Quote:
Originally Posted by counterfactual
I love this stuff, but I don't think some like that is possible in Halifax right now, as the economics just don't work.
In Toronto, you have the sky high property value and the intense levels of density, such that you can have a shorter restored heritage building and easily find high end tenants like "trendy" restaurants, specialty shops, or small but high yield business/finance outfits.
Those restaurants and specialty shops survive because surrounding the 7 storey restored heritage building on three sides are 28+ storey skyscrapers, and comparable levels of density a short walk or subway ride away.
In Halifax you don't have those kinds of options in clients, you don't have the density, and you don't have the property values.
I think eventually we will, but to get there, we need developments like this, to bring more high end businesses back downtown, bring prestige back to doing business in the core. Part of that, is working in an office that is the "talk of the town".
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Wouldn't it work the other way? That the intense real-estate value in downtown Toronto would make it unfeasible to preserve small buildings (this developer doesn't have an adjacent tower or anything--it's just this building). You can get higher-end clients, and there's a greater density of customers for a business, but the real-estate values are far, far higher as well. (The thing at the bottom of the Dineen building is just a coffee shop...lotsa business people, given the location, but I still don't imagine a coffee shop is paying for the building).
You see this in other cities too, that was just one example. Heck, look at Barrington Espace, or the NFB project, or the Lynch building on this site. I think with a project of Commerce Square's size, the other buildings could be more fully integrated at a reasonable cost. (Granted, I'm not an expert on these matters. But judging from what I've seen locally and elsewhere...)