[ErickMontreal]

West development sure thing: totten

Retail City manager says construction should take place in 2008

John Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
As published on page C1 on December 7, 2006

SAINT JOHN - City manager Terry Totten says the big retail expansion on the West Side is a sure thing, though it likely won't take place until 2008.

"I'm absolutely convinced that the West Side development will occur," Totten said in an interview Wednesday. "That area is ripe. The community expects it, and the retailers want it."

A Wal-Mart, a new Canadian Tire and a Sobeys have all been rumoured for the Fairville Boulevard area, as have a new Superstore, a Shoppers Drug Mart and an Empire Theatres complex.

The city and Plaza BNG Inc., the Montreal-based group behind the project, entered into a draft sales agreement about four months ago, Totten said. Since then the two sides have been "negotiating legal process," but Totten insists that the issues are normal for this kind of development and the project will move forward soon.

"We have been advised by Plaza that they have finalized their locations with the big-box retailers that are going onto that site," he said, though he would not divulge the businesses that would be part of the development.

One sticking point has been a new location for Saint John Transit's bus terminal, which would be torn down as part of the project. Totten said the city is looking at four locations for a new terminal, and will base its decision on price, quality of the land, and handiness to bus routes.

Totten says that "in a perfect world" the deal with Plaza will be finalized sometime next month. The city's western municipal works depot, which is adjacent to the transit terminal, would be vacated in the summertime. Then the transit facility would be vacated, no later than spring 2008.

"At this point, things are going well," he said.

Frank McCarey, general manager of Saint John Transit, has said that a new facility would require storage and maintenance garages and an administrative building on about five acres of land.

Totten did not name the specific sites for the new depot. Most bus terminals in Canada are at industrial parks because the land is cheaper and the proper zoning is already in place.

In late November, common council gave Plaza access to the land on the Golden Mile so it could carry out surveys and testing - essentially allowing the developer to kick the tires of the land it is buying. Totten said that was done to show that the project was still moving along.

Fairville Boulevard is not the only development Totten has his eye on. The huge East Point shopping complex on Westmorland Road is moving ahead, and Totten said Horizon Management's construction of Retail Drive has gone better than he would have imagined.

Retail Drive will connect with the existing Marlborough Avenue, which Horizon is developing into a four-lane street. The final product will be one long street - all called Retail Drive - from Westmorland Road to Rothesay Avenue.

The street is nearing completion, and Totten said it should go a long way to alleviating traffic congestion in the area.

Officials haven't disclosed the names of the stores and hotel that will find a home at East Point, though the access road to one section of the shopping complex hints at clothing: The road's name will be Fashion Drive.

Totten said he's asked repeatedly if Costco or Chapters are coming to town, but he said he doesn't know.

"They (Horizon) are in a competitive market and they don't disclose who their clients are," Totten said, though he did note that Mayor Norm McFarlane has approached both Costco and Chapters about coming to the city generally.

Totten contends that if a high enough concentration of businesses takes root on the East and West Sides, the uptown will also benefit. The centre of the city will see a sort of reverse urban sprawl, he believes, as businesses set up shop in the core.

"It's a pendulum," he said. "It'll move back and forth