[Moncton] Downtown Developments

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by drewber

London Drugs perhaps?

Nice idea, but too ambitious I think. Probably something more along the lines of Guardian or Medicine Shoppe.

[coastalkid]

Originally Posted by sailor734

Has Killam ever actually built anything from scratch?

Killam started by buying up older property, but in recent years has been selling much of it off to focus on their development pipeline. They've built quite a bit from scratch across Canada, here is all of their current and past projects: https://killamreit.com/developments

[jonny golden]

I didn't realize that Killam were property developers. I did know they were heavy into purchasing rental properties and manufactured home parks.

Judging by these projects they've completed in other cities, it would be great to see them enter the Moncton market.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by coastalkid

Killam started by buying up older property, but in recent years has been selling much of it off to focus on their development pipeline. They've built quite a bit from scratch across Canada, here is all of their current and past projects: https://killamreit.com/developments

Interesting. After seeming to be buying everything everywhere they have kind of fallen silent here in SJ in recent years.

[jonny golden]

This 8 floor Killam building under construction in Halifax would look nice on the Robinson Street parking lot. Not sure if it would fit - it's 55 units, the Galco building was 84 units although they were small.

[MonctonRad]

I wonder if there could be an announcement regarding the Ashford/Downing project in conjunction with the upcoming provincial election this fall?

There are certainly opportunities for provincial funding to make this happen (city market, convention space, possible art museum).

A federal election is only a little over one year away too. Dominic and Ginette would be eager to make a new joint funding announcement soon as well.

Federal/provincial funding could be announced in conjunction with a more generalized unveiling regarding the overall plans for the Assumption block at the same time. We've been waiting for plans to be unveiled now for several years.

Hmmmm........

[MonctonRad]

They were completing the final touches to the cladding for the new Baton Rouge at the Crowne Plaza today. Looks pretty sharp. I have high hopes for the eventual recladding of the entire hotel.

[adamuptownsj]

What (asphalt) areas between Assomption and Main AREN'T owned by one of the big players yet? Who owns the giant parking lot NW of Albert and Foundry? And has anything come of the acquisition of various properties along Waterloo yet?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

What (asphalt) areas between Assomption and Main AREN'T owned by one of the big players yet? Who owns the giant parking lot NW of Albert and Foundry? And has anything come of the acquisition of various properties along Waterloo yet?

The sea of surface parking is mostly all owned by developers, most notably Ashford. As for the lot NW of Albert & Foundry, I believe that's Heritage Developments. It's used for parking for Heritage Court. I have little hope for intensification of that lot. I imagine the rest of the ocean will gradually fill in.

[MonctonPerson]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

What (asphalt) areas between Assomption and Main AREN'T owned by one of the big players yet? Who owns the giant parking lot NW of Albert and Foundry? And has anything come of the acquisition of various properties along Waterloo yet?

Here's a quick overview of the major landowners. I didn't include some of the smaller lots, particularly along Main, to save time and I would have needed many more colours. These property lines don't reflect the city's sale of land to Lafford near the ball parks since the maps haven't been updated yet.

Orange: Heritage (or associated companies)
Red: Ashford (or associated companies)
Brown: J.N. Lafford Realty Inc.
Blue: Government or NB Power
Pink: Seville Property Group
Green: Maritime Door & Window
Yellow: Moncton Law Courts GP Ltd.
Purple: Resolute Living Inc. (same owners as the "Tomato Building")

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonPerson

Here's a quick overview of the major landowners. I didn't include some of the smaller lots, particularly along Main, to save time and I would have needed many more colours. These property lines don't reflect the city's sale of land to Lafford near the ball parks since the maps haven't been updated yet.

Orange: Heritage (or associated companies)
Red: Ashford (or associated companies)
Brown: J.N. Lafford Realty Inc.
Blue: Government or NB Power
Pink: Seville Property Group
Green: Maritime Door & Window
Yellow: Moncton Law Courts GP Ltd.
Purple: Resolute Living Inc. (same owners as the "Tomato Building")

I was actually working on a map like this. Ashford, Crombie, and Killiam own quite a bit of property between St. George and the rail tracks too.

[MonctonRad]

Excellent work!!!

In terms of surface area, the biggest landowner south of Main in the core is Heritage Developments, but, unfortunately, this is also the developer least inclined to aggressively pursue meaningful development in the city.

Lafford meanwhile is showing everyone else how it should be done. Ashford has big, big plans, but, is still awaiting word on how much the three levels of government will contribute to the public domain portions of the Downing Street project.

[Leroy321]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

They were completing the final touches to the cladding for the new Baton Rouge at the Crowne Plaza today. Looks pretty sharp. I have high hopes for the eventual recladding of the entire hotel.

Did they say when they will start renovating?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Leroy321

Did they say when they will start renovating?

No, but, if I was to guess, I would say next spring.

[MonctonRad]

Aerial of downtown Moncton from Realtor.ca

[jonny golden]

Since Heritage Developments isn't an active builder, I wonder why they've been sitting on and paying taxes on all this vacant land for years? Hopefully they'll come to the point where it makes sense to sell at least some of their undeveloped property.

There's one piece of land on Albert Street that caught my eye on the map. From the RCMP property eastward, there's a large tract of vacant land equivalent in size to the 3 sisters lot. Other than the elephant in the room, it'd be a prime location for a serious Lafford type project.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Since Heritage Developments isn't an active builder, I wonder why they've been sitting on and paying taxes on all this vacant land for years? Hopefully they'll come to the point where it makes sense to sell at least some of their undeveloped property.

Well, they are using most of this land for leased monthly surface parking, so I presume they must be making enough money to pay for the property tax (and still make a profit). It's unfortunately about the lowest hanging fruit and least intensive property usage out there in the known universe.

Surely Heritage could do better. Is there anyone with imagination in that company? I mean, it's been nearly a decade and they still haven't come up with a use for MHS either. Has no one in that company ever heard of "condo conversion"???

Ashford, Lafford and ICON know how to improve properties and to build and still make a buck. Heritage seems to like the idea of slapping some asphalt down and putting up self pay gates instead.

Honest question - now that "work from home" culture has firmly taken root in North America, has the demand for leased monthly parking gone down in the Moncton city core??? Is this business model as viable as it used to be? If not, then maybe Heritage could sell off a lot or two to another company that actually gives a shit..........

[MonctonRad]

Looking at this aerial, I realized that I had never before really appreciated the close relationship of the vacant lot where the Chateau a Pape restaurant had been (before it burned down) and the adjacent Codiac RCMP headquarters.

Since the detachment will be decamping to their new building on Albert Street next year, this could free up a large contiguous bit of land for a substantial development. Just think if these two parcels could be combined! There is enough room here for two (if not three) towers on a common podium, with river frontage, and adjacent to one of the most prominent intersections in the city (Main & Assumption).

It's almost too perfect.

I wonder if Lafford would be interested???

[lirette]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Well, they are

Ashford, Lafford and ICON know how to improve properties and to build and still make a buck. Heritage seems to like the idea of slapping some asphalt down and putting up self pay gates instead.

And they can barely do that well, considering they invested a large sum of money putting 3 gates at the biggest parking lot in downtown moncton and have made no use of those gates for 5 years, providing Monctonians a free parking lot for events at Avenir nearly the size of the coliseum parking lot.

[benvui]

It's too bad that there wasn't some sort of property tax equation that would reduce the amount of tax based on the density of the parking. This might provided some incentive for developer to put in garages and buildings. For instance, if you had say a parking density of 300 cars per acre you pay a higher rate than if you had 1000 cars/acre. This might incentivize developers to increase density and not maintain surface parking.
They would probably try and pass the cost on to the people leasing the parking, but there would be pain and hopefully lost business which would make a garage look more appealing or selling the land to someone who would develop it.