The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[Fischbob]

Originally Posted by WharfRat

http://country94.ca/news/632536326/s...ions-end-month

Interesting. Both sites are good candidates for redevelopment, though there'd likely be some associated environmental remediation costs.

[saintjohnirish☘]

Originally Posted by WharfRat

http://country94.ca/news/632536326/s...ions-end-month

I was talking to one of the workers, they said someone bought both locations and will be building new and larger convenience stores and keeping the gas bars. Sadly the current employees won't be rehired with whatever the new company is who bought them

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by saintjohnirish☘

I was talking to one of the workers, they said someone bought both locations and will be building new and larger convenience stores and keeping the gas bars. Sadly the current employees won't be rehired with whatever the new company is who bought them

I've heard rumours of this for the Hilyard location. Similar type of redevelopment. With the empty car wash sitting behind the small kiosk it was a waste of a lot of prime space, so i'm looking forward to seeing how the new owners repurpose that spot.

From what i've been manage to gather, PetroCan sold these properties and they were picked up by another chain.

Originally Posted by Fischbob

My favourite potential site would have been a renovated Courthouse with a contemporary expansion off the back and onto where IOL is now building their parking garage. Alas.

From what i've read, when the Provincial government releases the Courthouse, the SJ Theatre Company has put in a proposal for the building. Fantastic idea, IMO.

[Whaler]

Originally Posted by ricker

Well you may be right?
But what i do know is this he was dead against liquor right up to when he passed away 25 years ago!

I know I am right. I have visited a lot.
KC was alive then. His grand kids went there too.

[Ire Narissis]

Originally Posted by JHikka

From what i've been manage to gather, PetroCan sold these properties and they were picked up by another chain.

That's a real shame; I preferred Petro Canada because from what I understood, their NB locations source lower-ethanol fuel than most other chains. Guess it'll be Shell for me now.

[Fischbob]

Saint John housing market posts best October sales figure in a decade

Residential sales activity reported through the MLS® System of the Saint John Real Estate Board numbered 175 units in October 2017. This was up 7.4% from a year earlier and marked the best month of October for activity in the region since 2007.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 1,809 units over the first 10 months of the year. This was an increase of 7.7% from the same period in 2016. It was also a nine-year high for the period.

“October sales mirrored activity for the year as a whole so far, with both the monthly and year-to-date sales figures running at their highest levels since before the financial crisis,” said Sheila Henry, President of the Saint John Real Estate Board. “Supply has been picking up in recent months in response to higher demand, although the market has so far remained in balanced territory.”

The average price for homes sold in October 2017 was $168,575, a decrease of 5.7% from the same month in 2016. The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $176,082, rising 4.4% from the first 10 months of 2016.

New residential listings on the Board’s MLS® System numbered 313 units in October 2017, up 19% from a year earlier and the second highest level for this month on record.

There were 1,624 active residential listings on the Board’s MLS® System at the end of October, down 3.7% from the same month last year. This was the smallest year-over-year decline since May 2016.

There were 9.3 months of inventory at the end of October 2017, down from 10.3 months at the end of October 2016 and in line with the long-run average for this time of the year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The total value of all residential sales was $29.5 million in October 2017, edging up 1.3% from a year earlier.

Sales of all types of properties in Saint John numbered 209 units in October, rising 11.2% from October 2016. The total value of these property sales was $31.2 million, edging down 0.9% from the previous October.

So we're seeing greater sales volumes and higher prices in the local real estate market YTD, and are continuing a trend of decreased amounts of inventory in the system.

[RR Drummer]

Looks like the Tim Horton's build is going ahead at the corner of Loch Lomond Road /MacDonald Street.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Fischbob

So we're seeing greater sales volumes and higher prices in the local real estate market YTD, and are continuing a trend of decreased amounts of inventory in the system.

Great news all-around.

[thefishingnut]

Originally Posted by RR Drummer

Looks like the Tim Horton's build is going ahead at the corner of Loch Lomond Road /MacDonald Street.

Lets hope they put in enough room so the drive through lineup isn't out on the street as seems to happen far too often.

[UptownJeff]

Rumour has it that the premier was in town today trying to pitch long wharf as the museum site. Also there’s talk of a casino coming to Saint John. God I hope not!

[Franco401]

Originally Posted by UptownJeff

Rumour has it that the premier was in town today trying to pitch long wharf as the museum site. Also there’s talk of a casino coming to Saint John. God I hope not!

Still, a Casino would be Saint John's opportunity to make good on Moncton's mistake of building Casino NB way out on Mountain Rd instead of Downtown...

Museum on Long Wharf, Casino on the Coast Guard site. Not what I would have predicted a few weeks ago.

[UptownJeff]

Personally, I will fight any attempt to bring a casino to Saint John. They are, in most cases a tax on the poor and putting one within reach of a large population already living with addiction and poverty issues is a recipe for disaster. I would like to see the museum built on the coast guard site as the anchor for a larger hotel, residential, retail and entertainment complex.

The museum, Canada’s oldest, should be a showpiece and should be a building built for the long term and not a metal box or something like that.

This is our opportunity to really do something with the waterfront.

[Fischbob]

Originally Posted by UptownJeff

Rumour has it that the premier was in town today trying to pitch long wharf as the museum site. Also there’s talk of a casino coming to Saint John. God I hope not!

I hadn't really considered Long Wharf as a candidate for the Museum, as it's just a bit further removed from the action (as it stands right now) than I'd like. I suppose they would play up the symbolic proximity to Fort Latour. If they end up securing Long Wharf, hopefully the Museum takes up only part of it, leaving the rest of the site for (as others have suggested over the years) a street grid and some meaningful high-density development.

If we do, heaven forbid, get a casino on the waterfront, let's pray that it has a better outward/public realm interaction than the one in Halifax.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Franco401

Still, a Casino would be Saint John's opportunity to make good on Moncton's mistake of building Casino NB way out on Mountain Rd instead of Downtown...

Although Casino NB in Moncton does absolutely nothing for urban densification and buildup it is built in an area where it is very difficult for the poor and impoverished to visit - you essentially need a car to visit Casino NB. Placing a Casino in Uptown SJ would mean it would be within walking distance for many poor and weak, whereas placing it somewhere else (insert suburban location here) would have a weaker impact on the poor and be more appealing to commuters and those who are more mobile and less damaged by occasional gambling. A suburban location would be less likely to be visited by business travellers and cruise ship passengers, though.

Casino Nova Scotia is an interesting counterexample. I never really thought the place was ridden with the impoverished whenever I visited and its location on the Waterfront in Halifax is nearby to many poor residents similar to Saint John, although to a slightly lesser degree.

In the end, i'd be surprised if we ended up with a Casino in SJ in the near future. This seems to come up every few years (along with a horsetrack for some bizarre reason) and nothing ever comes of it, probably for the better.

[Fischbob]

Originally Posted by Fischbob

If they end up securing Long Wharf, hopefully the Museum takes up only part of it, leaving the rest of the site for (as others have suggested over the years) a street grid and some meaningful high-density development.

To illustrate my point, here's a quick and dirty Paint(.net) drawing of just how much stuff Long Wharf could accommodate.



In this scheme, most upper floors would be residential, with ground floor retail/commercial mainly concentrated on one street, like the central street connected to the pedestrian bridge. Other street frontages would be activated with residential entrances at grade. Throw an underground garage beneath the 4 central blocks and never worry about parking again.

[JHikka]

IMO, building up the Coast Guard site and intensifying the Peninsula should be the primary goal. Long Wharf can be a secondary goal once we figure everything out Uptown.

[Fischbob]

Oh, totally. And any buildout like that on Long Wharf would take many years. I mainly drew it to show that it would be colossally short-sighted to plop the museum down in the centre of the site surrounded by passive lawn and surface parking (much like the IOL proposal for Long Wharf).

[saintjohnirish☘]

Originally Posted by Fischbob

Oh, totally. And any buildout like that on Long Wharf would take many years. I mainly drew it to show that it would be colossally short-sighted to plop the museum down in the centre of the site surrounded by passive lawn and surface parking (much like the IOL proposal for Long Wharf).

Totally agree 100% Dense grid all the way. Perhaps a full service grocer? I was wondering how a grocery store would work in market square after the museum vacates the building leaving loads of space

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by saintjohnirish☘

Totally agree 100% Dense grid all the way. Perhaps a full service grocer? I was wondering how a grocery store would work in market square after the museum vacates the building leaving loads of space

Personally I think a grocery store would do extremly well in the area just looking at how many people have seemingly been asking for one but then again it all depends on how many of those people would actually go do there groceries there in the end.

If you look at Dieppe with 2 Sobeys across from each other (Champlain Mall, and Regis) people either go to one, or the other I have not seen many switch locations. Or even people who rather go to Superstore Giant Tiger, and Dollarama on Main instead of the Power centre Superstore and Mapleton Dollarama/Giant Tiger stores.

People ill say one thing, and often do the oposite because of habit.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by saintjohnirish☘

Totally agree 100% Dense grid all the way. Perhaps a full service grocer? I was wondering how a grocery store would work in market square after the museum vacates the building leaving loads of space

I'm not sure how well a full grocer would do in Market Square - not sure enough people live within a five minute walk for it to make sense. There are other areas on the Peninsula which would make more sense, particularly for smaller urban-style grocer builds.

Originally Posted by Scarface

If you look at Dieppe with 2 Sobeys across from each other (Champlain Mall, and Regis) people either go to one, or the other I have not seen many switch locations. Or even people who rather go to Superstore Giant Tiger, and Dollarama on Main instead of the Power centre Superstore and Mapleton Dollarama/Giant Tiger stores.

It's going to be difficult to compare Dieppe with USJ: Dieppe is a suburban, car-based area with many young families. Uptown doesn't really match it at all as you're looking at primarily those who are walking to and from services.

This is the issue when trying to compare USJ to other locations - USJ is the most dense urban area in NB, and there's nowhere else in the province that compares to it. Closest comparisons for buildup are going to be Halifax and elsewhere in Canada, and that's where you're going to have to find ideas as to how certain characteristics (like urban grocers) can work in USJ. We're talking about grocers in the basements and ground floors of condo and office towers, or grocers built atop parking garages, or any other combination of things.

Ideally, IMO, Prince Edward Square gets entirely renovated. It already has a lot of aspects of what grocers would be looking for (loading bays, underground parking, walking distance to residents). It's a bit separated from USJ but for Waterloo Village, parts of the Peninsula, and Crown Street area it makes sense.