Lil MacPherson, the co-owner of The Wooden monkey restaurant in Halifax, has given up on her legal pursuit of compensation for construction-related business losses.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
Reeling from construction-related losses, Halifax small-business owners decry 'legislative void'
The sail-shaped towers of Halifax's Nova Centre will finally fill up with life next month. The sprawling, multiblock downtown office, hotel and convention-centre complex was designed as a metaphor – sails, clear icons of Nova Scotia's economic past, cast in glass on the skyline to guide its economic future.
Some of its neighbouring businesses, though, have given up on the future entirely. Since construction began in 2013, a coalition of local storefront owners have accused the Nova Centre development of cutting their annual revenues by about a third, losses that have so far prompted at least two to move to the city's North End and two more to sell their businesses altogether.
As the centre prepares for a December opening, almost two years behind schedule, those entrepreneurs have thrown in the towel in their attempt to be compensated for lost business.
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