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  #221  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2012, 6:20 PM
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It's not quite as bad as going out to Bayers Lake. The Halifax Shopping Centre has a fair amount of stuff and good transit access. People can also buy online of course.

One problem with Spring Garden Road is there's nowhere to put large stores, and another is that the downtown population isn't really that large, and a certain number of them own cars and will go out to shop in the suburbs. Any business selling something like basic bedding is catering only to the local population, because people living in the suburbs will just go to malls or power centres. We could have gotten some major retailers at Spring Garden and Queen but that was claimed instead as the new library site. Queen/Clyde is going to NSLC most likely. Maybe we will see something good in the second Sister Sites building (Dresden Row) or in a development of the former TD block between Brunswick and Queen.

The YMCA development has the space too but it's kind of far away from the main retail strip. Then again, there's more and more retail along South Park Street so who knows?
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  #222  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 12:09 AM
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The problem is that downtown was gutted by the creation of the Halifax Shopping Centre and Bayer's Lake. Downtown shouldn't need to have a big population to remain the centre and heart of the city. Most British cities don't have a huge population living right in the centre (they're generally all retail and commerce), but the centres have such great facilities that people want to head into them from the suburbs at the weekend; it's a 'day out'. People come in to shop, have lunch somewhere nice with their friends, visit the library, take in a movie, sit in a nice public square and chill out people-watching, check out an exhibition, have some drinks at a bar; just taking in the lively atmosphere. You can do them all within walking distance so it's a great place to come. There's no need to drive a car from each individual place to place and do things one by one.

I don't really feel that you need a lot of nearby housing to support a great downtown. How much housing is there within walking distance of Bayer's lake? The facilities draw people there.

If you build it, they will come

Here's hoping there's space to squeeze in some decent shopping space in the remaining vacant downtown lots. Oh, and here's hoping the council lower the rents for businesses downtown!
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  #223  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 12:29 AM
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I think Halifax will have a bit more of that with the new library, but one big difference compared to the UK that you have pointed out already is the level of suburban development. UK cities as far as I know don't really have the equivalent of Hammonds Plains or Sackville. A significant chunk of metropolitan Halifax has no transit service of any kind and lives maybe a 30-40 minute drive away from the downtown area.

It would be nice to turn the downtown area into more of a destination but I think it's a lot easier to do that in conjunction with a large amount of residential development. Transit is the another important factor and is hugely lacking in Halifax.

Developments like Scotia Square to some degree already explored the "build it and they will come" approach, although in that case the focus was on parking and providing a mall-like atmosphere. Downtowns can't compete with suburbia for parking and malls have to be pretty special to draw people in from 30 or 40 minutes away.
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  #224  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 11:17 AM
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Sister sites and major or upscale department stores

I would like to see the sister sites developed into 2 levels of shopping and including a Bay and a Holts as part of their offering. Of course apartments above.
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  #225  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 11:26 AM
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Originally Posted by ILoveHalifax View Post
I would like to see the sister sites developed into 2 levels of shopping and including a Bay and a Holts as part of their offering. Of course apartments above.
Yeah, having an 'anchor' tenant, like one of those stores would be great to draw people in. Other shops would then spring up around it.
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  #226  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 11:26 AM
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According the Cesar Salah, who works for Fares, the bottom is polished granite, the brown is actually brick, details in fake limestone concrete, then above it is green glass and that aluminum type cladding.
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  #227  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 2:13 PM
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I find this part of the article particularly misleading:

the property height restriction is seven storeys but developers can bypass HRM by Design rules if public amenities are included

The rules are not being bypassed. The provisions for added height in exchange for affordable housing are part of the rules. It seems the FOS are adopting the old STV/Heritage Trust trick of adding their own spin to HRM rules. They used to be fond of commenting that sites had "40 foot height limits" that developers were trying to get around. Totally misleading. In reality there was a framework for as-of-right development under that height or the development agreement process under the MPS.
This is exactly the type of analysis we need presented at council when these people use erroneous interpretations of planning policy as being true.
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  #228  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 2:15 PM
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I would like to see the sister sites developed into 2 levels of shopping and including a Bay and a Holts as part of their offering. Of course apartments above.
It would be great if the Bay wasn't such a disaster outside of big cities. They seem to struggle to manage their current store network.
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  #229  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 2:16 PM
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Is there an H&M in downtown Halifax?
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  #230  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 2:44 PM
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Originally Posted by ILoveHalifax View Post
I would like to see the sister sites developed into 2 levels of shopping and including a Bay and a Holts as part of their offering. Of course apartments above.
I would also be please with two levels of retail, especially if this included department stores. This area, with its smaller streets, is great for walking traffic and a prime spot to expand upon Spring Garden's base of shopping.
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  #231  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 2:45 PM
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Is there an H&M in downtown Halifax?
No.
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  #232  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 2:46 PM
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Is there an H&M in downtown Halifax?
Nope... there's one out at Mic Mac, but that's the only one in the HRM.
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  #233  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2012, 3:24 PM
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A significant chunk of metropolitan Halifax has no transit service of any kind and lives maybe a 30-40 minute drive away from the downtown area.

It would be nice to turn the downtown area into more of a destination but I think it's a lot easier to do that in conjunction with a large amount of residential development. Transit is the another important factor and is hugely lacking in Halifax.

Developments like Scotia Square to some degree already explored the "build it and they will come" approach, although in that case the focus was on parking and providing a mall-like atmosphere. Downtowns can't compete with suburbia for parking and malls have to be pretty special to draw people in from 30 or 40 minutes away.
Competing with suburban parking can be done with parking garages and concurrent publicly funded underground parking construction with existing private and public developments. You're very correct in mentioning the lack of public transit for a sighnificant portion of Halifax's population. These dependent car users will be more likely to travel all the way to the downtown for a 'day trip' with increased parking availability. Having more downtown residents is a goal, but a fair share of Haligonians would rather die than live downtown. They want their big backyards, their massive gardens, ...their chickens, and what have you....

It would be thrilling for both the Scotia Square Mall and the Park Lane Mall to expand.

We're fortunate that have a downtown that is already very tiny and walkable.
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  #234  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2012, 2:55 PM
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Wow, I never thought of bringing in Department stores to the new sister sites, this would be fantastic. Having 2 levels of shopping on this site would be amazing, allowing for a lot of retail space. I know Nordstroms and some other big U.S. stores are expanding into Canada. This would be prime, prestige real estate to attract these stores as this is the market they would want. Pass all these comments along to the contact at W.M. Fares please. We REALLY need more retail in the Spring Garden Road district to attract more people downtown and to provide of course more choice, driving up the demand to come downtown. The Mills site on Spring Garden Road is up for sale, so maybe this could be incorporated into a redesign of the sister block there, providing frontage directly onto Spring Garden Road. This could be done with minimal disruption to the store itself and allow for room to expand the Shops at Mills as well. Just a thought, but having frontage directly on the street would attract the foot traffic into the sister site mall behind it.

Furthermore, at the Library site, I think site could extend the retail atmosphere as well with ground level stores of some sort (coffee store , children's toystore, bakery, convenience store). I don't know if there are any provisions there for retail, but it is a further area that could incorporate some small stores onto the SG Road retail area.

Last edited by teddifax; Jul 27, 2012 at 3:11 PM.
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  #235  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2012, 2:09 AM
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The detailed designs are out now;

Design Review Committee Presentation

Note the under-grounding of utilities.
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  #236  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2012, 2:42 AM
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Are any architectural building renderings/sketches available? I really would like to see what this complex would look like, it is hard to tell from this!
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  #237  
Old Posted Aug 4, 2012, 2:55 AM
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There's a rendering on the previous page of this thread.

It's a little sad how most of the streetscape improvements and utility burying that happens downtown is from piecemeal developer contributions. Halifax is a strange mix of shiny new developments, some nicely restored buildings, and then some pretty shabby areas that look like they haven't been maintained in decades.

I wonder how long it will be before the developers get final approval and can move ahead with construction? Hopefully work can start in the fall.
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  #238  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2012, 7:12 AM
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The design review committee presentation for this is in a few days and a final decision might be rendered by September 13. The developers still hope to be able to begin construction of the first building in 2012, with the second to follow 6-8 months later.

I hope we don't have to wait too long for this. It's arguably the last remaining major hole in the ~12 block Spring Garden Road district.
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  #239  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2012, 2:15 AM
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The HRM by Design Review Committee will decide on the Mary Ann development this Thursday.
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  #240  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2012, 8:43 PM
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Whatever they do, I hope it has a consistent street-level appearance. The shops on the Greystones are crazy... you have to roll a dice to decide which door is the right one to get in the shop... Should I go up the set of stairs, or down a set of stairs, or is it the street-level door that'll get me into the shop that I can see in front of me? Craziness.
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