The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[ElevatorGuy]

Great stories stu_pendousmat2. Its nice to see news from home thanks.

[mmmatt]

March 23, 2007 - 2:19 pm
By: Tara Clow-News 91.9 Staff


MONCTON,NB-Tourism was down across Atlantic Canada last year, but Moncton appears to be holding its ground.

Director of Tourism Events for the City of Moncton, Kelly Cain, says it wasn't an outstanding year, but there have been positive increases in areas where Moncton is outperforming its Maritime neighbours.

According to preliminary results, occupancy rates averaged 63 per cent. Total room sales increased by 3.3 per cent, to about 470 thousand room nights, that's a 5 year high for the Hub City. Expenditures for tourism in Moncton were at an all time high of 361.6 million.

Cain says the number of people visiting tourist attractions in the province in 2006 was down about 15 per cent. However, the Magnetic Hill Zoo bucked that trend with an increase in numbers last year.

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by ElevatorGuy

Great stories stu_pendousmat2. Its nice to see news from home thanks.

No problem...thanks for reading lol

[mmmatt]

March 22, 2007 - 12:42 pm
By: Allan Dearing - News 91.9 Staff


MONCTON, NB - Construction is running on schedule for a new $15 million Marriott hotel in downtown Moncton.

Developer Gordon Laing says the preliminary construction phase including concrete support work is almost complete.

Laing notes the site may be a bit quiet right now as final design plans for the hotel are worked out with Marriott officials.

The hotel will be seven stories with an 8,000 square foot The Keg Restaurant on the ground floor.

Laing expects contracts will be awarded shortly to allow for work on the actual structure.

The hotel and the restaurant are expected to be ready by the spring of next year.

[mmmatt]

Times & Transcript (Moncton)
Mon 26 Mar 2007

The City of Dieppe's much-anticipated, five-year green plan will be unveiled at council's regular meeting at 6 p.m. in council's chambers.

The city commissioned the green plan last fall to address ways of protecting the city's environmental infrastructure while experiencing unprecedented growth.

The task now falls to council to decide what measures and recommendations will be adopted.

A public hearing to discuss the application from Serge Gauvin Enterprises Ltd., to rezone a portion of a parcel of land situated at 1449 Amirault St., will be heard.

The application proposes to rezone from "R1" Zone (Residential - Single Unit Dwelling) to "R2" Zone (Residential - Two Unit Dwelling) (PID 70402714) in order to permit the construction of semi detached dwellings.

A Rezoning project of Lot 06-3B on Rufin Street in the business and technology park will also be discussed.

Council will vote on budget transfers and Policies A-27 and A-28.

Nominations will be made to the city's Active Living" and "Aquatic and Sport Center" Project Management Team.

[mmmatt]

N.B. to provide money to continue restoration work on Moncton's oldest building

Times & Transcript (Moncton)
Mon 26 Mar 2007


In the short term view, it seems like not a lot has happened at Treitz Haus since a small part of it opened to the public as a tourist information centre four years ago.

That seems particularly so when you recall the flurry of activity in the four years before that.

In the long view though, the stalled restoration of Moncton's oldest building is a mere pause in its enduring history, according to Councillor-at- Large Kathryn Barnes

"It was meant to survive," she said of the structure, which in addition to the assaults of old age, has also suffered numerous fires in the past two and a half centuries - two of them just in the past decade.

Barnes is city council's liason on the Treitz Haus restoration committee and she said she's just recently gotten word there is in fact some provincial money coming to pick up where the work has left off. More precise details are not yet available.

The City of Moncton and members of the community worked for years restoring what was once known as the Saddleback House next to Bore Park, going so far as to lift the once crumbling structure up and move it closer to the Riverfront Trail.

It has had extensive work on its exterior and its skeletal frame, and been placed on a foundation so that modern washrooms could be placed in the basement instead of on the main floor where the historic character of the building would have been destroyed.

There is, however, significant interior work still to be done to half the main floor and the entire second floor. The part of the interior that has been completed serves as a tourist bureau for the city and is only used in the summer months.

Barnes said this week that along with completing the restoration, financial decisions about the building also have to take into account staffing it. If, for instance, the rest of the building becomes an interpretive centre for the history of Moncton's first settlers, as has been long discussed, questions of whether it would be staffed and opened year round have to be considered.

Preserving history doesn't come cheaply, which largely explains why projects like the restoration of the old ICR freight shed has not gotten off the ground and the Number 4 Fire Station on High Street has been lost.

The Treitz Haus project has cost an estimated $750,000, though about a third of that has paid for parking and improving street access to its new location on the riverfront. As well, some of the cost is wrapped into work on the Riverfront Trail in the immediate vicinity.

A federal Millennium Project grant contributed $245,000 to the work.

Adding to the cost was establishing a tourist information centre in the building as opposed to a potentially less expensive use.

The house was built circa 1766 by Jacob Treitz, Sr., one of the Monckton Township's eight original settlers. It later served as an inn and tavern for Ichabod Lewis and Thomas Prince. It has been restored to what it would have looked like around 1813.

It is Moncton's oldest building and one of the oldest in the province.

"It was put on hold because of the money," Barnes said, explaining that expensive priorities like water and sewer system rehabilitation have forced council to spend its money elsewhere in the past few years, "but we haven't forgotten it."

[Smevo]

I may know what that restaurant is for Champlain Place, but I don't think I should tip it off if it is. Let's just say if it is that place, it'll do quite well in that mall.

[mmmatt]

Times & Transcript
Published Wednesday March 28th, 2007

You-all can dust off thet cowboy hat, Moncton; the Hill's gonna rock agin.

The Times & Transcript has learned the city will host what is expected to be the biggest country-and-western tour in the world this year with country sweethearts Faith Hill and Tim McGraw headlining Country Rocks the Hill II on Saturday, Sept. 1.

The two hottest stars in country music today are said to be headlining seven big supporting acts for a show set for the Labour Day weekend, with tickets starting at $130 to go on sale April 13.

Supporting acts remained a mystery yesterday although they may be revealed at a news conference set for the Moncton Coliseum and Agrena Complex this morning if it turns out, as suspected, that it is to serve as the official announcement for the show.

According to sources the news conference will get a little help from the two biggest country acts in Metro this year, the Divorcees and Shirley Albert.

The Divorcees completed a national tour in December and are already booked to head out for more of the same through the summer, returning to Moncton from the west coast just in time for the Hill.

Albert, meanwhile, was nominated for Country Album of the Year at the 2007 East Coast Music Awards in Halifax this winter.

Word has it the Divorcees and Albert will be the opening acts for a show that starts at 2 p.m. and goes to about 10:30 p.m. barring encores.

The main act is set for about 8 p.m.

Details such as food concessions are in the hands of the promoters, who weren't confirming anything yesterday.

However, sources say the official beer is Budweiser, the official soft drink is Coca Cola and like last year, there will be designated parking, viewing and dining areas for VIP ticket holders.

Today's announcement signals the Metro area's emergence as the premier outdoor venue for music in Atlantic Canada, despite a drive from Halifax to compete for the business.

Halifax's World Trade Centre Inc. tried to wrest the Brooks & Dunn-led country show from Moncton last year and earlier in 2006 brought the Rolling Stones to Halifax, drawing about 25,000 people to its main outdoor site at the Halifax Commons, compared to the 80,000-plus who showed up at Magnetic Hill for the Stones in the summer of 2005.


Halifax also submitted a last-minute bid this year to take the Hill/McGraw-led show from Moncton, even applying to the provincial government for a grant.

The grant, said by sources to be at least $100,000, was intended to be applied directly to Halifax's bid to the promoters in an attempt to undercut Moncton's bid.

Evidently it didn't work and it seems likely that, with Halifax still attempting to repair the ground at the Commons after it was damaged during the Stones show almost a year ago, Magnetic Hill's performance over the last two years made the difference.

Moncton has also taken a different approach to financing its re-entry into the outdoor music scene after several off again, on again attempts to use a sprawling natural amphitheatre located near the Magnetic Hill tourism facility, first used for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Moncton in 1984.

As soon as the Stones were confirmed in the spring of 2005 the city launched a modest investment strategy designed to improve Moncton's position in bidding for all shows by improving site infrastructure, rather than blowing public cash on undercutting the competition for one specific show.

That way the money stays here rather than just going to the promoters.

Thus, the city's entire investment this year is $250,000, set down in the 2007-08 capital works budget, so music-lovers can expect to see a gradually improving site at Magnetic Hill.

For example the city's initial investment in 2005 improved drainage and security fencing at the site and, as a bonus, TNA and DKD spent about $200,000 tamping gravel into the upper end of the site for a permanent concert pad, forgoing the ground problems currently plaguing the Halifax Commons.

This year's $250,000 is earmarked for improved parking, washrooms and backstage facilities.

Those are great for concertgoers, but they are also great for the bands, which tend to shy away from outdoor sites due to complex problems like security and surprisingly straightforward ones like simply having enough well-tamped parking space for the fleet of tractor-trailers that accompany the really big shows.

Country Rocks the Hill II is being put together by Halifax-based promoter Harold MacKay of Power Promotional Concepts, in partnership with Ron Sakamoto of Gold & Gold Productions of Lethbridge, Alberta. The same two partners put together the first Country Rocks the Hill show last summer with headliners Brooks & Dunn and Alan Jackson drawing 40,000 people to Metro.

Those promoters, along with the Stones 'A Bigger Bang' world tour promoter The Next Adventure of Toronto and Donald K. Donald of Montreal - TNA's partner for the Canadian leg of the tour that included Moncton -- took a lot of photographs and promotional material with them when they left.

That material ended up in the hands of band managers and record companies in places like Nashville, Toronto, New York and London and it appears that effort has produced a lot of global interest in Moncton as an outdoor site capable of accommodating the big shows and geographically located to draw people from a wider region.

For example most of the 80,000 draw for the Stones came from outside a metropolitan area with a total population barely exceeding 140,000.

However, much of Metro's attraction to the global music business is based simply on its reputation, having already proven over the past two years that it has the right attitude, public participation, volunteerism and other intangibles to pull off the big outdoor show.

According to Poll Star Magazine, the three biggest grossing world tours on the planet in 2006 were Barbra Streisand, the second year of the Stones A Bigger Bang tour and the first year of the McGraw/Hill Soul 2 Soul tour, which continues this summer including Moncton, which is the only outdoor venue for the Soul 2 Soul tour which has already sold out its six other Canadian stops, several of them with two shows.

That means after Labour Day Magnetic Hill will have hosted two of the top three biggest grossing tours on the planet in 2006.

[Wishblade]

It's been noted in another forum, that that article is just a big arrogant jab at Halifax. And I honestly have to agree, false facts and all. They treat it like its going to be the only major concert this summer.

[ErickMontreal]

Originally Posted by Wishblade

It's been noted in another forum, that that article is just a big arrogant jab at Halifax. And I honestly have to agree, false facts and all. They treat it like its going to be the only major concert this summer.

No worry, its just a country show... i`m biased cause i really hate this music

[someone123]

I bet they picked Moncton for the pickup trucks and mullets.

[Haliguy]

Who cares its just a country concert...they can have it...what bothers me is the lies they promote...like where they say only about 25,000 were at the Rolling Stones Concert on the Common... what a bold face lie there was over 50,000.

[Smevo]

I'll never understand both cities' need to compete with each other over concerts. Why don't they just suck up their pride and create and accept the situation where we have two prime big concert locations within a two-hour drive of each other? Whether you like the music or not, between the two cities the potential is there to have 4 major concerts each summer in the Maritimes. It'd be a lot better for the region and more of an economic boost than fighting over one specific headliner every year, or trying to outdo what the other city did the year before. Of course the article's going to be biased, it's a Moncton newspaper, much like Halifax newspapers are/would be biased toward Halifax.

You don't see Regina fighting with Saskatoon over concerts of this size. As long as the tour stops in one, the other is happy, so what that their in the same province. Economically speaking, this region benefits from what happens in other parts of the region and not just what happens in-province.

[someone123]

The fact is that there will be competition because there is a lot of overlap between the two markets and people will not pay to see two shows.

Of course the article's going to be biased, it's a Moncton newspaper, much like Halifax newspapers are/would be biased toward Halifax.

Not really. The Halifax papers report Halifax news but they usually limit the editorializing to editorials.

Here is some coverage from the Herald: http://herald.ns.ca/Entertainment/566082.html

This is not a "rivalry". It is a case of Moncton having an inferiority complex. Whenever they have some kind of success they can't help but talk down other places as in the article above.

It's very small town, which is kind of funny since Moncton is obsessed with moving beyond its small town image. The irony is the only reason why I even bother responding to this stuff.

[ElevatorGuy]

The City of Moncton along with Donald K Donald where pursuing major outdoor acts long before the original Rolling Stones concert and like it or not they put the maritimes on the map for these types of shows. If anyone has a inferiority complex its Halifax. Halifax was never trying to get these shows until they saw the potential and now the city wants in and are trying to steel the thunder. People in Halifax feel they should have the biggest and best concerts and I really dont blame them, they are the biggest and best city in the region.

[Smevo]

My point is, people who don't like Hill and McGraw won't go to the show, so the city that wasn't the initial city trying to get them could try to get a different big show that a different crowd would go to, rather than competing with the same market for the same show. Without accusing one city or the other of having an "inferiority complex", the two of them really have to stop the fighting over foolish things such as this. Accept the reality already, Halifax is the premier city in this region and Moncton is the second city in this region. It's not a region where the premier city has over half the population of the region, so there's going to be more than one prime location, especially with the local geographies, for concerts and even for development. Anytime something goes anywhere else but these two cities, it's a shot to the civic pride (which is good to have, believe me we could use some in Sydney), but nomatter which city gets anything it effects the same population base, so stop the backstabbing and get more things to make that population base not only happier but stronger too.

[ElevatorGuy]

The cities (Moncton and Halifax) are not arguing, its idiots like me on here that are arguing. You dont hear this type of babbling on the steets, 99% of the population could give 2 shits about civic pride.

[Smevo]

It's the event organizers, the media, and to some extent the city halls that are at fault for the arguing and air of competition. I doubt normal citizens in Halifax would complain about travelling two hours to see the show in Moncton if McGraw and Hill were their favourite performers.

It's kinda like CBRM's mayor Morgan on his fight over a provincial equalization scheme for municipalities. People on the street couldn't care less, but it gets reported (where it is reported in the first place) like everyone in Cape Breton agrees with him. Obviously a different issue, but those at fault for the attitudes are the same.

[kwajo]

haha, I can't help but laugh at this discussion because Halifax is now beginning to see what Saint John has been bitching about for years. The articles with numbers which seem to slant falsely in Moncton's favour, the glorified self-promotion/propaganda, the inferiority complex, et cetera. I remember years ago when this starting ramping up and the PR started about how grand a destination Moncton was, and that they started downplaying the fact Moncton didn't have much to offer as an urban centre by promoting how it was not just a city, but the centre of activity for the Maritimes (they love that Hub word). People had to pass through it at some point (even if it didn't seem like there was much reason to) so they might as well get them to stop by. I recall this one PR blitz several years ago where the Moncton Board of Trade wanted the city declared the largest in the province because (according to them) if you counted all the people that come to Moncton to shop during a week and added that to the population figures, then they'd pass Saint John. Nevermind the fact that no other city in the world includes retail tourists as resident population, but they wanted the include people coming from PEI, the North Shore, Sussex, and so on. In any event, I guess that now that Moncton feels like they have "beaten" Saint John, they have set their eyes squarely on Halifax, which hopefully will mean that they will leave Saint John alone now.

I really do have to take my hat off to Moncton, they really know how to promote themselves by not only pumping up their own strengths, but by taking the strengths of others and diminishing them - frankly the whole region could probably learn a little from them in that regard.

Anyway, congrats on the concert announcement, I'm sure in some way it'll help the province as a whole, so I won't complain.

[Smevo]

Moncton has been effective in marketing itself, but they do definitely go too far most of the time. By "they" I mean the Times and Transcript and City Hall. That's probably the reason why, when anything good is mentioned about Moncton, whether or not they downplay or even mention another city in the process, there's always the kneejerk reaction that we see so commonly these days. Though I don't agree with the strategy of making comparisons and downplaying other cities, if you were them, why would you stop doing what was working?