Storied building for sale

Pssst… wanna buy a 33-storey apartment building?

Dalhousie University has put a for-sale sign up on Fenwick Place. Almost 100 metres in height, the tallest building east of Montreal is in a prime spot close to Halifax’s downtown. 

“A lot of folks are inquiring about it,” reports Darrell Boutilier, acting director, operations, for Dalhousie’s Facilities Management. There is no fixed price on the building and commercial real estate company DTZ Barnicke is handling the sale.

But as the ad in The Globe & Mail spells out—“Multi Residential Opportunity”—the building needs work. And that’s why Dalhousie decided to put it on the market.

“We have potentially between $25 and $30 million that would have to be invested in that building to meet current occupant expectations and renew building components,” explains Jeff Lamb, assistant vice-president of Facilities Management.  “But because it’s getting old and many systems are beyond their normal life, we thought rather than invest that kind of money at a site that’s at a distance to any of our other buildings, we would rather invest on campus.”

There are some tall tales told about the tall building. Dalhousie purchased the half-finished building at the bargain price of $5-million more than 35 years ago after the builder went bankrupt. At the time, Dalhousie’s student population was expanding and the extra space was needed to offer single and married students an alternative to traditional dorm-style residences.

But there were problems getting the apartment building finished. In August 1971, Hurricane Beth pelted Halifax with rain and filled the elevator shafts of Fenwick with four metres of water.