Here's the article:
Downtown Moncton continues to grow
Thursday, October 02, 2014
Times and transcript
By: Brent Mazerolle
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=13841
It’s not as positive a sign as an actual development would be, but it’s nevertheless the first sign of activity the land has seen in decades.
Land at the corner of Queen and Bots-ford streets in downtown Moncton is being dug up this week, but there’s no construction project planned just yet.
The land, across Botsford from the front steps of St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church, and across Queen Street from the Bell Aliant Tower, once housed a now long-forgotten gas station.
Bell Aliant owns the land and is preparing it for sale by digging up long-buried tanks and pipes.
“No sale has been confirmed to date and we have no further details to share,” company spokeswoman Sarah Dawson wrote in an email.
The very fact Bell Aliant is spending the money to clean the land and put it up for sale does speak to the value of downtown property, as more and more parcels find themselves in at least some stage of development.
“There’s so much movement,” right now, says Anne Poirier Basque, the general manager of Downtown Moncton-Centre-Ville Inc.
While the head of Moncton’s downtown business improvement area can’t divulge specifics – that’s for developers to do – Poirier Basque can at least say the ever-firmer possibility the city will construct a downtown events centre does seem to be having a positive impact on investment.
The City of Moncton has been moving forward aggressively to put the project together, and the provincial government – that is, the government of now departing Premier David Alward – has pronounced itself on board.
While there is always uncertainty when a new government takes over, the past two provincial governments have all expressed support for the concept, especially since provincial dollars invested can be largely recouped even in the construction phase just through tax revenues.
“We always feel it’s a catalyst for downtown development,”Poirier Basque says. She notes Moncton’s assessments have in recent relatively good years climbed three to six per cent per year, but when London, Ont., built its downtown centre, the city saw its assessments rise by 36 per cent.
Even if you argue there are any number of differences between the two cities, Poirier Basque says she would be happy to even see Moncton’s assessments grow somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.
Personal note - The more I think of it, the more I'm convinced there is something afoot. Bell Aliant wouldn't be spending the money to rehabilitate this property unless there was some pretty firm interest being expressed in it by a potential buyer (buyers). There has to be some reason why this work is being done right now……
This is a prime piece of property. It is kitty corner to city hall, only a block from the future site of 55 Queen, and also only a block from the anticipated redevelopment of Downing Street. This area is rapidly becoming the true heart of the new downtown Moncton. 
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