'I just feel heartbroken': HRM, developer square off over protection of decaying Bloomfield site

It's becoming a sore point in a city that's desperate for more housing.

Slated for development, the Bloomfield School site in the north end of Halifax has become a magnet for people who aren't supposed to be there.

The developer blames the city for not helping him keep trespassers out, but the city says it's not responsible for protecting the site.

"It's been a frustrating couple of years since we purchased the property in and around that time frame," said Alex Halef, president of the BANC Group of Companies to HRM's Appeals Standing Committee on May 11.

The three buildings left on the site are in various stages of decay, with windows shattered or boarded up, and some brickwork crumbling away.

Vandals have taken a toll, and there's evidence squatters have been in and out as well.

Closed for years, the property was deemed "surplus" by the city, and sold off to developer BANC in the summer of 2020, for almost $22 million.

Along with public space and a significant block of affordable housing units, the deal included a five-year deadline for work to begin.

In the meantime, 13 Dangerous or Unsightly Property complaints have been filed, with nine of them dealt with.

Halef told the committee BANC has complied with 17 different orders so far, but police have stopped responding.

"You'd fix something and six days later, something would happen," said Halef.

"They're back at it again. It is an impossible task, and if we can't get the support of Halifax Regional Police to come and arrest the trespassers, even though we have no trespassing signs, there's nothing we can do," he said.

Halef said he's repaired fencing and even hired private security, but to no avail.

"The trespassers walk in, and they just walk by them. And they say, "If you touch me, I'm going to call the police on you," said Halef.

But some council members on the committee didn't buy the arguments.

"What I'm hearing is, 'We don't want to abide by these rules because it's difficult and it's expensive,'" said Councillor Lisa Blackburn.

"That just doesn't sit right with me. So, what I'm looking for is a plan," she said.

"What is the plan?"

Halef didn't offer a clear answer to that, but said there was no money in his budget right now for demolition.

"The concept of demolition has been explored, unfortunately there's no construction financing in place right now," said Halef.

"It's a $2 million cost just to demolish and there's no plans completed yet."

In the end, the committee granted appeal on one complaint about graffiti, but denied the others, allowing Halef 60 days to fix them.

The ongoing battle and decay of the site is especially upsetting for a group that spent 20 years dedicated to doing something imaginative and useful with the Bloomfield property.

"I just feel heartbroken, actually," said one of the group's founding members, Susanna Fuller.

"Heartbroken in terms of the lost potential and possibilities that, in a city that, we're growing really quickly. The whole place is a a mess. It's being broken into.  Kids are doing drugs in there.  It's just all the worse things that could possibly happen are happening," said Fuller.

"It used to be such an incredibly vibrant community centre that served so many needs, and now it's the antithesis of that."

Fuller blames the city for a lack of vision.

"They were very focussed on just getting rid of it, not on the best outcome for a public property," she said, adding Imagine Bloomfield is now winding down operations.

But the mayor of Halifax insists it's a good development.

"It's just that there's a  lot of developments in this city and in this province and in this country right now that are held up with financing and labour issues and things like that," Mike Savage told CTV News Tuesday.

"In the meantime, we need to make sure the property is managed in a way that makes sense.  So that's a combination of responsibilities, but primarily it would be the developer for sure."

Savage says there is a buyback clause in the contract, but he doesn't regret the five year deadline for work to begin.

"I'm anxious to see it built on for sure, but I also know we've chosen a builder that knows what they're doing, who have a lot of projects in Halifax right now and who can build the project and build it to the stipulations that we have set out."

"They've done it before. I'm confident they'll be able to do it in the future."

A city spokesperson says no paperwork has been submitted to change the approved design, so the file is entirely in the hands of the developer.

The five-year deadline began when the sale was finalized, so Halef has until January 27, 2026 to begin construction of the concrete footings.

In the meantime, little changes at sprawling, decaying site, in a city that's increasingly desperate for housing.

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