[MTL Lucas]

Having grown up in the suburbs of Saint John, I have to say that it was a pretty depressing place. That being said, all of these developments are really great news. The fact that all of this is even planned, let alone actually built, is unprecedented.

These projects manage to include many new sources of remunerative employment and also help add to the critical mass of economic activity in energy and industrial sectors already present in SJ. The jobs that will be created to service and supply the multiple companies in this sector will be significant as well.

Also, SJ is taking on an urbanity which would have been utterly unthinkable only a short time ago. With l´Opera on Prince William, the Alehouse in Market Square, the Saint John Theatre Company and Sebastians (the Martini bar uptown) you can actually see the emergence of a livelier and more (excuse the buzz word) cosmopolitan set of businesses to service an increasingly sophisticated population. Maybe this is weird to people not from or familiar with SJ, but a Martini bar uptown verges on the miraculous.

The Waterfront (Coastguard site) development is great for bringing a more middle class population back to the centre and will, hopefully, itself bring the services needed to sustain future gentrification and redevelopment (i.e., a grocery store uptown, more shops, and even - dare we dream - a proto-cafe culture)

All in all, very good news. HalifaxMtl666 thanks for all the information!