The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[ColSJ]

UNB Saint John Proposes New Health And Social Hub
A new health and social science research hub will find a home at UNB Saint John.

Dr. Petra Hauf, vice-president of UNB Saint John, says the campus is the ideal location for a proposed cluster of health, social innovation, research, collaboration and teaching activity.

It will also be the home of new academic programs that will prepare New Brunswick’s next generation of health professionals, explains Hauf.

“The state of the arts structure that we are aiming for will serve as a provincial hub to support and facilitate innovative and effective health initiatives that are a priority not only to UNB but also to the province,” she said during a presentation to council.

Hauf explains the centre would be a space for health leaders from UNB, Dalhousie Medicine NB, NBCC, Horizon Health, and Saint John Regional Hospital to collaborate on issues facing New Brunswickers.

“New Brunswick is faced with urgent health and social challenges. The problems presented by an aging population, chronic illness, low literacy levels and pockets of high poverty take an enormous toll on our provincial and regional economy,” she said.

The hub will create a number of new jobs, both in the new facility and in the construction and design field during the building phase.

It’s all part of strategic growth initiatives for the university, which has been working on growth investments for a number of months.

“A growth agenda for the university means a growth agenda for the city,” said Hauf.

Total project costs are estimated at $36 million, which UNB says it hopes to fund with help from the province.

https://www.country94.ca/2019/06/05/...sc_ref=twitter

[ColSJ]

UNB Saint John wants to move its MBA program to city’s uptown

Saint John Common Council heard a proposal this week that would relocate the program to the top three floors of Grand Hall, a former bank building now owned by the university which overlooks Kings Square.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5362509/u...n-mba-program/

[JHikka]

Moving the MBA program to the Grand Hall is an exceptionally good idea.

[ColSJ]

East Point Development

4- multi-unit residential buildings are planned for the area.

In total the development will include 200 new residential units.

Horizon Management is looking to break ground on this process so they can begin to turn their attention to "The Crossing" a massive proposed commercial/ residential development off of the throughway by Ashburn Road.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...ffic-1.5165283

[ColSJ]

I've been paying attention recently to realtor Bob McVicar's facebook page and the number of refurbishments and new ownership on the central peninsula is doing very well. So nice to see an area that has been struggling with housing becoming a hot spot for residential development.

The Saint John Jewish Synagogue will become home to 60 Cooke Aquaculture employees following a three-year refurbishment of the building.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5382679/s...ue-repurposed/

In addition, I noticed this article put out by CBC that supports such a case.
It's worth noting one of the properties purchased is vacant so maybe they have plans to build a new building in that space. No details have been released about the future of these properties.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...ents-1.5171006

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by ColSJ

I've been paying attention recently to realtor Bob McVicar's facebook page and the number of refurbishments and new ownership on the central peninsula is doing very well. So nice to see an area that has been struggling with housing becoming a hot spot for residential development.

The Saint John Jewish Synagogue will become home to 60 Cooke Aquaculture employees following a three-year refurbishment of the building.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5382679/s...ue-repurposed/

In addition, I noticed this article put out by CBC that supports such a case.
It's worth noting one of the properties purchased is vacant so maybe they have plans to build a new building in that space. No details have been released about the future of these properties.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...ents-1.5171006

The vacant property is the tenant parking for the buildings purchased. Because that street has no off street parking on that side, I imagine historica will maintain parking on that lot as it’s an incentive to offer residents. In fact they already installed historica private parking sign on the lot.

[Fischbob]

Originally Posted by Fischbob

New multi-unit proposal in the vicinity of Heatherway, from tomorrow's Council Agenda

Further to the above, from tonight's PAC Agenda:





Total of 11 24-unit buildings across 4 phases, with access via a new public street.

[ColSJ]

Why doesn't uptown have a Starbucks? I'm aware we had one in Brunswick square just a few years ago but it closed due to unknown details. The uptown core seems like an ideal spot for a coffee shop like Starbucks. Both Moncton and Fredericton have one in their downtown areas. Three Tim Hortons and a second cup are all doing well within close proximity to one another uptown. I'm confident a Starbucks location would do well as it did in Brunswick square. I think it would fit perfect in the newly renovated 20 Canterbury street.

https://huddle.today/is-your-busines...erbury-street/

[DTBourque]

Originally Posted by ColSJ

Why doesn't uptown have a Starbucks? I'm aware we had one in Brunswick square just a few years ago but it closed due to unknown details. The uptown core seems like an ideal spot for a coffee shop like Starbucks. Both Moncton and Fredericton have one in their downtown areas. Three Tim Hortons and a second cup are all doing well within close proximity to one another uptown. I'm confident a Starbucks location would do well as it did in Brunswick square. I think it would fit perfect in the newly renovated 20 Canterbury street.

https://huddle.today/is-your-busines...erbury-street/

I can't speak as to why Uptown SJ doesn't have one, but the general experience of Starbucks in Moncton appears to be that it doesn't do nearly as well as Timmies - or as Starbucks does in some other parts of the country.

There's one location on a busy street in Dieppe that was opened next to a busy Tims that actually closed.

I suspect we'll see more in NB long-term, but just based on that one in Dieppe closing, I can't imagine that they're in a massive rush to open a ton of locations.

[ColSJ]

Originally Posted by DTBourque

I can't speak as to why Uptown SJ doesn't have one, but the general experience of Starbucks in Moncton appears to be that it doesn't do nearly as well as Timmies - or as Starbucks does in some other parts of the country.

There's one location on a busy street in Dieppe that was opened next to a busy Tims that actually closed.

I suspect we'll see more in NB long-term, but just based on that one in Dieppe closing, I can't imagine that they're in a massive rush to open a ton of locations.

Interesting! Thanks for the input. Starbucks offers a different style but the high prices may be off-putting for a lot of people. As far as I'm aware the Starbucks on the east and west side do okay. I figured where there are a lot of high paying jobs located uptown it would make sense.

[Ire Narissis]

There has been some talk of interest by Starbucks in opening a standalone location uptown. Some people think the limited hours of Brunswick Square were the biggest problem there, and that they'd pursue a streetside location, but nothing has materialized yet.

My unfounded personal speculation is that with Second Cup, Rogue Coffee, and two Java Moose locations, they may see uptown as already saturated with premium coffee shops, to say nothing of the Tim Hortons locations besides. Their business model for the Saint John area really seems to be focused on the drive-thru locations east and west and I believe there's one in KV?

[ColSJ]

Originally Posted by Ire Narissis

There has been some talk of interest by Starbucks in opening a standalone location uptown. Some people think the limited hours of Brunswick Square were the biggest problem there, and that they'd pursue a streetside location, but nothing has materialized yet.

My unfounded personal speculation is that with Second Cup, Rogue Coffee, and two Java Moose locations, they may see uptown as already saturated with premium coffee shops, to say nothing of the Tim Hortons locations besides. Their business model for the Saint John area really seems to be focused on the drive-thru locations east and west and I believe there's one in KV?

I thought there was one in KV but I can't find one on the maps. We have a number of beautiful brick buildings vacant uptown that would make great locations for businesses. Like a Starbucks on the bottom floor and office space above. A great example is 22 King that's been sitting on the market for a while now. I suppose for now I'll give up the Starbucks idea

[Ire Narissis]

I might have been thinking of the Second Cup in Quispamsis.

[DreDay]

Originally Posted by Ire Narissis

I might have been thinking of the Second Cup in Quispamsis.

New Starbucks is being built right beside Cannabis NB

[kwajo]

I would much rather see the number of small independent coffee shops like Rogue, Bunk Haus, Catapult, Stone Soup, etc. increase Uptown rather than having a Starbucks again. Between those places, 2x Java Moose, Second Cup, Pomodori, others, there are even a lot of espresso options too, so not much of a market left IMO

[DyAm00394]

McAllister Place posted on their website that Consumers Drive entrance is CLOSED due to their redevelopment.


*UPDATE - June.28th: I updated this post because they changed this announcement on their website. They changed it to "Consumers Drive entrance". The original wording sounded like it was the street that was closed, but it's just the entrance drive-way going onto Consumers Drive.*


Source: https://mcallisterplace.ca/events/mc...e-road-closure

[ColSJ]

Apologies for the poor quality but I noticed scaffolding has been put along the side of 91 King on the city market side, pylons are visible on the roof. This is the first sign of activity on the site since the change of ownership last November. Hopefully, this is the start of the redevelopment of this site but given the timeline of events since the purchase in March 2018, I respectfully have very little expectations.

[ThomasG]

[QUOTE=DyAm00394;8617789]McAllister Place posted on their website that Consumers Drive is CLOSED due to their redevelopment.

Source: https://mcallisterplace.ca/events

Anybody else think that Mcallister Place is spending way to much money on this mall?

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

Anybody else think that Mcallister Place is spending way to much money on this mall?

Not really. This redevelopment project will improve the mall overall. With a number of large-format retailers opening soon (check the screenshot below for some info about this redevelopment), hopefully it will boost the mall's numbers like CRU Productivity for example. In May it was $458 per sq.ft, while Regent Mall (also owned by Primaris) was $586 per sq.ft.


Overall, I think this multi-million dollar project, will be a great thing for the mall.


Here is some info about this redevelopment project, just in case anyone doesn't know what they are doing with the former Sears

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

Anybody else think that Mcallister Place is spending way to much money on this mall?

Would you rather they spend no money and let the property rot away?