Posted Aug 29, 2012, 1:04 PM
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Halifax Promoter!
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Halifax
Posts: 1,080
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From the CH today.
Halifax tower complex in early stages
15 hours ago
By REMO ZACCAGNA Business Reporter
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The conversion of a Young Street strip mall into a mixed-use residential complex featuring two 17-storey towers is likely years away, even with a public hearing into the proposal scheduled in less than two weeks.
W.M. Apartments Ltd., through sister company 215 Pembroke Street East Ltd., is seeking an amendment to the Halifax land-use bylaw and approval of a proposed development agreement to allow for the redevelopment of the one-hectare site at 6100 Young St.
A public hearing into the matter is set for Sept. 10, but it is unknown when work will begin even if regional council approves the project.
“The objective would be to go right away, but what is right away? Is that a year from now, two years from now? It’s difficult to say,” Robert Margeson, vice-president of W.M. Apartments, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
“I can’t really say a date until we do have the approval, and we have to then study the viability of the project by determining the construction costs, what financing is available, and then determining what will be done with the existing tenant base.”
The company has owned the strip mall, which included a 99-year land lease with Halifax Regional Municipality, from 1994 until last September when 215 Pembroke Street East purchased the property from the city for $2.8 million, public documents indicated.
The property is assessed at slightly more than $5.1 million.
According to the proposal, the company is seeking to replace the existing strip mall with two 13-storey apartment towers that would sit atop a shared, mixed-use four-storey podium.
The towers and podium would include anywhere from 260 to 320 apartments, about 33,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, and 369 parking spots, a majority of which would be underground for residential use.
Municipal staff submitted a report to Peninsula community council Aug. 13 that recommended the project be approved.
“In the opinion of staff, the proposed (land-use bylaw) amendment and development agreement are in keeping with the objectives and policies of the Halifax (municipal planning strategy) to develop the lands in a comprehensive manner and to address compatible issues with the surrounding uses,” the report said.
The site is ideal for this type of development, Margeson said, given that it is at the intersection of Young Street and Monaghan Drive, across from the Atlantic Superstore and on the same block as the Halifax Forum, among other amenities.
“It’s a phenomenal location ... there’s four lanes of traffic, there’s grocery stores, drugstores, liquor stores — all the services are right there. And it’s very closely connected to the 102, to Bayers Lake, to get out of the city, and even the MacKay bridge to Dartmouth and to the airport.”
The proposed development agreement allows some flexibility in terms of having commercial and retail space on the ground floor only or including some on the second floor.
Ideal commercial tenants for the complex would cater toward the residential user, meaning services that include food stores and coffee shops, Margeson said.
The company will help relocate the 14 strip mall tenants “when the time is correct,” he said.
Construction costs have not been nailed down.
Meanwhile, Margeson said the second of two $15-million, 96-unit apartment buildings at the corner of Bently and Washmill Lake drives in the Mount Royale subdivision is on track to be completed by July.
However, while the company also received approval for a 12-storey, 103-unit residential development at 249 Windmill Rd. in Dartmouth, it is unclear when that project will get off the ground.
(rzaccagna@herald.ca)
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