Council Approves Waverley Inn Alteration With 10-Storey Tower
HALIFAX—Halifax Regional Council has approved a plan to alter the historic Waverley Inn on Barrington Street with a 10-storey tower.
The plan will see the back wing of the historic property removed to make way for the tower. It also includes upgrades and renovations to restore historic pieces of the building that have been lost over the years.
Nassim Ghosn’s Sterling Hotel Ltd. is behind the proposed changes.
Sterling bought the Waverley Inn shortly after former owner Abe Leventhal died in 2016. The Inn has been closed since 2020, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now, Sterling is pursuing an “ambitious” proposal that will substantially increase the inn’s capacity and add another tall building to a densely built area of the city.
RELATED: Historic Halifax Inn To Be Altered With Ten-Storey Tower
March 22, council heard from both the planners behind the project and HRM residents who will be affected by it.
Most of the public who addressed council opposed the project. Many said it was too big for the neighbourhood and several took issue with what they believed were misleading renderings they felt downplayed the true size and scale of the 10-storey tower.
Mike Fitzmaurice told council he loves the idea of restoring the Waverley Inn. But he thinks that restoration is being used as a smokescreen to build a massive building in the middle of a heritage district.
“I love the idea of restoring the Waverley Inn, it really could use a nice facelift. But here’s the deal: it’s going to be overshadowed, dwarfed by a 10-storey slab encircling it from multiple angles,” he said.
“This is an attempt to drop a really big building… into a historic heritage district and justify it with a nice façade.”
The Waverley Inn sits in what the city calls the “Old South Suburb,” which was the first suburb in Halifax. Development in the suburb must conform to a policy developed specifically for the area.
Coun. Waye Mason argued Sterling’s proposed changes are exactly in line with that policy.
He pointed out the policy was designed to incentivize developers to preserve heritage buildings while also recognizing the area is an urban centre that can facilitate denser development.
“It’s the carrot in the stick right? The stick is, once we created the heritage district all of these buildings are registered now and can’t be torn down without an extensive process,” Mason said. “The carrot is, we’ll let you build these bigger buildings but you have to fix the heritage.”
“This [proposal] is not the exception; this is the rule. This is the kind of thing that we’ve asked property owners to come back with,” he said.
Coun. Patty Cuttell, meanwhile, expressed some reservations about how the Old South Suburb policy is being applied.
“Our end goal is to preserve more of our heritage stock. But I also think we need to understand the fabric and how these buildings relate to the rest of the buildings and the streetscape in the city and the overall effect and impact that we have,” she said.
“I get so concerned when I see new developments that don’t have any breathing space, that don’t have any trees, that don’t allow for those sacred little spaces in our city… were losing that,” she said.
Despite her concerns, Cuttell joined with the rest of her council colleagues in approving Sterling’s plan for the Inn.
With the plan securing council approval, work on the restoration of the Inn and construction of the new building can begin shortly.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].