According to a statement just released by a competing firm, Joe Ramia’s Rank, Inc, has been selected by the province to move forward with plans to construct a new World Trade and Convention Centre on Argyle Street, at the site of the former Chronicle-Herald building.
Update: I’ve placed the text of The Hardman Group‘s press release below. I can’t comment on the relative merits of the various proposals, as I haven’t seen them, but Hardman evidently hopes to create enough public opinion backlash to reverse the decision, and it’s true that the demolition of the Cogswell Interchange has immense appeal.
Stil, neither the city nor the province has said how they intend to pay for a new convention centre, wherever it might be placed.
Update 2: I just spoke with Colin Whitcomb, executive vice-president at Hardman Group. He says that his convention centre proposal called for tearing down the Cogswell Interchange, freeing up about 16 acres of land. About half of that– eight acres– would be devoted to streets, sidewalks and other public uses, and about half the remaining, four acres, would host a $120 million convention centre. The remaining four acres would be sold for private development. As Whitcomb points out, development in this area faces no height restrictions under the proposed HRM By Design guidelines.
As Whitcomb tells it, the city and province put out a call for “expressions of interest”– a request for “information on who your team was, generally what you were proposing to do and how you were proposing to do it—in broad terms.” Hardman was one of six groups putting forward proposals.
He expresses it diplomatically, but Whitcomb is perturbed about the procurement process. He complains that some of the competing bidders had had meetings with mayor Peter Kelly, and when he asked for the same, he was denied.
I’ll have yet more on this story later tonight.
Hardman Invites Public Opinion on New World Trade Center Site
Halifax, NS: February 3, 2009 –The Hardman Group, a local development firm, has received official confirmation from Provincial-Municipal procurement committee that their bid to remove the Cogswell Interchange and replace it with a new multi-use World Trade Centre was unsuccessful. The contract was awarded to Rank Inc.
“Now’s the time to invest in infrastructure and the Cogswell proposal for a new World Trade and Convention Centre would have been the better option,” remarked Colin Whitcomb, executive vice president of The Hardman Group. “The Cogswell Interchange ties up 16.5 acres of public lands and a new World Trade Centre was the impetus needed to remove the interchange and reclaim the lands.”
Adhering to the HRMbyDesign strategy, the Cogswell Interchange proposal details how an iconic World Trade Centre building would serve as a new multi-use gateway to downtown complete with hotel, retail space, residential options, a central transit hub, walkways and green space. The proposal also outlines how, with public input, it would reconnect Brunswick and Gottingen Streets to the downtown and eliminate the need for convention and delivery traffic to flow further into the downtown.
“Halifax needs a new landmark building and we were inspired to do just that,” continued Whitcomb. “We followed the procurement process and brought experts on to our team such as the Office for Urbanism who were highly involved in the HRM by Design process as well as BA Transportation Consultants who were to provide the traffic management plan for the street reintegration. I’m proud of the hard work our team has put into the proposal and think that Council has made a premature decision to exclude us without allowing our team to develop a full proposal for their consideration.
“Our full presentation to the procurement committee on the merits of a Cogswell Street site are available at the website www.reclaimtheinterchange.ca and we invite the public to visit the site, review our proposal and post their comments.” Whitcomb says. “We believe that all Haligonians and Nova Scotians will benefit from an open and competitive RFP process that will bring out the best option for our City and Province. In our opinion, the best option for this huge public project is to place it on public lands near the waterfront and at the entrance to downtown – at the Cogswell Street interchange.”
“The opportunity to reclaim the Cogswell Street Interchange is now.” Whitcomb concludes. With the wise use of federal infrastructure funds on the table, we can achieve two important goals with one project.”
The Hardman Group has brought many large-scale projects to reality in the Maritimes, including: the Blue Cross Centre and Moncton Water Treatment Plant; Horton High School in the Annapolis Valley; The New Brunswick Museum at Market Square in Saint John and the MetroPark parkade in Halifax. In New Brunswick, the firm is also developing Saint John’s 6-acre Coast Guard site into a new urban waterfront community, which will include condominiums, a new hotel for the City as well as commercial office and retail space.
For more information on the Cogswell Interchange proposal visit www.reclaimtheinterchange.ca.
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This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.