Retrofit Financing Helps Innovative Developer Convert Halifax Office Tower

The Centennial Building is one of Halifax, Nova Scotia's, first high-rise buildings. It’s no surprise that a structure completed in 1967 was using energy inefficiently, leading to high utility costs and a large carbon footprint. But the visionary leaders at Sidewalk Real Estate Development saw an opportunity to convert the Centennial into something new.

The company focuses on amenity-rich locations in urban neighborhoods with a focus on sustainability. In keeping with that ethos, Sidewalk purchased the Centennial in 2021 with the intention of converting it into loft-style rental apartments while reducing the building’s carbon footprint through energy efficiency retrofits BMO provided an impact loan to Sidewalk, the first of its kind through our partnership with the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

“In this high interest rate environment, what really propelled us forward was the substantial interest rate savings that we saw under the retrofit program,” said Joe Nickerson, Sidewalk’s vice president. “We are going to end up with product that we could never create in the new construction environment.”