HALIFAX—A committee has approved a 12-storey hotel for a prominent site in downtown Halifax, though there are still some details to iron out.

Halifax’s design review committee met Thursday evening to consider the proposal for the corner of Brunswick and Gottingen streets from Fougere Menchenton Architecture Inc. on behalf of Steele Hotels Ltd., owned by Newfoundland Capital Corp. founder John Steele.

Steele’s company operates six hotels in Newfoundland. This hotel will be branded like the JAG in St. John’s — “a masterpiece within the heart and soul of North America’s oldest city,” according to its website.

“This is a very high-end brand,” Ron Fougere, president of Fougere Menchenton, told the committee.

The plan for Brunswick and Gottingen — next to Citadel Hill, just down the street from the city’s clock tower and across the street diagonally from the Scotiabank Centre — is for a hotel with 171 rooms, meeting spaces and a restaurant on the Gottingen St. side.

There’ll be “VIP suites” on the top floor, along with a VIP lounge and valet parking at the entrance.

The building required five variances from the downtown Halifax development rules, or land-use bylaw, including a taller ground floor and two distances from property lines. Those were all approved by the committee.

It’s also higher than allowed in this area of the downtown without using density bonusing or bonus zoning, the practice of trading extra height for public benefit.

The extra height here is two storeys, and it’s valued at about $112,000, based on the municipality’s formula. The applicant proposed an “Aboriginal Visual and Performing Arts Gallery” to satisfy the requirement.

The visual and performing arts gallery would be a hallway gallery open year-round within the hotel, and a performance and gallery space to be rented at reduced rates for four weeks a year.

Members of the design review committee questioned the value and location of the proposed gallery.

Nicholas Robins pointed out the site is just a block away from the planned new Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre.

“I wonder if there could be a sort of redundancy to a semiprivatized cultural centre next to a public amenity,” Robins said.

Committee vice-chair Ted Farquhar felt the project didn’t provide enough public benefit, especially given the gallery and performing arts space would be located inside the building on the second floor, out of public view from the street.

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“I think there should be something more robust as a benefit for me to support it,” he said.

The committee amended the motion to direct the development officer in charge of the bonus zoning agreement to consider the gallery’s “prominent location and visual within the public realm.”

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The amended motion, which also approves the building’s variances to the land-use bylaw, passed with only Farquhar voting no.

Next, it heads to Halifax regional council, which will be asked to approve a bonus zoning agreement.

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