Downtown development not developing as fast as businesses would like
Posted Jan 13, 2011 10:28:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nearly two dozen development projects are unfinished or haven’t started construction in Halifax’s downtown core according to a map released by the Downtown Halifax Business Commission and the Dalhousie-based Planning and Design Centre. The sites are all in some stage of being approved with little to no road block and yet the commission questions why there are still so many vacant lots and empty buildings in the core.
“Developers are buying and assembling land, hiring architects, and working their way through the approval system,” Paul MacKinnon, executive director wrote in his press release Wednesday. “Despite this, as you will note, most of these projects are not yet underway. Many it is conjectured will not happen for years, if ever.”
The map refers to 23 projects in various stages of development from the Seaport Farmers Market which is open for business, but still under construction, to International Place which received approval in 1978 and hasn’t broken ground.
What’s also missing is $27 to $39 million in annual municipal taxes revenue these projects would bring in once completed. MacKinnon says a lot of these projects were planned before the economy collapsed in 2009, which would explain why some shovels are not breaking ground.
Coun. Dawn Sloan (Halifax Downtown) says things are moving forward however she says council should press some developers for timelines and construction start dates. She also suggest many projects will start work in the spring.
