Argyle Street beats out Cogswell for possible convention centre

The former Herald site in downtown Halifax has been selected as the potential home for a new convention centre.

The Cogswell interchange area made the shortlist but Halifax municipal officials ruled it out, with Mayor Peter Kelly citing a number of reasons.

"We haven't finished HRM by Design. We haven't decided when we're taking [the interchange] down. It may be years," Kelly said.

The accepted proposal is by the Rank Group, which owns the former Chronicle-Herald building on Argyle Street and a block of land nearby.

A spokesman for the Hardman Group, which proposed the Cogswell interchange site, said the decision to exclude its design was "premature" and the company felt it should have been allowed to develop a full proposal.

The province and the municipality will hire a consultant to look into the costs of a convention centre. Depending on what happens with that, the Rank Group could be asked to come up with a more detailed proposal.

Provincial and municipal officials said last year they wanted a new complex that would be much larger than the World Trade and Convention Centre in order to accommodate groups from around the world.

The centre, which opened in 1984, has three floors of meeting and banquet rooms and can hold around 3,000 people.