Dorian damages building, puts squeeze on volunteer-driven arts organizations

Tenants in a more than 100-year-old office building near the Halifax Common are being told they have to move out by Oct. 31, after their building was damaged during Hurricane Dorian.

It's a move that's cast light on the difficulty of finding affordable rental space in Halifax for small businesses and volunteer-driven organizations.

"That's a really challenging timeline for us," said Martha Cooley, the executive director of the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative (AFCOOP), which rents space on the ground floor of the three-storey building on Cornwallis Street.

Dorian made landfall in Halifax on Sept. 7 as a post-tropical storm with hurricane-strength winds.

AFCOOP found out Friday it has to move. 

"It's kind of a worst-case scenario," said Cooley. "There's no great time to move, especially for an organization. But the more planning that we could have had to get ready for that, the better. But obviously, I understand it's related to the hurricane, so I'm sure it wasn't their plan."

AFCOOP is a registered charity that offers help, advice and access to filmmaking equipment so members of the public can tell their own stories. It moved into the building in 2011 after its previous home in the CBC Radio building at the corner of South Park and Sackville streets was torn down.

Cooley said the co-op of approximately 160 members is planning a move into the proposed Culture Link project in the former World Trade and Convention Centre on Argyle Street, but that space won't be ready until roughly a year from now. 

"Certainly, we don't have the cost of moving twice in one year built into our budget," Cooley said. "That's going to be challenging for us and hopefully we can harness the power and the help of some of our members and the community to help us."

As a sound technician who works on film productions in the Maritimes, Olivia King has been coming to AFCOOP for two years to borrow gear and ask questions of the staff at the co-op. She said she hopes AFCOOP finds a new space soon.

"Local filmmakers, independent filmmakers, we use them so often — their resources, their gear, the people here for help, classes, and education — I'm just hoping they can find a space really soon."

Cooley said AFCOOP is looking for an accessible space of at least 2,000 square feet in central or north-end Halifax. Unfortunately, so are many other people.

Eyelevel, an artist-run group that promotes and develops contemporary art, is across the hall from AFCOOP and will be moving soon to a second-floor space on Gottingen Street. Artistic director Sally Wolchyn-Raab said the organization was already planning a move due to the cost of the rent in the Cornwallis Street building.

"For us, what it means is that we are moving up our plans by about three months," she said.

"It is quite disruptive, but we're not like other organizations or businesses in this building where we're at risk of not having a home, which is really fortunate for us."

Wolchyn-Raab​​​​​​​ said Eyelevel searched for many months before it found the space on Gottingen Street, and even that space does not fully meet Eyelevel's hopes of being completely accessible.

"For an organization with needs like ours where we want some kind of public gathering space, as well as we have storage needs, it can be very difficult," she said. "We really do wind up sitting in these spaces that are temporary in the hopes that something better will always come along." 

Adam Barrett of AMK Barrett Investments owns the property. He said it was built in the late 1800s, although the building does not have an official heritage designation.

Barrett declined to do a formal interview, but told CBC News the building was heavily damaged by water when the roof blew off during Hurricane Dorian, and called the situation unfortunate.

Tarps are in place now to protect a temporary roof. Barrett said the work to repair the building is estimated to take at least eight months, but could take much longer depending on the condition of the building. 

He was not able to say whether the building would keep the same configuration of small office rentals after the renovation. 

Barrett said the extensive renovations required mean the tenants won't be able to stay in the building while work is being carried out.