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Prime Minister Trudeau has recently been pushing for housing to be built on federal owned lands and existing properties, including federal owned port lands. Needless to say, there's all kinds of opportunities for such developments here in the Saint John Region, especially within the core of Saint John.
Not quite everything shaded in in this map is federally owned, but most of it is.
There's quite a lot of room to build some mid rises and high rises on federal owned
Port SJ land on both sides of the harbour, more at
Barack Green Armoury, and
HMCS Brunswicker land.
Better yet, imagine if Saint John could get back one of the soon to be retired Halifax class frigates that were built at Saint John Shipbuilding to "come back" to Saint John replace and the "ship on land" portion of the HMCS Brunswicker, clearing up even more room for housing to be built on that site. It would be quite a sight to behold to see a ship like that tied up at Saint John Harbour, and even more amazing to see it out on the harbour being used as a training ship.
This would be a more long term project of course, but still full achievable within a decade.
In terms of places right now that should be looked at, part of the Lower Cove Terminal is perhaps the best candidate for being utilized to build housing.
The second best place is probably the AIM site.
Some mid and high rises at the former AIM site and on a portion of the Lower Cove Terminal land would be the perfect opportunity and reason to bring back the Saint John Harbour Ferry. Perfect place to live as a port worker, or for someone who works Uptown. Perfect opportunity for Trudeau to do something about the housing crisis with some bold, outside the box thinking... the type of solutions we need to utilize in order to solve the housing crisis!
It would be such a positive transformation for the city (and West Side especially) to go from AIM's filthy operation, to some stunning, modern residential towers, connected by a ferry service to the other side at Lower Cove Terminal where some neo-art deco residential towers be erected, it would be a symbolic link between Saint John's historic past, and a brighter, modern future.
Have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised that JT actually suggested something so outside the out the box! If Wayne Long was smart, he'd pounce on this opportunity to get some housing built on federally owned property, while he's still in office. Saint Johners should contact their MP, and other relevant federal, provincial, and municipal officials to get something done on this front. We have more federally owned land than most cities in Canada... we should be pushing for something to be done in this regard, especially since the Prime Minister seems to thinks it's a good idea... and at least he knows where Port Saint John is.