Halifax developer says he can't afford to tear down derelict Bloomfield school

Halifax councillors are calling on a developer to address safety concerns at the site of a former north-end school while it continues to sit vacant.

Alex Halef of BANC Investments Ltd. has owned the old Bloomfield school site on Agricola Street since January 2021.

He told CBC at the time "we'll have a design at some point this year without question."

But two years later, Halef told the city's appeals committee on Thursday that he has "no timeline" for demolishing the old buildings.

"Unfortunately there's no construction financing in place right now. You know, it's a $2-million cost just to demolish and there's no plans completed yet," Halef said.

While Halef said he still plans to develop the site eventually, "it's a difficult environment right now" because of high interest rates.

Three buildings on the Bloomfield property have been vacant since 2014. Halifax has had a master plan for the site since 2007, which was developed in part with Imagine Bloomfield, a citizens group.

Coun. Lindell Smith, who represents the area, said this delay is not what he expected when the city sold the land with conditions any new development must include affordable housing, open areas and community space.

"I was hoping that we'd be in a spot now where we're actually talking about what that would look like," Smith said after the meeting. "It seems like we're far from that, so I'm disappointed."

Halef was before the appeals committee Thursday to ask that the four most recent orders to address dangerous and unsightly issues on the property be overturned. Those included orders to clean up garbage, deal with broken and missing fencing, graffiti and broken windows.

A report from city staff said there have been nine similar cases at the property, with six being closed after the owner complied and three were closed after crews from the Halifax Regional Municipality did some work. However, Halef said he's addressed 17 requests from bylaw officers over the past two years.

"The building itself is not unsafe, it is only made unsafe by the act of an individual entering the property and damaging the windows," Halef told the committee.

Staff showed photos of a shopping cart on the site, and a bylaw officer told the committee a ladder had been propped against the building to gain access to some ground-floor windows.

A letter from Halef's lawyer, Richard Norman, to the committee argued that the damage was solely due to "vandals" and the law not being enforced — "not any fault of BANC's."

Smith also said while he understands the damage is frustrating, the reality is people who are homeless are in a desperate situation and "I don't think it's appropriate to call those who are sleeping rough in … abandoned properties vandals."

When Coun. Iona Stoddard asked if he'd consider taking out a loan to demolish the building and solve his "headache," Halef asked if she would do the same if someone was "damaging your home."

"You say 'OK, well I better go take a loan and demolish the property to stop people from trespassing to create what is a perceived unsightly situation,'" Halef said.

Councillors said photos of the site clearly showed multiple ways to get into the property past fencing that is very low, old or rusted.

Halef said he has not installed any new fencing on the property, since people have cut through the existing ones and "we know they're going to cut the fence down, as soon as we put it up."

But Coun. Lisa Blackburn said securing private development sites is the job of the property owner.

"What I'm hearing is 'We don't want to abide by these rules because it's difficult and it's expensive' and … it doesn't sit with me right," Blackburn said.

The committee allowed the appeal of the graffiti order, so Halef doesn't have to remove it, but he now has 60 days to fix the other issues.

Halef declined to speak with the CBC after the meeting Thursday.

Smith said he plans on reaching out to Halef to find out more about his plans for the site and will talk with people in the community who just want "what we agreed to be done, done, at this point."