. Personal opinions of the public will never settle this, as there will never be a consensus.
What needs to be done to decide, is practicality. If this building is going to hold up other rental spaces being built for years to come, then it’s not a good solution. Plus, if this goes through, I think that this would mean that HRM by Design was basically, a joke. Why spend all this time creating standards to be followed if, not only is it not going to be followed, but it’s going to blast the height restrictions right out of the water. Asking for approval of a few stories above the restrictions may be cause for consideration, but this is completely out of whack and unreasonable. I think Joeblow is onto something when he says the developers are trying to push the others out of the market by having the first huge building downtown. It would be folly to allow one developer to take over the market for years. Then we’d really be complaining that nothing ever gets built, as there’d be no need for anything else for a really long time.
The Kings Wharf development will have around the same amount of units as Skye – why no outcry no one will build for 20 years after that? The DHBC is full of shit.
Considering the status quo of our downtown – how it looks and functions now – I don’t think the DHBC has any right to be telling people what the downtown needs or doesn’t – their record, and their actions, seem not to have prevented the decrepit state we find ourselves in now. I don’t think they are in any position to chase away thousands of new customers for businesses in the Downtown core. If that is “leadership” for the business community, I feel sorry for anyone choosing to locate their business downtown.
Height restrictions are fine – but where do we put buildings higher than 30 storeys in our city? According to HBD and the “leaders” of our Downtown business community, not downtown. Burnside? Timberlea? lol. This city is a farce.
HRM By Design isn’t a be all and end all set of rules to prevent developers from building large-scale projects in downtown Halifax. It’s a set of guidelines that, if your plan falls within, saves valuable council time spent considering your development and cuts down on red tape.
The fact that there’s an option to go to council with potential developments outside of the HRM By Design rules proves that.
If you want to see downtown survive, there needs to be concessions and higher density. If that higher density isn’t going to come downtown and it’s going to be fought against so hard, then put it in Clayton Park and let Bayer’s Lake continue to get all the business.
Why is it a foregone conclusion that we need 30-story buildings? Who says we need to put them anywhere? I’m all for density, but it can be done effectively without resorting to a concrete and glass phallus erection contest. The Vic building is a great example of a new development that contributes to density (with the exception of the surface parking lot) and fits nicely into the Halifax landscape. We are not Toronto, and nor would I want us to be.
I’m not saying that 30 story buildings are necessary, just that HRM By Design isn’t a Bible, and that it isn’t inherently wrong, as the article implies, for council to consider or even approve development that doesn’t conform.
There comess a time though where a real decision needs to be made. If Halifax is really serious about density, where is it going to come from?
As I see it there are two options:
1) Build higher and bigger
2) Build more
If we’re not going to build higher and bigger, where is the land going to come from? Places like St. Pat’s? You can’t sell it without making sure that no community organizations “need” it. Maybe the old QEH site? You’ll run into the same problems.
That leaves you with redeveloping existing property or building on sites that may be so-called heritage sites. If there isn’t a willingness to do that, then you’re stuck for new land.
Personally, I think the soon-to-be convention centre site would be ideal for a 15-20 story building (three 20’s is better than two 30’s) but it is what it is.
Living in Alberta, amongst cities that are all homogenous and the same, that’s the last thing I want to see happen to Halifax, but an eye toward the future (bigger buildings, more density, mass transit) isn’t going to bring about the downfall of the city.
It’s a foregone conclusion that we need 30-story buildings because demand has pushed land prices downtown to the point where the only way to economize on it is through building up. That’s economics 101. If we follow HRMBD we will add AT LEAST another $30,000 per unit, possibly more, and if it’s a rental I’m not sure how much the rent will go up by but it will certainly ruin any and all hope of a project on this site being anywhere near affordable for the middle class. Who said anything about Toronto? Why did they build Purdy’s Wharf? Why are they building Kings Wharf? If this conversation (as it always does in this city) resorts to concrete erections, don’t worry, this city needs to grow a COCK before we have to worry about erections…
Speaking of Toronto, the two Upper Canadian geezers the DHBC hired to come down to the our fishing village of Halifax to lecture us on the evils of skyscrapers and how to maintain our historic charm – come from a city bullish on itself. A city building more highrises than any city, not just in Canada, but in North America. Mixed Messages 101 from the leaders of our business community. lol. Why anyone tries to bring their capital here is beyond me.
@teamfarrell: I absolutely agree. It is appropriate for Council to consider developments that don’t conform exactly to HBD. And that’s exactly what we’re doing here. But in the process of considering this proposal, Council is supposed to weigh its negative impacts on the rules it breaks versus the potential for exceptional public good. That public good just isn’t there with this proposal. We don’t need to be the proverbial self-loathing high schooler who jumps into bed with the first deadbeat who winks at them. Let’s have some standards.
@Dartmouthy: Land prices in downtown Halifax are Skye high (sorry) because developers like United Gulf speculate on the hopes that they can twist Council’s arm into allowing extreme densities. If Council grows a backbone and takes a stand, that speculation will go away and prices will become rational.
Also, Toronto is the last city we want to emulate. I have been to many cities all over the world, and Toronto has to have one of the most sterile and soulless downtowns I have ever experienced. There’s also the fact that this highrise boom in Toronto that you’re salivating over is an absolute disaster waiting to happen. A gold rush of construction is NOT A GOOD THING. Once the supply of suckers with a hard-on for granite counter tops runs out Toronto is going to quickly realize it has overbuilt. I give it at most two years before the whole thing implodes. It happened in the 1980s, and it will happen again. Growth is great, but it has to happen slowly and steadily. Halifax has a tortured history with the boom and bust cycle. Let’s stay away from that if we can.
Hipp5, this is Halifax. This property like most others is appraised by the province using mass appraisal. Therefore, speculation would have little to do with the fact acres of vacant land in the middle of a city is worth $5 million. Acres of land in the downtown of any city with sufficient demand would be priced as such. What was the last apartment building built downtown – the block on Market St? In 1970?? lol.
There is much more demand than this project provides. It’s sad our businesses leaders and the “brain trust” of this city can’t pull their heads out of their asses/shitty typo-laden reports put out by the CCPA, to realize the Skye project is in fact very positive for this city as a whole.
The anti-capitalists of Halifax are lobbying very hard to have their way, even though their stance puts them into the same position as the climate change deniers. It is time to push beyond the oh so comfortable status quo of our precious antiquated sensibilities to enable true infrastructure investments we will need very quickly in this city if we are to grow sensibly and sustainably.
The density of this project isn’t insane.
What is insane, is chasing away people who want to spend tens of millions of dollars in our city, employ hundreds of people, and instead obfuscating thousands of new residents and customers living downtown.
Halifax has a tortured history with the boom and bust cycle? lol.
Maybe if we’d stop shooting ourselves in the foot, stop running around hiring the only two professional planners we can find who hate skyscrapers in order to derail a positive project, maybe if we put that time and energy into engaging with developers instead of creating these bullshit hard and fast rules, we’d be getting somewhere.
Instead our shitty little town, once again, tells those who are willing to make massive PRIVATE investments in our city to fuck off.
What boom? All I see is bust.
Huh? If you think property tax assessment values have anything to do with the market value of a property, you’re crazy. Property values are what people will pay for them, not what the province says they are. As long as developers think they can weasle their way into 30 storeys then they will pay the high price for the land. Then it becomes a self-fulfilling cycle where they MUST get 30 storeys to justify the price they paid, and they’ll do all sorts of odious things to get their way.
What was the last apartment building built downtown? Vic Suites. The Grainery Lofts. That one over Pete’s which is almost done. That one on South Park St. across from the Trillium. And if you expand your search boundaries a little there’s even more development going on. We’re not stagnating here.
And no, we don’t need to drop our standards as soon as a developer throws a few bucks worth of private capital at us. We’re not beggars and we don’t need to dance to their puppet strings.
I’m in Vancouver this week. And realizing I should just move to a real city and let the shit heads fight over whatever scraps Halifax has on offer. What a nowhere one horse town. With no future. People, and the majority it seems likes it that way. Culture of defeat one westerner called it. He couldn’t be any more correct and you just proved it hipp.” We don’t need to drop “our standards” for a” few bucks””.. Lol are you for real? Oh right its the shit hole of Halifax and all those with shit for brains who keep running the place into the ground. Or into perpetual mediocrity. Silly me Halifax doesn’t need help. Haha hahahaha. unless the ndp is paying for it with a tax rebate, and right lol that’s the kind of progress Halifax needs instead right hipp. . Fuck off Halifax. I’m done wasting my time on you. On to relevant things in this world and where the hillbillies with an apparent IQ of 17 don’t run the show.