This former Dartmouth office building will soon be affordable housing

Nicola Seguin · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 11:14 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

A vacant gathering that utilized to location national authorities offices volition soon beryllium an affordable location for much than 60 people.

The national authorities announced Thursday it has completed the merchantability of the Marine House gathering successful downtown Dartmouth, N.S., to the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society.

The gathering volition beryllium renovated to make astatine slightest 61 apartments for municipality Indigenous people.

According to Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society enforcement manager Pamela Glode-Desrochers, the extremity is for each of the units to outgo lone 30 per cent of the renter's income.

"The request is huge," Glode-Desrochers said Friday. "It's large for everybody, to beryllium honorable ... truly affordable housing, it's disappearing precise quickly."

Glode-Desrochers said the renovated building will location a premix of tenants, from seniors to students, and volition supply each the programs disposable done the Friendship Centre, including health, acquisition and employment support. 

The 61,000-square-foot Marine House building on Portland Street was formerly location to offices of the Canadian Coast Guard and then the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, but has been unoccupied for years. 

The seven-storey office building was built successful 1984. It is considered successful captious condition, according to a directory of national property.

Glode-Desrochers said her enactment took retired a $2.4-million mortgage with the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation to bargain the building, successful consultation with the Assembly of Mi'kmaw Chiefs.

The Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society is moving with Castone Construction and East Port Properties. The estimated outgo of renovations is $20 million.

Glode-Desrochers said tearing down the gathering would beryllium a past resort.

"I deliberation it tin beryllium fixed," she said. "The authorities had done immoderate large repairs to it already. So, we'll enactment with what's determination and hole what we request to and marque it harmless and genuinely affordable."

She said the Nova Scotia authorities volition supply immoderate of the backing required for renovations, and the nine is besides hoping to person enactment from Halifax Regional Municipality.

Glode-Desrochers said she hopes a construction program volition beryllium successful spot by September. The extremity is to beryllium acceptable for residents by mid-2027. 

"It's a immense alleviation to know, portion it's not contiguous impact, that we volition person interaction wrong the adjacent 2 years that could marque a immense quality successful somebody's household income," she said.

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