[Moncton] Northwest/Magnetic Hill Developments

[jonny golden]

I remember Groupe Frederic selling off their St. Bernard lot after they announced big plans for the property. Everybody was excited for this project.

Here we are 5 years later, still with a vacant lot in the heart of downtown.

[reflist]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I had become concerned by the absence of any sign of activity regarding the anticipated (phase 2) expansion of the MID West Industrial Park.

I had thought we would see something last year, but here it is late April of this year with no signs of activity.

But this was just posted on CCD Canada:



Not much information in this thumbnail, but, things are still in the works apparently. Given a valuation of less than $2M, I would imagine this is for imitial site prep.

Looks like activity has finally begun on this massive site, photos taken June 1st

[MonctonRad]

Nice drone shots!

I had been keeping an eye on the Horsman Street stub in the MID West Industrial Park looking for any signs of activity. It didn't occur to me that they would start at the other end (Delong Drive down by the CNR hump yard).

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I am a little hesitant to post this, but there has been some activity over the last couple of weeks on the lot adjacent to the Hampton Inn where the Home 2 Suites by Hilton had their "coming soon" sign.

There have been dump trucks and a backhoe, and they have been moving some dirt around. It does not appear to be actual construction activity. It appears more as if ballast and topsoil is being delivered. I don't know what this actually means in terms of future construction (if any) on this site.

We will have to keep an eye on this.

This was a false alarm.

They are resurfacing the street network and curbs in the subdivision at the end of Queensway, just beyond the new Fens/Starbucks/Denny's, and they are dumping some construction waste here. I presume this will be used as ballast. There is no actual construction occurring.

[MonctonRad]

The signage on the facade for the new McDonald’s next to Wheaton’s on Mountain Road was installed today.

[Mapleton_Roadie]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Nice drone shots!

I had been keeping an eye on the Horsman Street stub in the MID West Industrial Park looking for any signs of activity. It didn't occur to me that they would start at the other end (Delong Drive down by the CNR hump yard).

A few years ago, with the serious talk of diverting a lot of truck traffic from Downtown Halifax due to the Halterm Container terminal and grain elevators, there was talk about expanding the intermodal portion of CN in Moncton.

The thought was, the majority of the containers offloaded in Halifax would be put on the train to offloaded to road transport here. There was similar thought to creating a facility in the Debert area as an alternative.

I am not sure if that proposal ever gained traction but would definitely be a boost to the area.

[MonctonRad]

AFAIK, they are still talking about the Debert terminal.

Not a surprise, I beleive this is more a Port of Halifax project than a CNR project, so they would naturally want to keep the jobs in Nova Scotia.

[MonctonRad]

No particular reason for this post, but, this photo accompanied a story in the T&T today, and I thought it a flattering angle of Crandall University.

[Sandbagger]

^^ Maybe not the right place for this but the Tri-City Tide have advanced to the TBL championship final after winning all of the regional brackets. They will face the Potawatomi Fire (Oklahoma). This is a pretty big deal with not a lot of coverage. A local team on the (albeit smaller) North American sports stage.

They have been selling out games at Crandall for the most part I think (I haven't actually been to one yet in person). This should most certainly help build the following of the team more. Perhaps they outgrow Crandall in the near future? Capacity is only around 600. I liked going to the Magic games downtown. Not saying they end up there, but Crandall is a bit out of the way for me and I'm sure others.

[MonctonRad]

Agreed. A big deal. The Tide is going for the championship of a North American sports league.

I never think of the Tide however. In the old days of the Miracles, I would go to some games at the Avenir Centre. It was a good product. The Tide playing at Crandall is simply out of sight, out of mind.

The Tide should think about booking the Avenir Centre next year (or some point in the near future). Attendance would surely increase.

[jnaygull]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Agreed. A big deal. The Tide is going for the championship of a North American sports league.

I never think of the Tide however. In the old days of the Miracles, I would go to some games at the Avenir Centre. It was a good product. The Tide playing at Crandall is simply out of sight, out of mind.

The Tide should think about booking the Avenir Centre next year (or some point in the near future). Attendance would surely increase.

I have been attending Tide games since day 1. The growth of the fanbase has been impressive and this being their 2nd year, it's double impressive that the team is such a contender.

I believe the success of this franchise as compared to the other attempts at pro basketball in Moncton is that they started off small and built an atmosphere conductive to drawing families to game at an affordable price. Now that they are drawing very well, the energy in that place is amazing considering there are only 600 or so fans in attendance. That being said, I don't think moving to the Avenir now would serve them well. The Moncton Magic, the last pro basketball team that had success here were only drawing 1500-2000 fans a game and they had a hard time achieving anywhere near the type of atmosphere at Tide games now (its hard to make a 9000 seat arena loud when its 1/4 full). What the Tide need now is a venue that serves somewhere in between Crandall and Avenir. I'm not sure if that kind of place exists, perhaps at UdeM? Maybe even a scaled down cavernous Colliseum?

The Tide are certainly proving that pro-basketball can sell here in Moncton, however they have to be conscious not to grow their ticket prices too quickly to overwhelm their growth. Moving to Avenir would increase costs substantially and thus, may turn off many until they could prove that they are worth the added dollars.

[AGGUS]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The signage on the facade for the new McDonald’s next to Wheaton’s on Mountain Road was installed today.

I noticed today on a drive-by that they have more than just the main signage up including signage for entrances exits and the fact that the drive-thru is open 24 hours.