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  #21  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2009, 12:38 AM
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Barrington south Barrington south is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JET View Post
East coastal mentions the new building on Buddy Daye and Gottingen; very nice and they spent some good time making a quality building (unlike Spice). A dreadful new building is just down from Gus's pub, duplex that all garage on the street, and probably not cheap to buy.
Barington south, I don't get your rant on welfare recipients, "bless their hearts"; what are your thoughts on habitat for Humanity? JET
ummmm, look up the definition of the word rant..... that wasn't a rant.....(I'm the first to admit if I am ranting....I don't care....(and i rant alot).....what I said sounds more like sarcasm to me....habitat for humanity?......if that's how people want to spend their time...I couldn't care less...but don't come running to me gloating about your do gooder little heart... ....do I help anyone personaly??.....well I employ 28 full time people, and a half dozen part time'ers so I help people get habitat the old fashioned way.....working for it....
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  #22  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2009, 2:25 PM
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Yep, that clarifies it for me. JET
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  #23  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2009, 2:23 AM
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I employ 28 full time people, and a half dozen part time'ers so I help people get habitat the old fashioned way.
Do gooder
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  #24  
Old Posted Aug 25, 2009, 5:44 PM
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This is an excerpt from an article in the July 2009 issue of Canadian Architect. The whole article discussion more about the C/GDA and their 3 other completed projects.


C/GDA master plan:



Project Gottingen Terrace, Gottingen Street
Architect Niall Savage Architecture
Client C/GDA
Architect Team Niall Savage, Rayleen Hill, Tom Evans with Grant Wanzel consulting
Structural Campbell Comeau Engineeering
Contractor Bird Rideau
Area 44,000 ft2
Budget $5.5 M
Completion July 2011

Gottingen Terrace--Phase 4: 48 condominiums
Not yet built, Gottingen Terrace is comprised of 16 brick-and-metal four-storey townhouses with a frontage of 350 feet on Gottingen Street. This includes 16 two-bedroom units (560 to 615 square feet) on grade; 16 one-bedroom units (525 to 556 square feet) on the second floor, and 16 three-bedroom units (1,165 to 1,220 square feet) over two floors on the third and fourth levels. The design establishes a rhythm of eight paired four-storey terraced houses with common central stairs and side entrances. Entry porches and a variety of front balconies will animate Gottingen Street while brick screens will provide further relief to the large number of windows that enable all units to remain dual-aspect. All ground units have front and rear terraces, with landscaping, bicycle sheds and a play area in the rear, in addition to on-site parking accessible from Gerrish Lane. The creation of a laneway internal to the block takes parking off the street while the slope of the site assists in creating a series of continuous layers from the street to the inner block from both Gottingen and Creighton Streets. Urban design moves such as these also provide clues for the future development of the empty site behind the bank on Cunard Street. Although Gottingen Terrace is not taking advantage of any formal programs for funding, offsets have been created by the C/GDA in assembling a variety of other sources of benefit that have allowed the condominiums to be priced well under market value.

Background buildings that promote strong urban principles while forming part of the urban fabric have always been the hallmark of good design. The four designs by Niall Savage do exactly that--they pick up on street edges, balcony rhythms, housing typologies, and courtyard spaces. Instead of the classic commercial/ residential mix found in most mixed-use projects, the C/GDA has developed a model that provides mixed-income and mixed-tenure housing types through well-designed architecture, each project responding to a different urban condition and a different clientele. The resulting "quiet urbanism" of the overall master-planning strategy may go unnoticed as passersby walk along Gottingen or Creighton Streets. Although the Creighton/ Gerrish Development Association's incredible input and modest outcome causes this author to lament the great impoverishment brought about by homogeneous gentrification and myopic urban renewal in our North American cities, the lessons offered in the Creighton/Gerrish initiative underscore how much can be accomplished with a clear vision and an unswerving commitment to the process of housing. CA

Source: Canadian Architect July 2009
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  #25  
Old Posted Oct 24, 2009, 3:36 AM
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Construction of affordable housing on Gottingen a go
Non-profit developer Grant Wanzell says Gottingen Terrace project across from the North Branch library doing "better than the private sector"
by Tim Bousquet

Gottingen Terrace, the affordable housing project planned for the old Sobeys site on Gottingen Street, across from the North Branch Library, is alive and well, says Grant Wanzell, president of the Creighton/Gerrish Development Association, the non-profit organization behind the development. The recession has slowed the housing industry everywhere, "but we're doing much better than the private sector," says Wanzell, pictured above. About a quarter of the 48 units have been pre-sold. People with household incomes as low as $33,000 can buy into the project.

Earlier this year, Wanzell had expressed hope that construction could start as soon as this fall, but now he's hoping for the spring. Prospective buyers can contact him at 789-2432.
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  #26  
Old Posted Oct 24, 2009, 3:55 PM
Spitfire75 Spitfire75 is offline
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Last time I drove down Gottingen, I noticed there's a billboard up for this project on the lot.
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  #27  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2010, 1:23 PM
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I've heard that this is about 60% sold, with intention to start construction in early autumn 2010.
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  #28  
Old Posted Feb 25, 2010, 3:32 AM
Halifax Hillbilly Halifax Hillbilly is offline
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Good to see this moving forward. Grant is a great guy, seems to have an enormous amount of patience and determination to move this forward.

This area already has a lot of lower income housing but not a lot is owner occupied and there is new money and new investment flowing in. These types of development will help keep a balance in the neighbourhood as new people move in.
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  #29  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2010, 6:13 PM
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I've heard that this is about 60% sold, with intention to start construction in early autumn 2010.
According to their website this is now 50% sold.
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  #30  
Old Posted Sep 1, 2010, 3:34 AM
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The sign on site has had a 50% sold on it for a good 6 months now I think.
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  #31  
Old Posted Sep 22, 2010, 9:52 PM
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Pre-sales on this project have been put on hold - and have been for the past 6 months or so - until a formal agreement with Province is reached. Hopefully something will be reached soon.
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  #32  
Old Posted Sep 23, 2010, 11:57 AM
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Pre-sales on this project have been put on hold - and have been for the past 6 months or so - until a formal agreement with Province is reached. Hopefully something will be reached soon.
Seems odd for that location. Any idea what the hold up is?
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  #33  
Old Posted Sep 25, 2010, 5:24 PM
JustinMacD JustinMacD is offline
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Gottigen Terrace is getting national attention:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1725247/

Rebuilding Halifax’s most feared neighbourhood, one project at a time
Chris Benjamin
Halifax— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 24, 2010 10:00PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 24, 2010 10:18PM EDT

Gottingen Street, Halifax’s premier retail strip in the 1960s, has an unenviable reputation these days. Lining it are a mix of abandoned businesses, vacant lots, antique churches and the odd hip café. Violent crime is high, as is unemployment – one in 10 residents is on social assistance – and in a poll in May, Haligonians named it and the surrounding area the most feared neighbourhood in the city.

Perfect place, then, to build a chic, environmentally friendly condominium.

That’s Dalhousie University architecture professor Grant Wanzel’s vision, and while condo developments have begun popping up regularly here, his project does not aim for gentrification. The founder of Creighton/Gerrish Development Association, Prof. Wanzel intends for his condos to be affordable to those making as little as $31,000 a year.

The professor is known as an affordable-housing guru in this city, with a seat on the boards of Halifax’s non-profit housing society, the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and countless other national housing coalitions. In the past 12 years, he’s made it his mission to transform the Gottingen Street area.

His latest effort, the 48-unit Gottingen Terrace, is in the planning stage and on the market with one-bedrooms starting at $124,500 and three-bedrooms at $189,500 – about $100,000 to $150,000 less than equivalent listings in the area. The monthly mortgage rate is only slightly higher than what CMHC calls “deeply affordable” rental rates.

Home-ownership schemes for low-income families exist in Vancouver, Montreal and Ontario, but no one has done it quite like Prof. Wanzel. He keeps prices low by mobilizing government bureaucracies, highly skilled volunteer architects and social service agencies.

Gary Chandler is one of 24 confirmed buyers for Gottingen Terrace. He grew up one street over and works as a hospital porter, earning a little over minimum wage. The condo, he said, “gives me a chance to pay for something brand new, something of my own. With no more rent increases.”

For Prof. Wanzel, this project has been his toughest challenge. It has received verbal support from the non-profit sector, all levels of government, and private and public loans, but it has not received the subsidies – from any level of government – that could make home ownership affordable to an even lower income bracket.

And while he has had a series of positive meetings with Nova Scotia’s deputy minister of policy and priorities, rising bank rates have already increased anticipated costs. “The loan was more expensive than I expected and the lender required a guarantee,” he said. “We went back to get the province to guarantee the loan. It’s been with them for several weeks now.”

Which means a stalled project for Prof. Wanzel.

Even if he gets a construction loan, without dedicated government funding to subsidize purchase prices, these properties will be inaccessible for low-income families. Ideally, the new homeowners would come from renters – 87 per cent of neighbourhood residents – particularly the half of them using social and public housing.

Dan Troke, director of housing at the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, says his department is paying attention to Prof. Wanzel’s progress, but the province’s focus is on rental accommodation. “The highest need is where people are paying more than 30 per cent of their income on rent,” he said. “There is a lot of other activity happening in the Gottingen Street neighbourhood, with non-profits buying land and looking to develop rentals to balance out all the condo developments happening there now.”

Prof. Wanzel’s condo project is the fourth and final phase of a rebuild he started in 1998, when he persuaded the Halifax Regional Municipality to donate two properties and give tax exemptions on others as prices bottomed out. “The area was in serious decline,” he recalled. “There was lots of government investment but it wasn’t coming together. The slumlords were speculating on a vacant property … so we wanted to get it off the market and dedicate it to households with moderate means.”

The land has since tripled in value. The not-for-profit organization Prof. Wanzel founded, Creighton/Gerrish, parlayed those gains into building 29 single rental units, six affordable townhouses and 12 affordable family apartments.

Creighton-Gerrish then invested $2.5-million into a fund held by the provincial affordable-housing program. When a family buys a unit, it takes a share of that value as debt in the form of a second mortgage. If it sells within five years, it has to pay back the second mortgage to the province, but if it holds it longer, the second mortgage is forgiven. That prevents house flipping and the money can be recycled into more affordable housing.

“People keep telling us it’s had a visible impact,” Prof. Wanzel said.

Several new businesses have started up in recent years and the area has begun to draw students and artists. A few quality housing projects can’t single-handedly resolve interwoven issues of crime and income disparity, but Prof. Wanzel hopes that giving residents the chance to build equity will provide a layer of security they haven’t had before.

Special to The Globe and Mail
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  #34  
Old Posted Sep 25, 2010, 9:10 PM
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When a family buys a unit, it takes a share of that value as debt in the form of a second mortgage. If it sells within five years, it has to pay back the second mortgage to the province, but if it holds it longer, the second mortgage is forgiven. That prevents house flipping and the money can be recycled into more affordable housing.
And I wonder how much this costs the taxpayer? Stay 5 years, flip the house, and pocket the proceeds.

I believe this is the same program that Coun. Dawn Sloane used (legally if not ethically) to obtain her taxpayer-subsidized home.
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  #35  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2011, 6:13 AM
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Anybody know what's going on with this?
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  #36  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2011, 3:04 AM
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Square Feet had a post on this: http://halifax.infomonkey.net/blog.d...?post_id=19861

Looks like financing is now in place and they are just about ready to begin construction.

I think these will be a huge shot in the arm for the street. The increased density will be helpful along with more "eyes on the street". They'll also look way better than the current giant derelict lot.
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  #37  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2011, 4:06 AM
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Square Feet had a post on this: http://halifax.infomonkey.net/blog.d...?post_id=19861

Looks like financing is now in place and they are just about ready to begin construction.

I think these will be a huge shot in the arm for the street. The increased density will be helpful along with more "eyes on the street". They'll also look way better than the current giant derelict lot.
The increased density will be good for the area. However, I am very, very, skeptical about this development. This same group built similar units on Buddy Day and they are by all accounts shoddy at best. The structure looks 40 years old, sports the very cheapest materials, has zero architectural detail and above all has the stamp of an ugly design....lots of graffiti. The development is 3 years old and looks very tired. I think the same prognosis is in store for this development. The cheapest materials will be used with no design detail. Within a couple of years of construction the units will be an eyesore due to a degraded materials. I hope the design can be addressed before construction begins because this is such a prime location. This type of development in the Gottingen area seems to be suffering from extremely poor craftsmanship as well. A number of new units show poor workmanship for items such as cladding on unit fire separation, roofing, siding, windows, entry systems etc.....(Spice included)
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Last edited by Empire; Apr 15, 2011 at 4:18 AM.
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  #38  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2011, 12:28 PM
FuzzyWuz FuzzyWuz is offline
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...and above all has the stamp of an ugly design....lots of graffiti.
Are you saying graffiti artists show respect to well designed structures? How noble of them.
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  #39  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2012, 11:35 PM
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There are still plans to redevelop this site but the townhouse plan has been cancelled. Some details are here: http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/...housing-crisis

It's a sad article that shows just how disorganized the city and province are, and just how much the development process has been hijacked by groups like the Heritage Trust.

Phil Pacey's views as usual are absurd:

Pacey fears that if zoning is changed to allow new, taller buildings, existing affordable housing stock could be lost.

Completely backward. You do not lose affordable housing stock by upzoning vacant properties to 10 storeys and then building 120-unit affordable housing projects on them. More generally, allowing higher density causes the cost per unit to go down (increase in the housing supply) and makes it possible to house more people in the same area. As prices go up in the North End, the poorest will be pushed out. Saving some heritage houses is not going to stop that. It is dishonest to pretend that heritage preservation is about helping poor people. It's not.

...Pacey argues. "Older housing may have paid off its mortgage so the owners may be able to rent these properties for the cost of utilities, heat, maintenance and taxes."

Yeah, if I were a landlord with an expensive building on the Peninsula I'd love to rent out the odd unit to low-income residents at cost rather than waiting a few months and getting a tenant who can pay full price. The comment on mortgages being paid off is irrelevant; all that matters is the market value of the housing. Assuming he hasn't already, maybe Phil Pacey can lead the charge here by putting up somebody with a substance abuse problem in his basement.
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  #40  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2012, 5:04 AM
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I found the comment about the province not willing to amend the HRM charter to allow density bonusing for the Regional Centre troubling. If the Regional Centre plan is going to work (and if we want to build complete communities) - we need to make sure everyone can be included. The fact is, rents are going up and if we don't offer market adjusted rents or low income housing, the only a few people will get to enjoy up and coming areas while many will be left out.

That annoys me to no end.
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