Construction Of Downtown Halifax Arts Centre Back On Track
HALIFAX – The Light House Arts Centre will enter its second phase of construction in mid-March with plans to open to the public this fall.
The centre was originally supposed to open last fall, but the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted its timeline and wreaked havoc on the entertainment industry and events business.
“This crisis definitely left us reeling, but at the same time it gave us some time to recalibrate and think about how we can move forward and still be of service to the community and how we can still try and fulfill the majority of our plans,” said Marc Almon, founder and Director of Business Development and Community Relations. “We’re feeling good about the future after having taken that time to think about our next steps.”
The Light House is a multi-level and multi-discipline cultural hub, which will encompass 84,000 square feet of space after Phase II construction is complete. It consists of its 37,000 square foot television and media production studio, a 10,000 square foot performance hall, a cinema, DANSpace (Dance Nova Scotia’s two dance performances spaces) and the Creative Entrepreneurs’ Center, a co-working and hub-style working space dedicated to supporting non-profit cultural organizations and for-profit start-ups.
Almon says Light House is a community interest company, with 60 percent of its profits going back into the community in the form of grants to help offset and reduce the cost of renting its facilities. Its assets are locked into the community, so if the organization should fold the assets will remain for communal use.
The centre also keeps the public and its funders and collaborators informed of its finances through annual reports tracking its progress.
It is the only one of its kind in Atlantic Canada, with plans for additional investments over the next two to three years.
“We were able to raise a fairly substantial amount of capital from the three levels of government plus our partner Armco Capital, which owns the building, but we always intend to go back out and try and raise additional funding,” shared Almon.
The Light House’s production studio began operations last October with the production of This Hour Has 22 Minutes as its first tenant. The East Coast Music Awards and Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative have also signed up as tenants along with numerous non-profit and for-profit start-ups.
An unprecedented boom in media consumption, up 20 percent over 2019, caused by Covid-19 has created a unique bottleneck of shoots resuming production and conflicting with new projects in development – leading to an abundance of opportunities for Light House and Nova Scotia’s film and television industry.
The province’s film industry has been rebuilding since 2015 with the creation of the Nova Scotia Film & Television Production Incentive Fund after Nova Scotia’s film tax credit was cut. The incentive has been extended for another five years, through to 2025-2026.
“Now it looks like things are really starting to pick up again – our low COVID numbers are actually a huge advantage compared to the rest of the world,” said Almon. “It’s unprecedented times and I think Nova Scotia is extremely well-positioned to take advantage of it.”