The unveiling of the latest Nova Centre design Wednesday night left many who attended the final public consultation with a good feeling about Halifax’s future convention centre, albeit with a lot of unanswered questions.

“This is a better project because of this consultation process and what the people have told us of what they’d like to see,” said developer Joe Ramia during Wednesday evening’s unveiling. “I guess the most impactful would be the lifting of the convention centre from being below ground to above ground, and making it a iconic look.”

Nova Centre will include a convention centre, a hotel and office towers that will cover two city blocks at Argyle, Grafton and Sackville streets. It will have three towers stretching 18-storeys high, none of which Ramia said will go against the city’s HRM By Design policy.

Some of the design changes influenced by a series of public meetings is an underground parking entrance on Grafton Street. There are also changes to the entertainment space at the heart of the building, and to the overall pedestrian friendliness of the building.

“They had to revise their plans and I think they really tried to incorporate the fabric of Nova Scotia,” said one woman who attended the meeting.

“I like it. I like it a lot,” said another man. “It’s come a long way from the original vision. It shows he’s taken a lot of input from the public.”

“When you see the architects’ conception…it’s very blocky,” said Coun. Waye Mason (Peninsular South). “Now you see this much more artistically-rendered vision that I really do think responded to the input of the people who came to the meeting. So, I’m really excited about it.”

The new convention centre is scheduled to open in early 2016.

But Ramia couldn’t say what the latest cost estimates are following the design changes. He would only say they are within reason of the initial $500 million estimate.

He also wouldn’t specify what tenants might fill space in the building.

While the design is getting some positive feedback, one local business owner said the process between now and the finished product will be tough.

“This is going to be three years of torture until that opens,” said Victor Syperek, owner of the Economy Shoe Shop restaurant on Argyle Street. “(There will be) no parking, trucks driving by every 15 seconds, filthy streets. That’s going to be tough to live with.”