Halifax Hospitality Group Says Big Events Weren’t Coming Back Soon To Cunard Centre
HALIFAX – The Cunard Centre has been a staple of the Halifax Seaport since it was erected in 2006. The nearly 50,000 square-foot building has hosted countless events over the past 15 years, such as festivals, fundraisers, trade shows, and even the annual Sex Show in the city.
In 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, Cunard was home to 80 events-many of which were multi-day affairs. But for the past 18 months, there have been exactly zero events inside the large space on the waterfront.
The Cunard Centre is owned by the Halifax Port Authority and was operated by RCR Hospitality Group, a company that owns several restaurants and does catering. RCR president Shannon Bruhm says that back in March of 2020, it was impossible to imagine that the pandemic could have caused such a long-term closure of events.
“When the pandemic started, we closed it. Like most other people, we didn’t necessarily know we were going to be closed permanently,” said Bruhm in an interview.
“We ended up being closed permanently since that date in March and we haven’t had any events (since). It’s been sitting vacant.”
On September 2, the Port Authority and RCR co-announced that Cunard Centre would no longer be an event space, pointing the finger directly at the Covid-19 pandemic.
RELATED: Halifax Port Authority Pulls Plug On Cunard Centre
When a 45,000 square-foot space sits empty for a year-and-a-half it becomes a financial liability, rather than an asset. When asked about how much money was sunk into maintaining Cunard during the pandemic, Bruhm didn’t want to get into the specifics.
“I’m not really comfortable getting into (the costs), but certainly it’s a large facility sitting vacant on the Halifax waterfront. It couldn’t stay that way forever,” he said.
The timing may seem odd to those who are anticipating Nova Scotia entering Phase 5 of the reopening plan. During that phase, it is possible most, if not all health restrictions will be lifted, and people can attend large events again. But Bruhm doesn’t think the switch will be so automatic.
“I think that there will be an appetite; people will want to go back to events. I’m just not so sure about the public appetite to be in a facility with 1,000 people shoulder-to-shoulder,” said Bruhm.
“It’s a 50,000 square-foot facility that’s sitting vacant and has been sitting vacant for 18 months and there’s no short-term outlook for that to rebound anytime in the next few months for certain…and who knows when that might be, especially as we go into this fourth wave.”
The pandemic didn’t just shut down the Cunard Centre, it also brought a screeching halt to the catered events. RCR’s catering division is almost nonexistent right now.
“Our catering division, which used to be equal sales with our restaurants pre-pandemic; there’s been virtually no catering revenue since the pandemic began. It’s been a significant loss,” said Bruhm.
Bruhm said, prior to the pandemic, RCR had 300 employees across all divisions but is now down to 220. He said most employees who worked at Cunard and wanted to return to work, was able to be transferred to other jobs inside the company.
To read more stories like this in Huddle, sign up to receive our free daily newsletter.
