From what I know the old ALC building in question was hosting 1 or 2 tech start-up companies in the space out front nearest to Milner, the rest of the building was empty at the time but plans were to turn it into a space hosting servers (lots of servers). At the time there was negotiation for a company I believe out of LA (former Facebook people) who wanted to establish their servers here for a new venture they were staring up.
It seems the old ALC building is sitting on one of the portals of a fibreoptic superhighway that was discussed in the news about a year ago in a large press conference at City Hall.
Moncton is one of only a couple (maybe only us and another) in all of Canada that have such a portal and only a few more (similar) in all of North America.
Here's a link to better describe my ramblings about the fibreoptic superhighway
:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...hway-1.2800197
With all that said and done, allowing an Auto Repair shop to set up there seems silly considering what that property represents right now and potential investments in the future.