Dexel VP Gives New Details On 22-Storey Highrise In Halifax’s West End
HALIFAX — Haligonians are getting a new look at a major development underway in the city’s West End, near the Halifax Shopping Centre.
Dexel Developments has just released new renderings of the highrise tower it’s building at 7037 Mumford Road. The renderings depict the company’s vision for the finished tower, which it’s calling West 22.
West 22 is a 22-storey tower that will house 140 apartments and about 11,000 square feet of retail space, facing Mumford Road.
Kris Skiba is Dexel’s VP of design and construction. He says the units in West 22 will be split primarily between one- and two-bedroom spaces, with a few three-bedroom units thrown in.
Skiba says the units will trend slightly bigger than typical downtown apartments, averaging about 1,100 square feet across the building.
The tower will also feature wraparound balconies on all sides to give residents a little extra outdoor space.
Skiba says Dexel hasn’t finalized any tenants for the ground-floor retail space but that he’s seeing interest from health-related businesses like gyms and health food stores.
“It’s important for us that what we put in there complements the building and it becomes an amenity for the residents, so we’re careful about what goes in there,” he says.
The perfect tenant, he says, would be something like a major pharmacy chain or smaller grocer.
Dexel is known for Halifax developments like the red-balconied VIC Suites on Morris Street and St. Joseph’s Square in the Hydrostone District.
For West 22, the company worked with MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects to design what Skiba hopes will become a signature building in Mumford area.
“It’s a tall building in what’s primarily a lower-rise neighborhood and it has a lot of exposure; you can see it from a lot of high points in Halifax… So it was really important for us that we created something that had an exciting and different look and feel,” Skiba says.
To do that, the team put together an “outside the box” design that features a bright pop of colour and a series of “vertical fins” adorning the sides of the tower.
Skiba said Dexel sees the project as an opportunity to set the tone in a neighoburhood that will likely see much more development in the coming years, thanks to the city’s new Centre Plan.
West 22 itself, meanwhile, is being built under an old set of development bylaws that were in place before the Centre Plan became law.
Under those rules, the project is considered an “as-of-right” development, allowing Dexel to bypass the public information sessions and community council meetings developers must typically go through for similar projects.
Although there are no firm timelines in place for finishing West 22, Dexel aims to open the building in the spring or summer of next year and begin pre-leasing units this fall.
The company hasn’t released details on what it will charge for units in the building, which will all be rented out as apartments.