[Image-1]
After 126 years on Barrington, the Khyber Centre for the Arts building could be at its end. City staff is recommending Halifax Regional Council declare 1588 Barrington St. surplus and put it up for sale.
Officials assessing the Victoria-era building listed poor conditions and hazardous materials (including a failing floor system and asbestos in the walls). They estimate it will cost $33,000 a year just to maintain, and an additional $4.15 million in repairs.
The recommendation came as a surprise to district councillor Waye Mason, who’s been working to try and save the structure.
“It’s especially frustrating,” says Mason, noting that Administrative Order 50 is supposed to inform councillors about the proposed surplus properties so that they can then gauge public interest with residents (something which didn’t happen in this case)
“I don’t feel like this is fair to the arts community,” Mason says.
Mason, who fought for an expert heritage architect to help assess the property, says the cost of the renovations needed was a surprise even to him. That being said, he’s still convinced other options are available.
“I feel like it’s a real lack of imagination for us to go right to a sale,” he adds, though noting that the cost to keep the building could end up being a burden to the very arts groups it’s supposed to house.
“The flip side, and this is the hard side, is if the city actually renovated the building for $3 or $4 million, the cost of keeping the building open over twenty years would be more than all of the money we give all the other arts groups put together.”
Back in the spring, the Khyber Arts Society and Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia (the building’s two tenants) were “temporarily” evicted due to safety concerns. The construction on a Starfish Properties building next door was potentially disrupting asbestos in the Khyber Centre walls.
That weekend’s Upstream Music Open Waters Festival was quickly rescheduled and new venues found for all planned events. The Khyber Arts Society eventually relocated, temporarily they assumed, to 5523 Cornwallis St.
Khyber Board Chair Andrew McLaren told The Coast at the time that he was surprised for the removal as assessments had only found traces of asbestos in one of every 31 samples collected.
The $1.35 million Khyber Centre for the Arts was originally built for the Church of England Institute in 1888. The city had previously designated the Khyber as a Cultural Incubator in 2010, and a key part of its five-year cultural strategy.
If the building does go up for sale, it’s unlikely to be completely torn down. Any potential buyers will have to develop the site within provincial heritage property guidelines.
Eighteen properties, with a total assessed value of more than $11 million, will be looked at by Council on Tuesday before any sales go forward.
Related Stories
Khyber renovation is going nowhere
Khyber Art Society names new artistic director
Council Review: “The Peggy’s Cove of Barrington”
Carry on Khyber (for six more months)
Here’s what the renovated Khyber might look like
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2014.
And the one sample containing asbestos was found OUTSIDE the building on the wall!!
I recall one of the Khyber’s facebook posters speculating whether city staff would have gone through the same song and dance, had they discovered asbestos traces (as found in *all* drywall tape manufactured in Canada between 1950 and 1980) in some corner of the Halifax Club down on Hollis St. Heaven forbid!
I’m glad that this issue’s receiving some attention and I hope that the building is preserved with minimal renovations – no more than is necessary. That said, the first sentence of this article is misleading: “After 126 years on Barrington, the Khyber Centre for the Arts building could be at its end.” There’s nothing in the article to indicate that the Khyber Arts Society is going to end or that the former home of the Khyber is going to be demolished. Hopefully, any renovations will leave most of the building intact and not just leave us with a mockery of the facade partially covering whatever comparatively bland development goes up behind it. I realise that there’s plenty of reason to be cynical, but let’s not confuse matters with hyperbole.
Nope. That’s BS. The city just needs to pay to fix it. They let it depreciate, they have to ffix it now.
No private developer is going to restore it for 3 or 4 million and be able to turn a profit after that. Instead, it’ll sit in ruin and get worse and worse.
I rarely say “damn the costs,” but this building is worth it. Fix the goddamn thing.
The Halifax club is owned by its members, not the city.
They want the money for a money losing stadium.
All sales revenue will be devoted to priority # 1 – a stadium and Savage knows MacKay will throw money at it before the next election and if the Liberals win Regan will throw money at it.