Robie Street Businesses Say Government Expropriation is Forcing Them to Close
HALIFAX — Mark Giffin bought The Coastal Café 16 years ago, at a time when it was more affordable to build a small business. Using money he had inherited, it cost him a remarkably low sum to launch his Robie Street café.
“How I wound up with this place was kind of remarkable,” recalls Giffin. “My mother passed away the year before and left a small inheritance. One Tuesday before I went into work, I just looked at what is for sale in Halifax. And I saw an ad for a north-end coffee shop for $35,000. And I’m like, wow, that’s cheap.”
“The first weekend we advertised a brunch, and we did 18 people. The next weekend we did 56, and then we did 150. And when I first told people I got a coffee shop in north-end Robie, everyone was like ‘you’re nuts, north-end Robie is just dead. There’s nothing there.’”
Now, Giffin’s 16-year journey is coming to an abrupt end.
He claims his landlord, Murex Realty, is telling him the building Coastal Café sits in is being expropriated by the city of Halifax. Giffin says he must vacate by August, but his current lease ends in June. Therefore, the last service from the café will happen on May 28.
In an email to Huddle, the municipality confirmed it is “engaging with landowners” to acquire property on Robie Street. The goal is to make space for the rapid bus transit strategy. The spokesperson didn’t use the term “expropriate,” however. The city spokesperson also refused to give more details, citing ongoing negotiations.
Huddle tried reaching out to Murex Realty to clarify whether they have agreed to sell the land to the city, or if it’s being expropriated. Phone calls weren’t returned before our publication deadline.
Throughout Canada, governments have the power to take land from private owners for projects that are in the public interest. This is usually for roads, highways, and other major projects. Under expropriation law, the government or public utility must fairly compensate the landowner.
Expropriating land, while legal, usually receives backlash from the public since it’s often seen as government overreach. Ten years ago, the Nova Scotia government allowed the expropriation of private land, including a Christmas tree farm, to make way for an Australian gold mining venture.
However, since Giffin is leasing his space and not the landowner, is unclear how much compensation, if any, he will receive. He’s talked to a lawyer who told him he is do a “small amount” of compensation. Giffin isn’t even sure if it would be worth the legal fees to pursue.
If he doesn’t receive compensation, Giffin is worried about his financial future. Like most small business owners across the country, he is still struggling to pay back the CEBA loans given out by the federal government during the pandemic. He says he still has more than $30,000 owing from that debt alone. Bankruptcy, says Giffin, is a real possibility.
“I don’t know how I’ve managed to stay open,” said Giffin. “I haven’t been able to hire a cook, so I’ve been doing everything by myself for the past couple years. And that’s it’s been tiring and exhausting.”
But Giffin states that it was the municipality that made business worse during the pandemic. He claims HRM took away the street parking his customers used to create a new bus lane. He estimates a 75 per cent loss in business after he lost those parking spaces.
“And all this construction around as well; it’s a nightmare on weekdays for people. A lot of them have to park two blocks away. I still get the locals, but we were a destination place. People would come from the airport and now there’s no point.”
Giffin is now calling out the city for not even talking to him about the situation or offering any help.
“You’d think someone from the city would come down and say ‘we’re sorry that we’re flipping this on you, is there anything we can do to help? I mean, I’m not asking them to pay off my debts. I’m just asking them to give some consideration to me and the neighbour next door.”
That neighbour next door is P3 Hair, owned by Princess Octavious. Like Giffin, Octavious received word from the landlord that the city is taking over the property and has never heard from anyone representing the city.
“The news came as a shock because we’ve been here for a couple years, and we got notified about it in late February. And we have until the end of August to move. So, I’ve been in the market, looking for a space to move. It’s been hectic.”
The current rental and real estate conditions have made the move difficult of Octavious. On May 3, she signed a new lease for a space on 3260 Barrington Street. But she will now be paying four times the amount of rent she is used to paying.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].