Queen's Marque development aims to be 'a modern day Historic Properties'

A parking lot beside the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is the site of a proposed Halifax waterfront development called Queen's Marque.

The five-acre site overlooking Halifax Harbour is being billed as the future home of a newdistrict,complete with a boutique hotel, luxury rentals, office, commercial and public space.

Scott Armour McCrea,the chief executive officerof Armour Group, said his company has been planning the projectfor the last decade.

It was his father, Ben McCrea,who did Historic Properties back in the1970s.

"I think you can tell this project isn't just crassly commercial, it seeks to engage and inspire people in a different way," Scott Armour McCrea said."We refer to this as a modern-day Historic Properties, which we did as a company in the '70s and has a spiritual connection."

All three levels of government were represented at the news conference held at Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Mayor Mike Savage says the project has the potential to do for the city what the new library has done for the downtown core.

'A large investment in the downtown'

"I like the juxtaposition with this and the library.There's a role for government in reinvigorating the downtown and the library [that] has been fabulous,but the private sector really makes it happen and this is a large investment in the downtown," Savagesaid.

The development has around $200 million in private investment.Meetings begin Thursday with municipal planners,but if all goes according to the plan,expect to see alot more cranes in downtown Halifax.

"We have a number of cranes on the go and we know that sometimes causes hardship in the short term that we have to figure out," Savage said."But there's alot going on and I think it's good for all of HRM."

The Queen's Marque design will have the look of a ship's bow from the harbour side.There will also be wharves,a large public plaza and what's being called the "Rise Again" wharf building.

The whole project is aimed to be completed in 2019.