Magna Hotels plans to build three towers, containing a combined 800 residential units, on a Dartmouth property overlooking Halifax Harbour.
The company hopes to build the towers on a plot of land on Best Street, behind the DoubleTree By Hilton hotel, near the Macdonald Bridge.
Sukhdev Toor is the president and CEO of Magna Hotels. In an interview late last week, he told Huddle Magna will take its plan to the city “probably next week.”
The Halifax Regional Municipality’s Ryan Nearing confirmed to Huddle there are currently “no active applications on file” for 20 Best Street.
However, Soor said Magna has been working on its proposal since last year and has hired Halifax’s Fathom Studios to design the buildings.
Soor said more details will be available once the project is with the city. But he confirmed Maga is pitching a development that consists of three towers.
Each one will stretch “32 or 33 storeys,” with retail space on the ground floor and rental units above. Together, the towers will hold about 800 units.
“It’s a lot of units and it’s a nicely done building—the type you would see in Toronto downtown,” Soor said. He said the buildings will be similar to another high-profile Halifax development, The Maple, but “higher density and taller buildings.”
“It will change the skyline in that area. It will really bring some life to that area,” he added.
Soor said Magna’s project, along with several other developments happening near it, could mark the start of a “new downtown” in Dartmouth.
“That Dartmouth area can be a new downtown, kind of. It’s not established yet but when you bring all these buildings and shopping… I think the Halifax area is getting quite expensive, and this [Dartmouth] area needs to grow,” he said.
Magna’s project would fall under the city’s Centre Plan development rules, and Soor claimed the buildings Fathom has designed will meet that bylaw’s requirements.
If that’s the case, the project should be able to proceed “as-of-right.” That means Magna would be able to bypass the public information sessions and community council meetings developers often must go through for major projects.
Soor said he hopes that with the housing crunch happing in Halifax right now, the city will sign off on the project quickly and let Magna begin work on the project.
In an ideal world, Soor said he’d like to start construction on the first of the towers next year.
“We’re hoping to get the city’s blessing quickly, so we can start building it. The sooner we do that the better. For us we need to get going,” he said.
Magna already owns dozens of hotels, restaurants, and residential towers across Canada. In Halifax, the company’s portfolio includes the recently renovated Atlantica Hotel, The DoubleTree By Hilton in Dartmouth, and The Hollis.
Property records indicate the Best Street lot Magna plans to build on was last sold in November of 2015, for $4-million.
To read more stories like this in Huddle, sign up to receive our free daily newsletter.
