Developer says construction to start next year on apartment towers on Sydney waterfront

A development company says construction will start next year on two new apartment towers on the downtown waterfront in Sydney, N.S.

On Tuesday, Doucet Developments manager Douglas MacLennan told councillors for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality that the company is planning an eight-storey building and a nine-storey building that will contain a total of 166 residential units, 21 commercial units and parking garage for more than 400 vehicles.

The development, which the company calls Edgewater, will create more opportunities for businesses and residents, just like the new Nova Scotia Community College construction did a few blocks away, said Coun. Eldon MacDonald, whose district includes the downtown.

"There's going to be a major amount of spin-off from this," he said. "We see just from the campus getting announced down the street here on [how] that did energize our community. This is just going to energize it even more."

MacLennan said the first phase will take three years to build and will hopefully become an attraction for cruise ship passengers and will draw visitors down to the waterfront.

However, the plans are preliminary, he cautioned.

"Something to be mindful of is this is still in design," MacLennan said. "As you know, nothing has been built yet and these are only renderings, so there's still a lot of work to do."

For example, the commercial units could include a handful of larger spaces or a number of smaller spaces, he said.

If there is no demand for commercial space, the number of residential units could increase, MacLennan added.

Councillors said they were happy to see the land finally getting developed.

"Sounds like it's a great deal for CBRM and I'll tell you from the conceptual drawing, it's going to add a whole new dimension to the waterfront," said Deputy Mayor James Edwards.

"There's going to be additional parking there, which is going to add a lot to downtown Sydney."

MacLennan said the company hopes to get shovels in the ground late next summer, but more likely early in the fall.

CBRM council has had some difficulty getting the land developed.

The yacht club burned down in 2013 and was eventually taken over by the federal government, who later handed it to the municipality.

In 2018, the previous council called for expressions of interest, looking for private companies to develop the municipality's waterfront property that lies between the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion and the Holiday Inn.

Marty Chernin's Harbour Royale Developments also owned a parcel at the site and had been working on a condominium development on land and was the only company that responded.

Harbour Royale deal ended

Harbour Royale was given the exclusive right to develop the municipal land, but the company also tried to tie in a proposal to build CBRM a new library on the site, as well.

However, in 2021, the new council refused to extend the deal with Harbour Royale over concerns about the cost of a new library.

The following year, the municipality issued another call for expressions of interest from developers and in November 2022 awarded it to Doucet Developments.

Council approved a memorandum of understanding with Doucet in January, selling the municipal land for what was deemed to be its market value and calling for the company to start building within 18 months.

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