It’s been more than five months since Valero Energy Inc. put a 475-acre industrial site in Halifax’s Eastern Passage area up for sale in what is shaping up as a huge land deal for eastern Canada. HBB figures that the Halifax Gate property could fetch $20 million to $30 million, but the final price will depend in part on the size of any environmental liabilities remaining after a cleanup of the former oil-refinery location.
HBB speculates that serious buyers have by this point reviewed the confidential documents and delivered their bids, and that the announcement of a buyer will likely come before the end of this year. Another signal that the sales process has moved to a more advanced stage may be that officials at CBRE, which is brokering the sale for Texas-based Valero, did not respond to HBB’s inquiries.
The property, which offers harbour access and a CN railhead, hosted a refinery until 1994, according to Industrynet.com. CBRE's sales brochure for Halifax Gate says a site clean-up is underway, to be followed by two years of environmental monitoring.
The brochure notes that, while the property remains zoned for heavy industry, municipal officials are disposed to look favourably on changes that would convert the site to low-pollution manufacturing such as food production, as well as for warehousing and transportation. According to the brochure, the site could accommodate 6.5 million square feet of development - equvalent to almost triple the floor area of the Empire State Building.
Such zoning changes would fit with the hopes of residents living on the periphery of the property in Eastern Passage, an unincorporated community across the harbour from Halifax. Their wish list for amenities close to the reimagined site includes a grocery store, a health-care clinic and recreational facilities, according to a 2020 CBC news story.
-HBB-
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