Halifax, Nova Scotia
Friday, September 4, 2026
14° · Fog lifting · Wind SW 18 km/h
Vol. 12 · No. 36 · Newsstand $3.50
Business
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Business
Operators, leases, and the numbers behind the waterfront. Lena Cho covers the ferry, the Seaport sheds, and the downtown vacancy that still does not match the crane count. If a figure is in a press release, we ask for the line item.
Business in this paper means HarbourLink\'s surplus, Shed 22 rents, and whether Harbourline appeals the 18-storey cap. It does not mean a national markets wrap. Dollar figures get a source. If we cannot name the source, we do not run the number.
Lead · Tuesday
HarbourLink posts first surplus in five years: $1.1 million
Ridership recovery on the Halifax–Alderney run and a winter schedule that parked one vessel put the operator in the black. The surplus funds a Shelburne dry-dock and a contactless-gate pilot. Adult cash fare stays $3.75. A third boat is a $14 million conversation, not this surplus.
Lena Cho · 5 min
Leases
Seaport vendors win three-year leases, ending the annual scramble
Shed 22 stays. Rents rise 4.5 percent in year two. The Port wanted a one-year rollover through cruise season; vendors asked for three years so they could finance coolers. Saturday stall fees stay $85. The fish truck that left in 2025 is not coming back.
Lena Cho
Downtown
Office vacancy dips for a second quarter; towers still wait
Small suites on Barrington filled first. Class A at Purdy’s and the bank towers is still above 18 percent. A Halifax Partnership note, not yet public, puts sublease space at 210,000 square feet. Landlords are converting two floors on Granville to residential. Permits are not in yet.
Staff
Construction
Builders warn of concrete cost spikes ahead of fall civic tenders
Bids for the harbourwalk pile work and a north-end rec centre climbed 11 percent between the spring estimate and August. The housing committee heard the same number on missing-middle fourplexes. One contractor said insurance, not cement, is the line that moved.
Staff
Politics
Harbourline Developments has 30 days to revise drawings
Counsel Michael Keene told council the 18-storey cap “is not a haircut.” Two pension-fund partners have asked whether the city intends to reopen the land sale. The CAO says the sale stands. The UARB appeal window is the next business story on this file.
Amira Hassan · 12 min
Retail
Spring Garden independent count: four openings, six closures since January
A bookstore lasted nine months. A dumpling counter lasted eleven. The openings are a shoe repair, a second-hand audio shop, a credit-union kiosk, and a bakery that already had a stall at the Seaport. Rents quoted to Civic Press for 600 square feet start at $48 a square foot net.
Lena Cho
Labour
Ferry union says the winter one-boat schedule taxed the remaining watches
IUOE Local 721 did not oppose the surplus. They opposed calling it lean. Overtime on the remaining boat rose. Okoye said the 9:40 a.m. Alderney crossing returns in November if weekday loads stay above 88 percent of 2019 through October.
Lena Cho
Housing
7,400 units is a dare, not a contractor list
Completions in HRM last year: 3,180. The provincial draft is a single calendar year. Labour, insurance, and school-lot servicing are the actual market. Mayors outside Halifax say they can zone for 400 and still wait on a plumber.
Amira Hassan · 6 min
Markets
Cruise-day ferry walk-ons lift weekend boardings to 84 percent of 2019
That is good for HarbourLink and a bottleneck at the Halifax terminal when a ship is in. Okoye will not drop cash. “People still arrive with a toonie and a quarter.” Contactless gates try Alderney first, in November, if the wind on the ramp does not kill the readers.
Lena Cho
How to read this page
Surplus, leases, then the cap
Cho holds the ferry and the sheds. The harbour vote is a politics story with a business tail: 30 days on drawings, a possible UARB appeal, two pension funds asking about the land sale. Downtown vacancy is a second-quarter dip, not a recovery. If a number has no source, it is not here.
Desk