The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[mylesmalley]

Originally Posted by gm_scott

Shoot, you'll need to expand Malley Industries again!

Fingers crossed!

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Just admit it, Monctonians are now going to Halifax for long weekends.

JK BTW.

Imagine the cross-traffic if a fast-train were to be established between Halifax and Moncton with major stops in both downtowns.

That'd be great, actually. There are enough festivals in the two cities to make for a very busy schedule between the two cities, especially in the summer on weekends.

I have three co-workers who commute from Fredericton to Dieppe every morning, and one from Oxford, NS. A high speed rail link between the two cities could mean that workers from either city could work in either with commutes that aren't much different.

Too bad the trains aren't fast enough to take advantage of Halifax's extra late bar hours!

[curious]

does anyone know what the new store is in the mall?
Any new news on the downtown area?

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by curious

does anyone know what the new store is in the mall?
Any new news on the downtown area?

As for the mall I assume you are referring to the former La Senza Express...that is becoming the first Jack and Jones store in Canada outside Ontario and Quebec...They are a (primarily European) mens clothing store. For example they have almost as many stores in Turkey as they do in Canada haha

As for downtown there is some office action as I'm sure you know

- Recent completion of 160,000 sqft 5 floor courthouse
- 4 floor Peace Center is U/C will most likely finish up this fall
- Proposed building off Vaughn Harvey...details are sketchy at this point
- ING call center (300 jobs) as far as I know has yet to find a home (they had a job fair on the 27th of Aug @ Crowne Plaza)...I'm hoping they locate downtown in existing vacant space
- Colliers latest office space report shows that the office vacancy rate is continuing to decline in Moncton (from 12% in 2007 to 7.9% now) and is forecasted to continue that trend. This bodes well for downtown as low vacancy rates will lead to new office buildings!

Residential development is chugging at a great pace lately:

- Recent completion of a large 4 floor building on Robinson
- Valmond apartments underway on gordon...rumored to be concrete construction 5+ floors hopefully
- Proposed 7 floor building at the corner of St George and Archibald
- proposed Valmond building (possibly 10+ floors) on East Main has seen some recent news coverage and hopefully will proceed soonish
- City put out request for tenders for the lot behind the capitol theater for residential/parking garage development

And retail is moving a bit (hopefully more action with Event Center)

- Jeans Restaurant on St George is expanding
- fairly large (2 floor) CIBC U/C at the crossroads of Moncton and Dieppe on Main st
- A Halloween store has leased (albeit temporarily) the only free space in the Superstore mall on Main
- Highfield Square is essentially empty aside from its large anchor slots (The Bay, Purolator call center and a liquidation store) This leads me to believe they are getting ready to sell it or they are at least hoping to sell it to the city for the events center...heres hoping!!

[mylesmalley]

Take a swing down Gauvin Road. I walked the length of it last night and there have to be at least 3 large apartment buildings going up, plus the tower at the far end. This year certainly hasn't been marked by 'marquee' type stuff like the courthouse, but it has certainly made up for it in the private sector.

[mmmatt]

Another Moncton company (besides Malley) doing very well lately is Major Drilling They announced today that they will be buying another drilling operation based in Quebec for 95 Million...this move will add over 800 employees and 124 drilling rigs to their international operations.

This will put them up past 5,000 employees globally!! Hopefully this will mean some beefing up of their head office staff as well

[theshark]

Adding a few stories to the main office would be nice!!

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by theshark

Adding a few stories to the main office would be nice!!

Perhaps they could build a brand new office building somewhere south of Main Street.

5,000 employees worldwide is pretty impressive. They must be in the big leagues now in terms of support services for the worldwide mining industry!

[mylesmalley]

Apparently they're one of the largest drilling services companies in the world. It's great to see them doing well!

[porchmouse]

Originally Posted by mmmatt

As for downtown there is some office action as I'm sure you know

- ING call center (300 jobs) as far as I know has yet to find a home (they had a job fair on the 27th of Aug @ Crowne Plaza)...I'm hoping they locate downtown in existing vacant space
- Colliers latest office space report shows that the office vacancy rate is continuing to decline in Moncton (from 12% in 2007 to 7.9% now) and is forecasted to continue that trend. This bodes well for downtown as low vacancy rates will lead to new office buildings!

From what I understand, the ING contact center will be using space in one of the two CN Terminal buildings next to Highfield Square on Main Street. I imagine they are are occupying space now as their plan was to get off the ground in Moncton sooner than later. Cheers!

[mylesmalley]

That Colliers report is interesting. I knew that industrial space was pretty tight in town, but with all the construction going on, it's still surprising to hear that we have a nearly non-existent vacancy rate.

One thing they did miss was the Peace Center though. Granted, it'll all be non-profits, but if memory serves the finished project will be pushing 80-100,000 sq ft. Let's not forget that it isn't just the office building component. There's almost as much new space being created inside the church side. A lot of the groups that will be moving into it will expand at the same time, so we will see some growth, but that will also open up a lot of smaller offices around town. Granted, seeing as how it's targeted at non-profits and community groups, I really doubt we'll see a big glut of A or B class real estate hit the market because of it.

It would be really nice to hear an update on the office building at the corner of Assomption and Vaughan Harvey. I don't like the location at all, but based only on the height it could potentially add a lot of leasable space downtown.

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by porchmouse

From what I understand, the ING contact center will be using space in one of the two CN Terminal buildings next to Highfield Square on Main Street. I imagine they are are occupying space now as their plan was to get off the ground in Moncton sooner than later. Cheers!

Yeah those buildings would be my first guess as they are the only ones downtown that have the space required to hold them (probably two full floors).

I checked on the Crombie floor plans and ING is not mentioned yet but I'll keep my eyes open!

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

That Colliers report is interesting. I knew that industrial space was pretty tight in town, but with all the construction going on, it's still surprising to hear that we have a nearly non-existent vacancy rate.

One thing they did miss was the Peace Center though. Granted, it'll all be non-profits, but if memory serves the finished project will be pushing 80-100,000 sq ft. Let's not forget that it isn't just the office building component. There's almost as much new space being created inside the church side. A lot of the groups that will be moving into it will expand at the same time, so we will see some growth, but that will also open up a lot of smaller offices around town. Granted, seeing as how it's targeted at non-profits and community groups, I really doubt we'll see a big glut of A or B class real estate hit the market because of it.

It would be really nice to hear an update on the office building at the corner of Assomption and Vaughan Harvey. I don't like the location at all, but based only on the height it could potentially add a lot of leasable space downtown.

True, that will free up some small office space scattered through the city, however like you said this will be a net gain for the city (and a big time net gain for downtown) so well worth it in the end...and as the report suggests the vacancy rate is on the decline so hopefully those spaces will be eaten up quickly!

On that note I just noticed that the new Ashford building at the corner of Main and Vaughn Harvey has a new tenant listed so they must be full up (they only had one small office vacant).

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

That Colliers report is interesting. I knew that industrial space was pretty tight in town, but with all the construction going on, it's still surprising to hear that we have a nearly non-existent vacancy rate.

It would be really nice to hear an update on the office building at the corner of Assomption and Vaughan Harvey. I don't like the location at all, but based only on the height it could potentially add a lot of leasable space downtown.

I agree that the location of this proposed building is a little removed from the central core, but I always envisaged Vaughan Harvey as the western gateway to downtown, so I'm not against densification in the Main/Vaughan Harvey and Assomption/Vaughan Harvey area.

Maybe the Collier's report will spur development of this building!

[mylesmalley]

It certainly makes me wish I owned some rental industrial space

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

It certainly makes me wish I owned some rental industrial space

The report said that Caledonia in particular has one of the lowest (if not the lowest) vacancy rate of any park in the country at 1.3% Take a drive through there and you will see this message is not falling on deaf ears...last time I did (last week) I'd say at least 3 lots are being cleared...most likely for leaseable industrial space.

Also, completely unrelated, but Minacs in Riverview is running a radio ad saying they got a new contract with a major Canadian bank and will be hiring 200 new employees! This is on top of the 140 they just hired in the spring

[tekojim]

From what I heard, The Greater Moncton International Airport will be
making an announcement later this month that involves Belgium Air.
This sounds like there hopes of increasing there cargo flights out of
Moncton might becoming true.

[pierremoncton]

Originally Posted by mmmatt

Also, completely unrelated, but Minacs in Riverview is running a radio ad saying they got a new contract with a major Canadian bank and will be hiring 200 new employees! This is on top of the 140 they just hired in the spring

I heard that too. Could it just be for ING?

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by pierremoncton

I heard that too. Could it just be for ING?

Nope thats seperate... ING is running their own show entirely. Minacs got a contract with another bank.

See job posting for ING: http://www.careerbuilder.ca/CA/JobSe...V67MD7KJW5RG4M

Job posting for Mincas: http://www.workopolis.com/EN/job/13357594

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by tekojim

From what I heard, The Greater Moncton International Airport will be
making an announcement later this month that involves Belgium Air.
This sounds like there hopes of increasing there cargo flights out of
Moncton might becoming true.

I haven't heard anything yet...however a quick google search shows that "Air Belguim" went belly up in the 90's...so perhaps your source is referring to Brussels Airline? In any event we will keeps our ears open!

[porchmouse]

Originally Posted by mmmatt

Nope thats seperate... ING is running their own show entirely. Minacs got a contract with another bank.

See job posting for ING: http://www.careerbuilder.ca/CA/JobSe...V67MD7KJW5RG4M

Job posting for Mincas: http://www.workopolis.com/EN/job/13357594

It's for TD Bank. Their phone and web service is referred to as "Easyline". Still finding it hard to believe they would "outsource" to Moncton but maybe they are just trying to get an idea of what the workforce is like out here.