The Value of Investing in Canadian Downtowns - International ...

VISIBILITY
Does the downtown have an integral role in the life of the wider city?
“We reached a stalemate downtown,
protecting heritage and the environment
were at the centre of it…. but while all this was going
on the downtown declined.”
Downtown Halifax is the core of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) which is centred on the Halifax Peninsula
(that includes the downtown study area) and Dartmouth. HRM is comprised of 23 former municipalities and some 200
communities including seaside villages, rural and farming communities, suburban neighbourhoods, and urban
centres. 1 The downtown occupies a mere 0.0012% of the HRM, only 98 hectares of over 9.2 million ha. The HRM is
one of the largest urban municipalities in Canada.
HRM is the largest municipality studied, and the size of HRM creates inherent
challenges for the downtown in getting the attention it requires to thrive and
endure as the strong heart of this region. With so many distinct communities,
the downtown must compete to attract growth at the same rate as newly
emerging neighbourhoods outside the core. For example, the proportion of
office space in the downtown has steadily declined over the past decade from
near 60% to only 46%. The downtown has been only attracting a small portion
of overall regional investment, which is likely attributed to HRM’s complex
regulatory regime and downtown land being more expensive than in the
suburbs yet failing to provide a strong enough return on investment.
Many regulatory challenges in downtown Halifax stemmed from the desire to
protect Halifax’s unique, high quality urban fabric, which included not only
protection of buildings but also the view-planes extending to the harbour and
the Citadel. Debate around these important issues – spanning from the 1960s
to early 2000s – was fierce and appeared polarized, positioning “heritage” and
“development” as mutually exclusive. The downtown suffered through this
debate, and while perhaps some insensitive developments were halted, the
downtown received little investment in the heritage features that it so
desperately prized. Most recently, the ‘HRMbyDesign’ process helped to
transform this debate into a productive discussion that bridged these opposing
views by shifting the focus to what constitutes responsive, high quality design
that will contribute to a more attractive and vital downtown.
Overall, the City has started to make inroads towards revitalization of its
downtown with new financial incentives and a Downtown Plan to create
confidence, instil certainty and guide development. This will be critical to
growing the visibility of downtown Halifax in the context of such a large region,
as well as contributing to the downtown’s re-emergence as the centre of
commerce and a place to invest.
Downtown comprises
0.0012%
of Halifax’s area (98ha)
1%
of the Halifax’s population
lives downtown (4,500)
Downtown has
46%
of office floor space
(4427078sf)
Downtown Halifax has
298 jobs/ha
or 29,360 jobs (15%)
Downtown generates
8%
Of HRM’s property tax revenue
Downtown generates
$414K/ha
in property tax revenue
1
Region of Halifax (2012). Urban Planning. Retrieved from: http://halifax.ca/regionalplanning/Region/region.html. Accessed 2012 January 16.
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