The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[MonctonRad]

Congratulations to the Canadian women's Olympic soccer team winning the bronze medal in London.

This will be a tremendous boost to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and to Moncton as one of the host cities!

I somehow doubt that Moncton will land a game featuring Team Canada, but the profile of women's soccer has certainly been raised and I have little doubt that Moncton will do very well as a host city for this event.

[habs33]

Didn't see this mentioned before I heard today that two 100 units apartment buildings are going to be built on Carson Drive after the Cat Rental store there.

[MonctonRad]

This has been known for some time, but thanks for your interest habs33.

This is from the City of Moncton website:


July 12, 2012

MONCTON –The City of Moncton had a huge month for residential permits issued in June.  Of the $20.2 million worth of building permits issued in June 2012, $17.2 were residential projects. There were 54 residential permits issued in June 2012 valued at $17.2 million, which represents an increase of 84 per cent compared to June 2011 when the value was $9.3 million. That brings year-to-date totals, to the end of June 2012, to $46.9 million worth of residential projects approved in Moncton; an increase of 21.5 per cent from the same time last year.

“The strong growth in our residential market shows that Moncton remains a great place to live and invest in real estate.  It also highlights the fact that consumer confidence remains high,” said Moncton Mayor, George LeBlanc. “As our population increases, there continues to be consistent growth and demand for housing.”

“I’m really excited about the increase in residential development in June,” noted Sherry Sparks, Director of Building Inspection.  “One noteworthy permit was for a 107 unit, 4 story luxury apartment building complete with underground parking at Mapleton Estates located at 190 Carson Drive.  This great residential project being developed by Sira Enterprises Ltd. is the first of two sister apartment buildings to be constructed at Mapleton Estates.”
 
In June 2012, a total of 15 commercial and industrial permits were issued valued at $2.2 million dollars compared to $5.7 million in June 2011, representing a decrease of 62 per cent. One of the largest commercial and industrial projects approved this month is the construction of a Mr. Lube Oil Change facility located at 1684 Mountain Road for a total construction value of $611,000.

This past June, there were 42 permits issued for accessory buildings, fences, pools and retaining wall construction, contributing to a total of 148 permits for the year 2012.  This brings the year-to-date total to $1.9 million, which represents an increase of 102 per cent from June 2011.

June 2012 highlights include:

- 107 unit, 4 story luxury apartment building with 1 and 2 bedroom units, 34,000 sq. ft. per floor complete with underground parking at Mapleton Estates: 190 Carson Drive, Sira Enterprises Ltd: $8.8 million
- Renovate existing office building: 1435 Mountain Road, Lomax Inc: $600,000
- Window and Soffit Replacement: 10 Record Street, Heritage Resources Inc.: $210,000
- Interior Fit-up to Starbucks: 1629 Mountain Road, The Hardman Group: $160,000
- Interior Renovation to Create Restaurant: 834 Mountain Road, Canadian Tomato Restaurant: $100,000

Additional note - the "Canadian Tomato Restaurant" would appear to correspond to the old "End Zone Sports Pub" location. There is also supposed to be a bakery moving in there as well.

[habs33]

Interesting, what I heard was of two 108 unit apartments planned for there. Must be the same as below. Maybe they haven't applied fort he second building permit

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

This has been known for some time, but thanks for your interest habs33.

This is from the City of Moncton website:


July 12, 2012

MONCTON –The City of Moncton had a huge month for residential permits issued in June.  Of the $20.2 million worth of building permits issued in June 2012, $17.2 were residential projects. There were 54 residential permits issued in June 2012 valued at $17.2 million, which represents an increase of 84 per cent compared to June 2011 when the value was $9.3 million. That brings year-to-date totals, to the end of June 2012, to $46.9 million worth of residential projects approved in Moncton; an increase of 21.5 per cent from the same time last year.

“The strong growth in our residential market shows that Moncton remains a great place to live and invest in real estate.  It also highlights the fact that consumer confidence remains high,” said Moncton Mayor, George LeBlanc. “As our population increases, there continues to be consistent growth and demand for housing.”

“I’m really excited about the increase in residential development in June,” noted Sherry Sparks, Director of Building Inspection.  “One noteworthy permit was for a 107 unit, 4 story luxury apartment building complete with underground parking at Mapleton Estates located at 190 Carson Drive.  This great residential project being developed by Sira Enterprises Ltd. is the first of two sister apartment buildings to be constructed at Mapleton Estates.”
 
In June 2012, a total of 15 commercial and industrial permits were issued valued at $2.2 million dollars compared to $5.7 million in June 2011, representing a decrease of 62 per cent. One of the largest commercial and industrial projects approved this month is the construction of a Mr. Lube Oil Change facility located at 1684 Mountain Road for a total construction value of $611,000.

This past June, there were 42 permits issued for accessory buildings, fences, pools and retaining wall construction, contributing to a total of 148 permits for the year 2012.  This brings the year-to-date total to $1.9 million, which represents an increase of 102 per cent from June 2011.

June 2012 highlights include:

- 107 unit, 4 story luxury apartment building with 1 and 2 bedroom units, 34,000 sq. ft. per floor complete with underground parking at Mapleton Estates: 190 Carson Drive, Sira Enterprises Ltd: $8.8 million
- Renovate existing office building: 1435 Mountain Road, Lomax Inc: $600,000
- Window and Soffit Replacement: 10 Record Street, Heritage Resources Inc.: $210,000
- Interior Fit-up to Starbucks: 1629 Mountain Road, The Hardman Group: $160,000
- Interior Renovation to Create Restaurant: 834 Mountain Road, Canadian Tomato Restaurant: $100,000

Additional note - the "Canadian Tomato Restaurant" would appear to correspond to the old "End Zone Sports Pub" location. There is also supposed to be a bakery moving in there as well.

[Over60]

Definitely two x 107 unit buildings planned for this location but only one going up now

[MonctonRad]

Editorial from today's T&T:
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=9674

Reinvent Transpo
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Times & Transcript

We Say: Council should consider rationalizing public transit service

We sympathize with the customers of Codiac Transpo, who must struggle along without public transit through what has become a protracted labour dispute between the City of Moncton and its unionized Transpo employees.

However, Moncton City Council did well to respond as it did to what appeared to be an orchestrated demonstration in council chambers Monday night in which Transpo customers urged 'both sides' to reach a compromise.

In our view, the only 'side' to be served in that eventuality would be the union, by way of rescuing it from its own flawed negotiating strategy.

After its original wage demand was rejected by council, the union returned with an even higher demand and then called for binding arbitration.

Setting aside the possibility this would result in 'splitting the difference' between council's offer and the union's new demand - thus achieving close to what the union wanted in the first place - it would also represent an abdication of responsibility by council.

Public transit is not an essential service and does not require binding arbitration.

This is council's call and it said as much on Monday night.

Deputy Mayor Merrill Henderson stated the situation plainly enough. He said council wants to be fair not only to Transpo customers and workers but also to the people who pay the bill: the tax payers of Metro Moncton.

And the fact is, Codiac Transpo already costs too much and does not do a very good job.

We certainly do not lay all of that at the feet of the union membership, but the facts are also plain enough. Last year Transpo cost $9 million to operate, generated $2.5 million in revenue and served a paltry 7,000 customers daily; or possibly little more than 3,500 if most of the '7,000' are return trips.

We would not be surprised if Metro taxpayers believe they're already paying too much and would not object if the City simply shut down Transpo, and during a hopefully short hiatus, 'reinvented' it with half the vehicles, half the staff and a new route map, re-growing it to serve at least twice the current ridership before it contemplates any future expansion. The union leadership, meanwhile, has no strategy other than to make an already inordinately costly yet poor service even more expensive.

Personal note - I do think the union is being unreasonable in it's demands, especially given the current state of the world economy and the dire situation facing public transit in general in the Maritimes.

The paper however is being somewhat rash in it's assessment of the situation. I have no doubt that the route map could be redone and service frequency could be rejigged, but cutting the service by half seems excessive. The sides need to get back to the table but I think the union has to take the first step. I don't think binding arbitration (which traditionally does not favour management) is in the cards. The union should get over it.

[mylesmalley]

Slashing everything in half is entirely arbitrary to say the least. I don't argue with the suggestion of re-aligning services though.

Coverage of Dieppe isn't ideal. There's no service at all past Dieppe Blvd except from Champlain and no busses come close to the airport. You see a few people a day walking up Aviation Avenue to the terminal building though. That's a 2km hike! One can only assume that a lot of people are put off by that.

Once you get away from Mountain, the North End is pretty badly served. No busses at all run along Twin Oaks, which is one of the fastest growing neighbourhoods in town. Berry Mills, Horseman and Ryan have no busses either. A year from now there will be two schools there!

The East End is generally better off, but once you get out to some of the newer areas you're in to the same situation.

[JasonL-Moncton]

They also need to re-assess Riverview...perhaps having one or two busses that circle Riverview never leaving it with a couple of 'connectors' coming from across the river in Moncton one crossing at the Causeway and one crossing at the Gunningsville Bridge.

A ten minute drive in a car from Moncton on Wheeler can take you a 'brutally long' time on the bus to Riverview.

[pierremoncton]

I remember looking at population comparisons between 2001 and 2006, and finding that the city's core had lost density. With high growth from 2006 to 2011 and with all the residential buildings that have appeared in the past few years, I expected that trend to have reversed, but I found the numbers today and the core is still losing people.

For example:

Census tract 3050001.00 (the area south of Main St): 1,276 to 1,160 residents (-9.1%).
Census tract 3050006.00 (surrounding St George St): 4,630 to 4,552 residents (-1.7%)

Sources (click on the 'map' tab to see the area):

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recen...ustom=&TABID=3

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recen...ustom=&TABID=3

In fact, as you can see here, all central census tracts lost residents, whereas the outskirts are exploding:



Biggest increases:

3050003.03 (West end, between Berry Mills and Mountain): 5,590 to 8,259 (+47.7%)
3050014.04 ("central" Dieppe): 5,588 to 7,760 (+38.9%)
3050014.02 (St-Anselme): 4,365 to 5,745 (+31.6%)

The GeoSearch 2011 tool is here: http://geodepot.statcan.gc.ca/GeoSea...ue&searchPass=

But it's slow and buggy, so I made a larger collage here that shows the boundaries more clearly: http://i.imgur.com/NrqSD.png

Source: Statistics Canada. 2012. GeoSearch. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 92-142-XWE. Ottawa, Ontario. Data updated May 29, 2012. http://geodepot.statcan.gc.ca/GeoSea...=E&otherLang=F
(accessed 2012-08-23)

[MonctonRad]

Interesting. Good find pierre.

I do think that the number of dwellings downtown is increasing, but the majority of those dwellings are small apartments and condos with only one or two residents. This would be a major change from the family units that lived downtown even as recently as 20 years ago who would have had 4-6 residents per dwelling. As such, while the dwellings are more numerous, the "density" has decreased.

Most actual population growth is in the suburbs because that is where most traditional families (with their 2-3 kids) live. It is the population of children which actually drives density.

I would really like to see more traditional families living in the core too, but with hairbrained government policies like The relocation of Moncton High School, I don't see this happening anytime soon......

[NBNYer]

Thanks for the info, Pierre

That map really puts things into perspective. Explosive growth encircling a comparatively stagnant core; typical. Even the significant amount of apartment building infill of recent years in the core fades in relative terms compared to the growth in the subs.

Berry Mills/Mountain approaching 50% pop increase; impressive. Imagine if just a fraction of that growth would have occurred in central Moncton, downtown would already look quite different than it does today.

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Interesting. Good find pierre.

I do think that the number of dwellings downtown is increasing, but the majority of those dwellings are small apartments and condos with only one or two residents. This would be a major change from the family units that lived downtown even as recently as 20 years ago who would have had 4-6 residents per dwelling. As such, while the dwellings are more numerous, the "density" has decreased.

Most actual population growth is in the suburbs because that is where most traditional families (with their 2-3 kids) live. It is the population of children which actually drives density.

I would really like to see more traditional families living in the core too, but with hairbrained government policies like The relocation of Moncton High School, I don't see this happening anytime soon......

Apartments do tend to have fewer occupants, but they also take up much less space than the typical suburban home. Build form is also important. Apartments obviously aren't practical for a family of 2-3 kids, and on the other hand many of the houses available downtown are on the older side and upkeep and renos may make them less appealing. Downtown needs more of a high density intermediate option that could appeal to families, like townhouses. Of course, the lack of a high school doesn't help!

[MonctonRad]

Interesting table from the Conference Board of Canada listing projected CMA populations by 2035.



In 2035, Moncton is projected to have a CMA population of 178,800 and would be the 23rd largest CMA in the country. I believe right now we are 27th.

[Monctonguy19]

This is really exciting!!!

Btw when did this came out?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Monctonguy19

This is really exciting!!!

Btw when did this came out?

This table was released as part of a study on the future of pro sports in Canada (and yes, the Conference Board thinks a CFL team in Moncton might be viable).

This is a new report, but all they did was take the CMA populations as of the last census and extrapolate out to 2035 using the current growth rate of the municipalities.

If you do this, then Moncton would have a CMA population of 178,800 by 2035, but if the growth rate suddenly changes, then these projections could be way off base. Still, it's nice to fantasize, and the Moncton growth rate has been very healthy now for at least 15 years. There's no reason to expect that it would change significantly anytime soon.

At some point, rural migration from the north will begin to diminish, but international migration to the area seems to be picking up.

[pierremoncton]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Interesting table from the Conference Board of Canada listing projected CMA populations by 2035.

Those numbers are off.

First, it shows the population at 126,400 in 2010, but that number is actually from the 2006 census. Statcan's estimate for 2010 was 138,000 (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tabl...emo05a-eng.htm), and the official 2011 census number was 138,644. So the starting point is wrong.

Second, the actual average growth rate from 2006 to 2011 was 1.94% per annum, not 1.4%. I'm not suggesting that this rate won't ever change, but unless they can justify this drop in growth, then all of their data is garbage.

Even at their 1.4% growth rate, based on Statcan's estimate of 138k in 2010, the population would be 195,356 by 2035.

At the current 1.94% growth rate, based on Statcan's official number of 138,644 in 2011, the population would amount to 219,873 by 2035.

I also read their "report" on the future of professional sports. It's nothing but (poor) speculation. These two reports seem to me to be nothing but attempts at getting free publicity. I think I'll wait for Statcan's data and for Gary Bettman to stop burning money in the desert before I believe any of the Board's stuff.

[MonctonRad]

You're right pierre.

I thought their starting point was off, but I was as work today and it was very busy so I posted this without doing any due diligence on the numbers.

I offer my mea culpa.....

Still, I don't believe that Moncton will have 220,000 people by 2035, but I do think 180,000 is achievable. An annual growth rate approaching 2% is not sustainable in the long term.

As for the report itself, I agree that it was probably an exercise in gaining publicity, but it was entertaining nonetheless and did make some valid points. The report was supportive for the idea of CFL teams in the Maritimes.

[MonctonRad]

from CBC:

Moncton sees construction boom
CBC News Posted: Aug 29, 2012 7:14 AM AT Last Updated: Aug 29, 2012 7:25 AM AT

Construction has been booming in Moncton this summer, with residential building permits up compared to last year.

July saw a 13 per cent jump year-on-year, totalling $10.5 million. In addition, the month saw 28 commercial and industrial permits worth $5.2 million.

Kevin Silliker, Moncton's director of economic development, said there were a variety of projects contributing to the boom.

“We saw everything from medical offices, clinics, retail, restaurants, some service facilities," he said.

"As well as that [other buildings] were either created or upgraded so again, another well-balanced portfolio there on the commercial side of things."

He said builders and investors keep an eye on building permit values to judge how communities are doing.

The latest numbers show consumer confidence is returning, Silliker said, adding that there are still a number of projects in the works.

[MonctonRad]

Another article in the paper yesterday (which for some reason isn"t on the media monitoring portal, so I can't provide a link), mentioned the tight commercial and industrial real estate market in the metro area.

Colliers International in particular highlighted the fact that the class A office market has a tight 3.4% vacancy rate and hinted that there might be further new construction at the Emmerson Business Park in the near future to alleviate this.

[Monctonguy19]

So yesterday I had the chance to fly around the city so I took few pics!

Downtown


Future land for the arena


Power Center


Notice how much parking and empty lots in downtown!
Let's take it on the positive side, more space for future projects!