13-Storey Highrise On Gottingen Street In Halifax Is A Go
HALIFAX — Developer Joseph Arab’s plan to build a highrise behind historic Victoria Hall on Gottingen Street will soon become a reality.
Arab’s proposal sailed through a public hearing on August 24, clearing the way for work on the project to start.
Arab plans to build a 13-storey tower on the Victoria Hall property, tearing down a historically insignificant back wing to make room. The highrise will hold 130 units of housing, bolstered by 30 more units inside Victoria Hall itself.
The project has in the past been controversial, with councilors expressing reservations about plunking such a large tower so close to a heritage building.
But they’ve also been reluctant to quash the project entirely, largely because Arab has promised to spend at least $3-million on badly needed renovations to Victoria Hall.
The result has been several years of rejections and revisions that have whittled the tower down to a size and scale the council can live with.
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Tuesday night, Halifax and West Community Council approved a development agreement for the latest iteration of the tower. The handwringing over the project was for the most part gone, and last night members of the community council had little to say.
Coun. Waye Mason pointed out that “all development is difficult for the neighbours” and argued the size and scale of the building is appropriate when considered alongside other projects proposed for the area.
Coun. Lindell Smith, meanwhile, cast the lone vote against the project.
He said understands why residents are concerned “that this is somewhat of a disruption of the neighbourhood.” He pointed out the building will be unique to the immediate area, and bigger than anything around it.
“This will be large; it will really be the only building that will be this size outside of anything new that is built,” he said.
Smith also raised the city’s pressing housing affordability problem.
Halifax has no legal way to force developers to include affordable hosing in their project. Despite that, Arab has agreed to make some of his units affordable.
His development will include four units that will rent at maximum of 50 percent of the market rate for 15 years. Three other units will also rent at maximum costs of 10 percent below the market rate.
But Smith appeared to suggest seven of 130 units isn’t enough.
“It can be difficult for neighbours to see something like this go up with only a few units of affordable housing set aside,” he said.
Housing was also on the minds of nearly everyone who showed up to last night’s public hearing to weigh in on the project.
All but two of the 16 speakers said they supported the project. Many argued it was a way to alleviate some of the affordability pressure in the city.
A parade of business owners, landlords, property managers, and a few renters all said they were excited to see new units come into the market, especially in such a prime location.
Others were happy to see such a strong commitment to the restoration of Victoria Hall by the developer.
One speaker, who said she was a tenant at one of Arab’s other properties, claimed her building contained “multiple health concerns” that aren’t being addressed.
She said she supports adding more housing in Halifax but questioned if someone who, she argued, can’t take care of his current property should be the one to provide it.
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