I'm sure you've passed this big construction site on the way to the airport:

http://www.dartmouthcrossing.com/media_uploads/pdf/120.pdf

What do you think? I hate developments like this, although it does look slightly better than some others we've seen.

well 250 million dollars of private sector development is very good. The plans remind me of an area in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Monterey, California.
That may be a problem for attracting customers in the winter. It certainly will be the jem of retail in the region but at what cost to other areas in the HRM and beyond. Just as long as they actually paid for the land as opposed to Costco who didnt and had the regional council clear and service the land for free.

100 million in retail taxes over 10 years will come out of some one elses bottom line as this does not create new wealth it just borrows it from other places

jim jones

I have mixed feelings about this.

I would prefer to have more retail located in the city and ultimately this is a big box development, but if it brings more retailers to the city and attracts shoppers from around the region then it's better than nothing. The tax revenue will also be useful.

Hopefully this acts as a bit of a wall to future residential sprawl, instead of just driving it out further.

It's horrible...

The 700 million in tax rev over the 10 years is certainly a plus.

I wonder if there's any chance of the Ikea that used to be out there returning.

I wonder if there's any chance of the Ikea that used to be out there returning.


Not until we get Sunday Shopping.

Uh oh. If these are the people I think they are...

I think that they were the ones to build something a bit smaller than this in Boucherville, Quebec. I was there once soon after they opened it, and it is extremley poorly designed. It took an hour to get out of there. An Ikea was one of the main stores there. Hopefully they do a better job on this one.

^ I think they're called the American Development Group - is that who you thought they were? I thought they were based in Montreal, though... From the looks of the plans, I can't see how traffic will move around very easily but I don't know.

Well, if we have to have a big-box outlet area, it could be worse? at least they're making efforts to include some trees and things. And some parts will look like they have a bit of character with different facades, etc.

Supposedly there will be space for smaller independent/local stores and outfits, not just generic retailers, although I agree that all of these would be much nicer in an actual urban setting.

I guess now we can only wait and see how it really ends up looking and working.

Crossing at a crossroads

We check in on how work is going at city's newest retail mecca in the making

By Stephane Massinon
The Daily News

BUSINESS - Driving by on Highway 118, the site of the former Lafarge plant looks conspicuously busy again. Heavy machinery, and many workers, are transforming the area. What exactly they're up to isn't obvious from the road. As the Dartmouth Crossing project comes to life, we thought it was time for a close look at the construction of what will be an undeniably large presence in Dartmouth.

'It's the largest retail project east of Calgary," says Glenn Munro as he drives through Dartmouth Crossing.

Though some of it is paved, Munro spends the afternoon effectively off-roading through the site of what will be a massive retail and commercial centre. It is under construction and slowly emerging from concept to reality.

Munro, managing partner with North American, the developers of Dartmouth Crossing, speaks confidently about it.

Many thought it wouldn't happen, he says, but it's undeniably progressing rapidly.

Though coy about all the companies that will occupy the space, Munro will confirm that Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Empire Theatres will be there. (For fervent fans of the Swedish furniture chain Ikea, Munro says the company is aware of the project.)

Munro says he's surprised when people ask him when construction will start. After months of workers making gravel on site and preparing the land for construction, structures are starting to emerge.

The big and medium-sized box stores are going up first, with the most advanced building is a new Wal-Mart. It's slated to open by the end of 2006.

But next year, Munro says, is when a flurry of openings will occur. Between 30 to 35 stores will open by March 2007, he says, while Empire Theatres is expected to open its 12-screen, 2,300-seat theatre in May 2007.

The developer says Dartmouth Crossing starting to fill up. Of the total spaces available, about 35 to 40 per cent are spoken for, while another 35 to 40 per cent are in extensive negotiations between the developer and potential inhabitants, he says.

"There are four new guys, possibly five new guys, in the medium-box stuff that will be building down here, which is really exciting."

The project has raised the ire of some people living nearby, who say it has deposited silt into the Shubenacadie Canal.
Munro says the storms when that's happened have been rare.

smassinon@hfxnews.ca



DARTMOUTH CROSSING

• LOCATED : Between Highway 118, Wright Avenue and Commodore Drive.

• WILL INCLUDE : Large to mid-sized retail shops; office space, boutiques, a cinema, hotels and restaurants.

• CUSTOMERS : Eighty-five per cent of HRM lives within a 15-minute drive.

• COST : A $270-million project

• JOBS : Could employ up to 15,000 people, bringing in $700 million in tax revenue over 10 years.

http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=7292&sc=2

-----------------

Great, more Wal-Mart and Home Depot, just what we need.

Eighty-five per cent of HRM lives within a 15-minute drive

15 minutes over the Magazine Hill or bridges at rush hour? Heh. That's sort of like the "minutes from downtown!" tagline that every new development has.

Anyway, I don't care about Wal-Mart. I mostly hope that there will be some new stores.

www.crossingfraud.com

www.crossingfraud.com

It's better off as Dartmouth Crossing. 'nuff said.

Your site is confusing as all hell, the video doesn't help. Looks like this point, your family is SOL.

I was walking around Dartmouth Crossing on Sunday and thought to myself what a great achievment it is for this city, it is only going to do good. I'm glad the quarry is out of there and something more productive is going in place, besides... what good would a family owned piece of land in that area do anyway besides waste space being unoccupied/unusable?

That's a disputed claim, the Gay family are in the midst of a land dispute with the Canadian government. They said the government never compensated them for land the government took in the 1940s.

Interesting, I had never heard about that.

Above all I would've liked that land to stay as it was - unused forest. Dartmouth Crossing is a sprawly mess that doesn't really have anything we haven't seen before, or that couldn't be accomodated in an existing development. The only real good thing about it IMO is the tax revenue it will generate.

I would also have to say that Dartmouth Crossing is not shaping up to be a very good thing. I was driving around it the other day and was extremely dissapointed. They barely made any effort to preserve anything (trees, terrain) of the original land. Its just a typical sprawled, large parking lot, mess that could be found in any other city in North America.

^^ I agree. I can't believe that with all that forest land, they couldn't have preserved just a bit more nature. I understand they've 'rehabilitated' the brook that runs through it, and kept the trees immediately surrounding it, but what about the other 500 acres?

The real problem to me is that they're trying to create a new downtown. They can develop a big-box retail area if it's really necessary (although it seems that the anchor tenants are just relocating) but to invest all this energy in putting in boutiques and shops and restaurants that might have otherwise gone downtown - that's what really gets me.

I think the Crossing is an excellent idea, I mean, what is there not to like about it? It's a well planned out and executed retail park, unlike Bayers lake, but thats a different story. So what they didn't save the trees? and so what they made "just a typical sprawled, large parking lot, mess that could be found in any other city in North America."?

Maybe the people of Dartmouth want to be able to get the feel of downtownish boutiques and not have to deal with the problems of Downtown, mainly the parking and walking, and thats the point of the Crossing, all the feel of downtown without the hastle of having to get there, having to find a place to park, and being conveniently located to everything. DC is IN Dartmouth, Free abundant parking and everything within a nice walking distance, and nonetheless linkage to the Shubie walking system & Trans-Canada trail.

I think the Crossing is an excellent idea, I mean, what is there not to like about it? It's a well planned out and executed retail park, unlike Bayers lake, but thats a different story. So what they didn't save the trees? and so what they made "just a typical sprawled, large parking lot, mess that could be found in any other city in North America."?

Maybe the people of Dartmouth want to be able to get the feel of downtownish boutiques and not have to deal with the problems of Downtown, mainly the parking and walking, and thats the point of the Crossing, all the feel of downtown without the hastle of having to get there, having to find a place to park, and being conveniently located to everything. DC is IN Dartmouth, Free abundant parking and everything within a nice walking distance, and nonetheless linkage to the Shubie walking system & Trans-Canada trail.

Maybe the people of Dartmouth wouldn't have this problem of the hassle of getting downtown if the place wasn't 70% sprawl hell :tongue2:.

True, but there are bigger movements in DT Dartmouth, that Kings Wharf is going to be a big push in the right direction, as well as the new NSCC campus, think of how many students will move into DT, or Woodside? I'm not that much of a fan of Dartmouth Crossings to be honest, because we're just going to create another Clayton Park/Bayers Lake, and that's a BAD idea. It may be the biggest commercial development east of... TO? or is it Calgary? But Jim is right, this isn't going to create any new money spenders. Just take them from the core.

this development has an awful lot of parking lots.....absolutely disgusting.

this development has an awful lot of parking lots.....absolutely disgusting.

Given the horrid performance of Metro Transit anywhere outside the downtown core, those parking lots are a necessity and hence a thing of beauty.

but they shouldn't, the last thing the city needs is another mostly car destination. Plus the whole development is being built on illegally appropriated land.

Sobeys committed to staying at Penhorn Mall

By ROGER TAYLOR Business Columnist
ADVERTISEMENT



SOBEYS INC. has committed to staying at Penhorn Mall despite persistent questions about the future of the Dartmouth shopping centre.

Gerald Weseen, Atlantic spokesman for Canada’s second-largest grocery chain, says Sobeys will be staying in Penhorn, although it may not be in the same location, "but there is a pretty firm commitment" by the grocer to stay there.

There are also signs that Sobeys may be building a new store in the new Clayton Developments Russell Lake West mixed residential and retail project in Dartmouth, but the chain spokesman wasn’t sure how that was going to affect the company’s other stores in that area.

There is talk on the street that the smaller Sobeys on Pleasant Street will be relocated to the Clayton development, but that could not be confirmed on Tuesday. There is also equally speculative talk about the Sobeys Westphal store moving into the Canadian Tire location on Tacoma Drive, once Canadian Tire relocates to Dartmouth Crossing.

A key tenant in the Penhorn Mall, Wal-Mart, is about to move to Dartmouth Crossing, and that will leave the Sobeys store and Sears Canada as the main tenants in the retail centre on Portland Street.

The shake-up in the local retail sector caused by the development of Dartmouth Crossing has been expected for some time but becomes reality Thursday, when Home Depot Canada will be the first retailer to open its store at 40 Finnian Row in Dartmouth Crossing.

The Home Depot in Dartmouth is moving from its former home on Baker Drive, which closed Saturday, and is the third Home Depot store in Canada to relocate. The company says its new store will have 175 full- and part-time jobs.

There will be a "soft opening" for the neighbouring community to get an early peek at the new store this evening from 6 to 9 p.m.

Noel Sampson, who speaks on behalf of the $280-million-plus Dartmouth Crossing development, says construction on the massive project has benefited from the mild winter temperatures and would have been further ahead if the asphalt plants had not been shut down in December.

The Dartmouth Wal-Mart is having a soft opening of its own 133,000-square-foot store at 90 Lamont Terrace in Dartmouth Crossing on Thursday at 8 a.m. The new store features hardwood floors throughout the clothing department, an expanded grocery section and electronics department, a "connection centre" and four new self-checkouts.

The official opening is slated for 7 a.m. on Jan. 24. The design of the new Wal-Mart building includes a separated roof-water system that will supply clean, cool water to Frenchmans Brook, which runs behind the store. The plan is for the brook to produce large numbers of fall fingerlings and one-year-old trout to stock Lake Micmac for the recreational fishery.

Staples Business Depot is also ready to open its store, and a soft opening of that outlet is expected this week with an official launch planned for later in the month.

The list of stores coming to Dartmouth Crossing now includes Aldo, Ardene, Backyard & Veranda, Bentley, Boston Pizza, Buffalo, Cotton Ginny, Empire Theatres, Esprit, Fairweather, Garage, Golf Town, Home Depot, Jack Astors Bar and Grill, La Vie en Rose, Laura Plus, Le Chateau, Linen-n-Things, Liz Claiborne, Mexx, Michaels, Petcetera, Pseudio, Reitmans, Smart Set, SportsChek, Staples, Swiss Chalet, TD Canada Trust, The Shoe Co. Tommy Hilfiger, Trade Secret Beauty Shops, Transit and Wal-Mart.

The plan is for TD Canada Trust, Golf Town and Petcetera to open by late February or early March. Another group of outlets — Michaels, SportsChek, Shoe Co. and Linens-n-Things — is expected to open in March.

Work on the Empire Theatres 12-screen entertainment centre is underway and Southwest Properties of Halifax and New Castle Hotels and Resorts of Shelton, Conn., will build a 150-room Springhill Suites by Marriott hotel, which will open in 2008.

The municipality was handed control of the five bridges and extensive road system in the development about 10 days ago, according to Sampson. The only access point to Dartmouth Crossing is an overpass built to allow traffic to access the site from Highway 118, but eventually there will be access points from Burnside Park, one on Commodore Drive and the other on Wright Avenue.

There is potential for Dartmouth Crossing to extend beyond the initial commercial project, which covers about 81 hectares. And an additional 113 hectares could be developed as an office park and medium- to high-density housing.

Dartmouth Crossing includes Costco and Canadian Tire on its promotional materials, but Sampson says Dartmouth Crossing is only revealing the names of companies it is working with directly. Others have purchased their own lots in the Dartmouth Crossing retail community and will be responsible for making their own announcements. Talk is for both Canadian Tire and Costco to open sometime in the fall.

There is also talk of a European-style furniture chain locating in Dartmouth Crossing, but it isn’t Ikea. Ikea is aware of the Dartmouth development, according to Dartmouth Crossing, and could develop a smaller version of its mega-stores that would fit smaller population centres; but HRM isn’t in Ikea’s plans at the moment.

^^^ Well, since Sobey's owns Penhorn Mall, that makes sense. I think the "European-style furniture chain" is probably "Jysk", which apparently has pretty low quality stuff.

Hmm interesting article. Apparently 'Jysk' is bed, bath and home but I could see that being put under the 'furniture' label for now.

So, this combined with another list I've seen, here is a loosely based list of stores that are more or less official:

- Aldo
- American Eagle
- Ardene
- Backyard & Veranda
- Bentley
- Best Buy
- Boston Pizza
- Buffalo
- Canadian Tire (moving from Tacoma Drive)
- Costco
- Cotton Ginny
- Cucina
- Designer Depot
- Eden Collection
- Empire Theatres (12-screen facility)
- Encore Decor
- Esprit
- Fairweather
- Garage
- Globo Shoes
- Golf Town
- Home Depot (moving from Baker Drive)
- Home Outfitters
- Icing
- Jack Astors Bar and Grill
- Jacob
- La Vie en Rose
- Laura Plus
- Le Chateau
- Linens-n-Things
- LIfe Spa
- Liz Claiborne
- Mark's Work Wearhouse
- Mexx
- Michael's Arts & Crafts
- Petcetera/Super Pet
- Pseudio
- Reitmans
- Smart Set
- Sport Chek
- Staples
- Swiss Chalet
- TD Canada Trust
- The Shoe Co.
- Tommy Hilfiger
- Trade Secret Beauty Shops
- Transit
- Tweed & Hickory
- Wal-Mart (moving from Penhorn Mall)

How many of these we really need, I don't know. How many I would have liked to have seen downtown instead, quite a few. But hey, what can you do? It's interesting stuff nonetheless.

In case anyone's interested in this store, 'Jysk' is confirmed to open around mid-2007.

Also, I've heard unsubstantiated rumours of H&M setting up shop, but I'd rather see this downtown...

Here's one of the larger buildings set to be in the 'shops' area.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/361766918_3d62b04788_o.jpg

Which I think is in the bottom right corner of this drawing

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/361771177_e50e407cf3_o.jpg

They have drafts of a lot of the boutique shops on the website.

Here are a couple of later renderings that I found for the smaller store development. Not as quaint and street-like as I'd pictured it but whatever...

2B:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/361889851_e45f9037b4_b.jpg

2C:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/361889856_069e8103b1_b.jpg

2F:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/361889861_b79b0e9934_b.jpg

2G:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/361889865_54c93d40c8_b.jpg

I thought I heard Wicker Emporium was going to open a store there?

Excellent lists and renders you've provided, This is just a post to remind is all how big the Crossing really is, I took this picture just this evening after the sun had gone down, looking out over Dartmouth I saw the bohemuth Wal-Mart sign come on, so I hauled out the new camera and took this...and take into consideration I'm taking this from about 8km away, I'm impressed, both by the new place as well as my camera!

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/Patrick_Helliwell/Halifax/DSC00257Medium.jpg

That's a nice pic, wht type of camera do you have?

wow, thats the largest Sprawl-mart I have ever seen.

That's a nice pic, wht type of camera do you have?

Just got a Sony DSC-H2 with the Sony 58mm High Grade 1.7X Telephoto Conversion Lens, great little rig, I love it! I'm soon to be setting up a gallery of HRM specific pics, divided into categories, downtown, Halifax, Dartmouth, contruction, destruction etc etc....just need to get out and get more pics :P

Do you take many pics outside the city, like near Shubie, Bedford, or Eastern Passage way?

Do you take many pics outside the city, like near Shubie, Bedford, or Eastern Passage way?

I do when I can get out that way, yea.

hmm...

3N:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/381103704_2124ed0bc4_o.jpg

3M:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/381103714_c51021cbf5_o.jpg

3L:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/381103715_52f823b28e_o.jpg

3K:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/381103723_1b68757eca_o.jpg