Marathon construction forced business owners to get creative in order to survive.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
When he opened the Carleton Music Bar and Grill on Argyle Street in the heart of downtown Halifax in 2008, Mike Campbell thought it was a sure thing.
Self-admittedly Entering the third act of his working life, the veteran of MuchMusic and a staple of the east coast music scene saw room for a place that paired a good atmosphere for food and drinks with performances by the country's top musicians. "I went into it thinking, this is going to be a slam dunk; there's absolutely no problem," Mr. Campbell said recently.
Then, in the span of a few months, the economy collapsed: The Halifax Chronicle Herald, located across the street, moved its office out of the downtown, taking with it a major source of customer traffic.
Things seemed dire, but Mr. Campbell held out hope for that space across the street, which filled an entire block. "We always agreed that something there was going to wind up being the saviour for this whole place."
Ironically, that something has pushed some businesses, including Mr. Campbell's, to the brink.
In 2010, Nova Scotia's provincial government announced it would support a new convention centre on Argyle Street. The centre, funded by the city, province and federal government, was to be part of a larger project: the $500-million Nova Centre.
The million-square-foot project includes the block behind the former newspaper office and will feature a boutique hotel, office tower and retail space. The portion of the street between the two blocks was sold to the developer Rank Inc. to become a walking area closed to cars.
The announcement was expected to bring new life to a downtown that was struggling, but almost six years later, as construction continues, people such as Mr. Campbell are growing weary. He estimates the Carleton has lost $100,000 a year for the past few years.
"Business is off 30 per cent in some cases," he said.
Construction has removed already-precious parking spaces from downtown, closed streets, featured a period of regular blasting that literally caused cracks in some of the surrounding buildings and created dust that chased patrons from patios.
Christine Bower knows those problems and more.
The co-owner of the Wooden Monkey, a restaurant specializing in locally sourced fare and located a few dozens steps from Mr. Campbell's joint, she and her partners were among the few who expressed concerns about the Nova Centre from the outset.
The lack of experience in the city with a project of this size worried her. While she sees value in the growth that could come once the project is complete, Ms. Bower doesn't think there was proper accounting for the impact on neighbouring businesses.
"Basically, it's not something that [over] five or six years you can sustain," she said of the challenges. This past year, she had to lay off staff for the first time. "I just want to make a living, I just want to stay open."
The Wooden Monkey no longer has a patio – practically a must for Halifax eateries in the summer – because it was accidentally smashed by a construction crew. Her business partner's car has been totalled twice. Construction vehicles have regularly blocked access for Ms. Bower's deliveries and garbage pickup.
The biggest frustration came in late November when the street next to the Wooden Monkey was ripped up to replace water pipes, meaning it couldn't open. Initially told the work would take weeks, an outcry from businesses saw that reduced to just a few days without water.
"Everybody keeps saying to us: 'It's going to be great when it's done,'" Ms. Bower said, "but I really, really, really pray that we will be there when it is done."
Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, said there remains excitement for the project, but now that excitement is mostly for construction to end.
Like Ms. Bower, Mr. Campbell and other operators, Mr. MacKinnon also attributes many of the problems to the lack of readiness at city hall for a development the size and scope of the Nova Centre and the volume of projects that have followed. The lack of requirements for developers has been problematic, he said. "We're fixing the barn door after the horse is out, to a certain extent. It's really important that they're doing that but, ideally, it would have been done in advance."
A city council committee is reviewing measures, such as requiring better pedestrian access, signage and other mitigation steps, that would help address construction-related problems before they happen.
Mayor Mike Savage said the city is considering ways to prevent future problems. "We're trying to figure out who else does this, who does this well and, of course, the ideal thing is that we do it in advance of a project as opposed to trying to deal with it after the fact."
While he acknowledges there have been "some short-term problems" for businesses, but Mr. Savage said he thinks the developer has strove to make the process as painless as possible.
"We never imagined it would be as challenging as it has been," said Joe Ramia, head of of Rank Inc. Despite the problems, he said the Nova Centre is already having a positive impact on the downtown.He points to the cranes dotting the skyline as office buildings and condos go up within blocks of his own project; more are waiting in the wings. "When it finishes, it's going to change the whole nature of the downtown by having people that live and work there."
Mr. Ramia is projecting a completion date of early 2017. But, like any project, the date isn't final until the work is finished.
Meantime, businesses are doing what they can to ease their struggles. In the lead-up to the past Christmas shopping season, a group of businesses created the Halifax Pylon Club: Customers sporting a small pin with a picture of an orange traffic cone received discounts at participating stores; people were doing whatever they could to try to keep fighting the good fight.
"There's a lot on the line," said Ms. Bower. "I don't want to just throw in the towel after so many years of hard work."
Mr. Campbell turned to the Internet for support, launching a patrons program that saw donations and well wishes flood in from across the country. "That outpouring of support not only helps financially but it also goes a long way to prove that how I feel about this place, a lot of other people feel that way, too."
Despite his frustrations, Mr. Campbell still thinks about how things might be when construction is done and there are people working in the office tower – BMO is moving its Atlantic headquarters there – and there are hotel guests and shoppers and people attending conventions; he imagines more lunch traffic and people grabbing drinks after work.
"I think, and I'm cynical enough to believe that it's not going to solve all my problems, but I'm cautiously optimistic and backed, basically, by the view that it can't get any worse."