Mega downtown development project tabled for Halifax

The Thiel family has released plans to modernize a quarter of downtown Halifax while incorporating some of its architectural and historical past.

The downtown Halifax property owners and developers intend on transforming the 500,000-sq.-ft area bordered by Granville, George, Hollis and Duke streets into a boutique hotel, condominiums, restaurant; office, retail, and public spaces, and underground parking.

The twin tower development will be called “22^nd Commerce Square” in reference to the Canadian Bank of Commerce (the original name of the block’s historic Merrill Lynch Building built in 1906), and because of its forward thinking or “next century” design.

22^nd Commerce Square will be built to LEED Platinum standards to include several environmental features such as high-performance, high-efficiency, low-emission mechanical systems; geothermal heating and cooling, a heat-recovery system that draws energy from sewage waste, photovoltaic panels on the hotel’s façade, solar hot water panels on the roof, a rain water collection system and raised-floor technology for better climate control.

Demolition and excavation are scheduled for 2015, pending approval from the Halifax Regional Municipality, and construction will take place from 2015 to 2018.