(Originally published in the May 2012 issue of the Nova Scotia Business Journal - "Going Green: New Era in Building" special advertising feature)
Waterside Centre beginning to take shape:
By the fall of 2013, tenants will be welcomed into a new office building in the heart of downtown Halifax. Formal construction began early this year on Waterside Centre — the first private office building to be built downtown in over 20 years.
Located on the corner of Duke and Hollis Streets and overlooking Historic Properties, the centre will be built, owned and managed by local developer, The Armour Group Limited.
As a registered LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) project, the building is designed to be downtown’s first Gold Certified building.
“Armour Group is striving to develop one of the most sustainable buildings in the city,” says Armour Group CEO, Scott Armour McCrea. “The structure will incorporate many energy efficient and environmentally friendly practices, including conditioning systems that integrate sea-cooled air, supplied right from our harbour.”
With a goal of developing a centre that is state-of-the-art, while still preserving the building’s historic past, the new nine-storey Waterside Centre represents a $25-million dollar investment. The Armour Group plans to incorporate the original three and four-storey heritage buildings at its base, with the addition of a contemporary glass tower and basement parking facility. Other modern systems that will be unique to the downtown market include day-lighting technology, high-efficiency air handling and heat recovery ventilation systems that will provide an extremely low-cost operating environment.
Future tenants in the approximately 100,000 square feet of the class ‘A’ rentable office and retail space will have unobstructed views of Halifax Harbour from three sides of the tower. The Armour Group predicts that the centre will be able to open its doors as early as November of next year.
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CarbonCure taking next step with innovative technology:
An innovative Halifax company creating some of the most environmentally friendly concrete in the world is taking its product to market with an investment from the province.
CarbonCure Technologies Inc. has secured $1.1-million in venture financing from Innovacorp.
The company's technology, the CarbonCure Block System, helps concrete plants use carbon dioxide to make cheaper, stronger and greener concrete products. The CarbonCure blocks meet a rapidly growing market demand for affordable green building materials. The recent financing will be used to bring the technology to market in the next 18 months.
“The technology enables concrete producers to produce stronger concrete; how they choose to take advantage of the higher strength is up to them,” says Robert Niven, CEO and founder of CarbonCure. “We are helping our partners use carbon dioxide as a value-added input for the world's most abundant commodity product, concrete. They are reducing cement, energy costs and defect rates while increasing productivity.”
The CarbonCure Block System is the company's first product application in its steps toward developing affordable carbon-negative concrete on a large scale. CarbonCure is working with concrete producers who are keen to be early adopters of the technology, as well as builders looking to use the green blocks.
This spring, the technology will be installed at three prominent concrete plants across North America: The Shaw Group in Lantz; Atlas Block, the leading concrete supplier to the Greater Toronto Area; Basalite Concrete Products, the largest concrete block manufacturer in the western United States.
* Read more "Going Green" stories at: http://www.ns.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Industry-Spotlight/Going-Green%3A-New-Era-in-Building-23622
