[Image-1] April 29 update:
Rob Steele’s been busy since we last left off. As noticed on the Halifax subreddit, the same companies buying up the houses on Fern Lane and the corner of Robie and May have also been purchasing buildings on the south side of the Colonial Honda dealership.
Demolition permits have now been issued for 17 properties on Robie Street, North Street, Fern Lane and McCully Street—including those properties that we first noticed were being bought by Dynamic and 3293629 Nova Scotia Ltd. back in February.
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Dynamic Properties also appears to have bought 2601 Robie Street (home of the Woodbury Veterinary Hospital) on the corner of Robie and North, though no demolition permits have been issued as of yet for that property.
We’ll update this post once we learn whether anything’s actually going to be built on the parcels of land, or if they’re simply destined to be used as expanded show space.
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Originally published February 22:
Looks like Rob Steele‘s gearing up for something.
In addition to purchasing Colonial Honda in December, Steele has spent the last several months buying almost all of the Robie Street car dealership’s surrounding residential properties.
Steele’s Dynamic Properties purchased 2696 Fern Lane (the apartment building diagonally across from the currently under-renovations Ecology Action Centre), and 2688 Fern Lane in September and October of 2015. The remaining five residential properties on Fern (across from the Gatekeeper’s motorcycle clubhouse), and the mixed-use building on the corner of May and Robie were bought between November and January 4 by 3293629 Nova Scotia Ltd.
Stewart McKelvie lawyer Christine Pound, the recognized agent for both Dynamic and the numbered company, confirm the two corporations are affiliated.
“The acquisition of the May Street and Fern Lane properties you have asked about is in connection with the Colonial acquisition and future plans are not finalized,” Pound writes in an email.
The only property on that block not bought in the last few months (that didn’t already belong to Honda) was 5796-5800 May Street, a row of colourful apartments belonging to a numbered condo corporation.
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One of the tenants still living in the apartments on the corner of May and Robie didn’t know anything about their new landlord’s plans for the buildings. Neither did commercial tenant Dana Grund, owner of Grund Designer Goldsmith. Grund confirms his lease for the studio space has not been renewed, and he’ll be moving his business at the end of April (likely to Dartmouth).
In total, the residential assessed value of the eight lots purchased is about $2 million. Were the apartments and houses to be knocked down, it would allow Steele Auto Group to expand its lot an extra 15,000 square feet. The city confirms that no demolition permits have been submitted as of date for any of the buildings.
Steele snatched up Colonial Honda from 40 years of ownership by the Megaffin family back in December. In a press release, Rob Steele called the purchase “an important strategic move for us” given the limited room for growth in the Halifax market. Based in Dartmouth, Steele Auto Group represents 22 car brands and has 18 auto dealerships across the Atlantic provinces.
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Homes Not Hondas fights Steele’s Robie Street razing
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This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.
its not fair that a few elite families are slowly controlling the car business in Halifax. Just like most of the condos and apartments are controlled by the wealthy developers. Not to long ago each dealer was independent, two families control almost all of them. How does this happen.
Why not move to Young Avenue where the money is. Where is the uproar over this neighbourhood being razed.?
If you don;t like urban DEVELOPMENT, move to the country, This is a city, exactly where these types of places should be. If a developer pays a fair price for a property, they can do whatever they want to it pending they follow planning and development guidelines. Sick of the whiny bitches in this city crying about anything and everything.
Whatever, this is just another case of a rich guy using underhanded business tactics to ensure he got a good deal on property. IMHO, if you acquire something by hiding your true intentions or identity, that is nothing but fraud. Here’s hoping the land is designated as residential and the city won’t change it.
On one hand, the Steeles have every right to buy those houses and use the land as the zoning allows. It is certainly not fraud to buy a property without broadcasting your intentions to the world. It’s a private business transaction.
On the other hand, expansion of the auto dealership would be a total downer for that part of the city. An auto dealership with a huge parking lot full of cars is not “urban DEVELOPMENT”, it is SUBurban development and is much better suited to the outskirts of town. We should be striving to see those large expanses of parking lot replaced with buildings that bring people downtown, are pleasant to walk by, and provide services to the people living around them. That would be urban development.
he just bought the whole point from the Harnish’s in Queensland 1.4 million…and the word is he will build a castle house there.
The homes are dumps and mostly vacant. No one was clamouring to purchase them prior and develop them into some kind of hippie low rent nirvana. So a guy comes along and buys the business with the intention of updating and improving it (this is called “investing in our city” people). I can’t imagine everyone would prefer the buildings sit until they become boarded off and collapse.
Don’t like it? Pony up the cash and buy it yourself or close the trap.
Is The Coast going to do any follow-up reporting on the additional purchases and the fact that all of these houses are slated to be torn down within the next month or two? What kind of city is this when a rich dude can just buy a neighbourhood and tear it down for to park cars on, and no one says shit?
And yeah, “Willbest”, Rob Steele didn’t purchase the properties to “update and improve” them, he bought them to tear them all down and turn the neighbourhood into a parking lot for his car dealership. That’s probably the worst possible use of inner-city real-estate. Besides, just because a house is run-down doesn’t mean it’s not a person’s home, and just because a neighbourhood doesn’t meet your aesthetic standards doesn’t mean it isn’t a community.
On the agenda, yeah, JereBat. Thanks for the reminder to check back in, though.
Steele sucks donkey dick.
I understand, a company buying property to turn into a parking lot does seem a bit absurd when you first read it, but Steele group has not gotten to where they are by doing silly things. 17 properties are going to be razed, but the owners have all sold in good faith. So if Colonial Honda is able to have more inventory and expand its business, that leads to job creation. Sure, not talking about 100’s of jobs, but could very well be 10-15 jobs in the 30K-65K range, depending on the job. Also, with that much of an acreage gain, wouldn’t be surprised to see Steele add another dealership (hey, anybody heard of this upstart Tesla company??) to the property, again, more jobs, with an average dealership employing about 25-50 people.
So,with properties all bought in good faith, owners all sold in good faith, and potential for decent job creation, it doesn’t always have to be doom and gloom. And I have no crystal ball, this could totally become the pit of Robie St. I should also state that I have moved out of HRM so don’t really have any stakes in anything, but just want to put something out there from the usual “change …arrgghhh…not here” mentality. I agree it sucks when neighbourhoods disappear, but they are only there because someone else took a chance and thought of a change awhile ago.
Oh, and also, as to why dealerships are being bought and consolidated by just a few companies (Steele, O’Reagans, Fox, etc..) It is all about buying power and ability to float inventory costs. If you own X number of Ford dealerships, you can buy your stock at a better price than if your competitor who owns 1 dealership, and be able to offer better pricing. And if you have 100 vehicles on your lot for an avg price of 35,000$, that is 3.5 Million in inventory costs you need to be able to carry.(plus salaries, equipment costs, parts inventory, property costs, etc..)
WE HAVE OUR CITY PLANNERS TO BLAME AS WELL AS CITY COUNCIL. TIME FOR TOTAL CHANGE. GOOD BYE MR MAYOR.