Also published in The PEOPLE’S VOICE | MARCH 1-15, 2025 here
Over the long weekend, Bloomfield School in Halifax’s north end burned down, except for its brick front facing Robie Street. According to Tim Bousquet in Tuesday’s Halifax Examiner, it was the fifth fire in the building in the last five years; four during the time Alex Halef, CEO of Banc Investments, has owned it. Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), especially Halifax Fire, has demanded the building be secured from squatters and people who are desperate to get out of the cold. That is because there is no water, no sprinkler system, no electricity, crumbling walls, broken windows and gaping holes in parts of the old school. The grounds around the school, now covered with snow, are a mess of weeds, rebar, concrete and worse. The parking lot, also not considered safe, is used by many locals. Halef was supposed to pay for security guards to patrol the building around the clock and ensure no one entered –- let alone lived there as a home. When Haligonians heard about the fire, many held our breath -- was anyone killed in the fire?
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Below: Imagine Bloomfield an old sign for a community centre and arts hub; Inside Bloomfield building, Nov. 2023 (credit: HRFE/Dustin Garnett); after the fire (credit: Suzanne Rent); Alex Halef (credit: Derek Montague); exteriors of Bloomfield school (credit: Halifax Bylaw staff, May 2023);
Alex Halef and his BANC Investments
When Halef bought Bloomfield school in January 2021 for nearly $22 million, Zane Woodford in the Halifax Examiner wrote,
“Included in the conditions is below-market-value housing, but less than the original Bloomfield Master Plan called for: 10% of the units will have to be affordable. Halef said that means they’ll rent for 40% below market value for 50 years.
“The developer will also have to dedicate 20% of the site to open space, and the new building must include 20,000 square feet of affordable community space and 10,000 square feet “targeted for creative industries.”
“The agreement requires Banc Investments to start construction within five years. If the developer doesn’t do so, the municipality can buy back the property for 90% of the sale price. No other condition is named in that agreement or the deed.”
About a dozen people showed up for a demonstration in front of the Bloomfield school site in Halifax on 8 Sept. 2023. (photo credit: Suzanne Rent, Halifax Examiner). Rent’s story that accompanies the picture is here.
1 of 3 schools met the developers’ wrecking ball– the other 2 stand as eyesores
To understand and read more about what happened to Bloomfield and to St Patrick’s-Alexandra and St Patrick’s high school — the other two school properties sold out from under us to private developers— let’s take a closer look.
“More than a decade ago, three community groups raised money and community spirit in their bid to turn St Pat’s-Alexandra into a community hub and create affordable housing. But HRM kicked those groups in the teeth. Not only did HRM sell to a private developer – but for the last decade absolutely nothing on that site has been built, cared for, or of help to the people of that community. JONO, the developer, has done nothing for anyone – except to sit on the land, pay minimal taxes (because there is no development) and rub the community’s noses –quite literally– in the dirt.”
To understand the depth of feelings in young and old Haligonians about killing the hope for non-market housing, for a community centre, for a much-needed arts and culture hub, I wrote:
But there was no development on the way. As Tim Bousquet reported in The Coast at the time, the fact that HRM pushed away the community groups showed the development was “loaded dice, a stacked deck, smoke, mirrors.”
“If there is a silver lining, it is the agreement with HRM that states something must be built there by Apr. 15, 2025, or the St Pat’s-Alexandra deal is subject to a buy-back from HRM.”
It’s barely eight weeks until our citycan buy back the St Pat’s-Alexandra site, as developer JONO has built nothing of the housing or the community amenities once promised. The empty hulk of the school is still standing.
What do our city fathers and mothers (the mayor and councillors) have to say about the fire at Bloomfield?
HRM Council; Mayor Fillmore in the suit is front and centre (from Halifax.ca)
Turns out our new mayor hasn’t been seen at council meetings or around city hall for a week. Since Andy Fillmore’s sweeping election victory in October, he has not commented on the three derelict sites – all eyesores which pose problems of safety to the wider community. Two have been left as vacant hulks of destroyed school buildings (Bloomfield and St Pat’s-Alexandra) for years. The only major contribution that Mayor Andy Fillmore, himself a trained city planner and former two-term Liberal MP, has made to the topic of housing is to urge the feds to allow the levelling of Halifax’s main postal sorting station (a stone’s throw from Bloomfield school) and turn the site over to developers for housing – not specifically affordable housing which is needed.
In the wake of the fire at Bloomfield, developer Halef may receive a rap on the knuckles, maybe a fine. Chins around town may wag. But no one will stop him, or the other developers for doing whatever they want and acting as though nothing is demanded of them.
But what of the Bloomfield site? Since when has acquiring public land for all for-profit development been considered “good”? Since when has the city’s selling our property to private developers ever helped the needy or homeless in Halifax? Surely that constituency deserves more than squatters’ rights to the ruins of buildings.
Photo at the top: 1 Feb. 2025: “A snowy day here in Halifax, NS. There are three deer in this picture trying to nibble what’s left on the trees,” wrote photographer Heather MacIntyre on Facebook here.
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