The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[random11]

Greater Saint John Communities Vital Signs

Third annual report card survey on Saint John:

Take part if you feel you are in the "know" - interesting data in here as well:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=BTBd4HkapcnWZSuVQkt_2fWg_3d_3d

If this does not work for you and you have Facebook you can access via here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33390458640


If the link does not work, please drop a line.

[PostModernPrometheus]

Expansion eyed
Published Friday July 25th, 2008

Energy Canaport LNG majority owner Repsol seriously weighing doubling terminal's capacity
A1Rob Linke
Telegraph-Journal


Canaport LNG's owners are well along in their efforts to decide whether to double the terminal's capacity in another energy mega-project that would create several hundred more construction jobs for up to three years.

"Definitely we're interested both as shareholders and as capacity holders in the terminal to see expansion occur in a timely manner," said Phil Ribbeck, president of Repsol Energy North America, adding that there "are no firm plans yet."

Repsol is gauging market demand for natural gas, lining up additional supply of LNG and assessing pipeline capacity, particularly in the northeastern United States.

Only once the company has decided the conditions are right will it seek the necessary environmental and regulatory approvals, said Ribbeck, who is based in Houston.

Asked when that point will be reached, he said, "I wish I could tell you for certain right now. There are so many issues in play that I just can't say. The decision will be made as soon as possible in order to meet the market needs."

Still, Ribbeck indicated that, at this point, going ahead looks promising.

Repsol is "pretty far down the road" assessing the market demand and potential LNG supply. The market could need more gas from Canaport between 2012 and 2015, while some LNG suppliers are interested in shipping to the terminal by 2012 and others in 2014 and beyond, he said.

Canaport LNG had already speeded up the construction of a third storage tank, which began construction early this year, sooner than anticipated.

Doubling capacity from one billion cubic feet per day to two billion would require the construction of two more storage tanks, making for five in total.

The expansion project would take 30 to 36 months, Ribbeck estimated.

As things stand, Canaport - Canada's first LNG regasification terminal - could meet 20 per cent of New England's natural gas needs.

Canaport LNG has a flexible design that allows for expansion - a prospect that has long tantalized the local construction industry.

"We're aware of this possibility," said Pat Darrah, executive director of the Saint John Construction Association.

"We want to get the first stage done on time and on budget and we look forward to doing the next two tanks.

"It'll give us just a whole lot more expertise from the contractors' point of view."

Irving Oil Limited spokeswoman Jennifer Parker said the company had no comment on possible expansion.

"At this point, we're focused on what's currently being constructed," she said.

Repsol Energy North America's parent company, Repsol YPF of Spain, owns 75 per cent of Canaport LNG and Irving Oil owns 25 per cent.

The $750-million facility is three-quarters built and is scheduled to go into operation by the end of 2008. Construction employed as many as 700 workers at peak periods.

Canaport has generated contracts for more than two dozen local companies, including two firms that have built the concrete exteriors and the steel interiors and roofs of the tanks.

"There's been a huge participation by the electrical and mechanical contractors locally and by the local labour force," said Darrah.

While doubling capacity would mean expanding to two billion cubic feet per day, Ribbeck said the engineers are confident they could boost the send-out to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day.

Those volumes would not necessarily double tanker traffic in the Bay of Fundy, as the industry is increasingly served by larger ships, he said.

Neither would it mean installing more pipeline in Saint John, where pipeline routes were at the centre of a divisive public debate.

Ribbeck said that higher compression within the existing pipeline would be all that's needed in Saint John.

In rural areas of New Brunswick, the existing $350-million Maritimes & Northeast pipeline would have to be "looped," meaning it would have an extra parallel pipe installed, to allow for the extra gas.

The biggest challenge Canaport LNG would face, said Ribbeck, is sourcing skilled labour if Irving Oil's Eider Rock project, the proposed second oil refinery in Saint John, goes ahead and a second nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau.

"To me it's a significant challenge," he said.

"If Eider Rock goes ahead, and I know Irving wants to make that happen, you're going to have a lot more stress on the labour force."

[kwajo]

Site Port authority CEO tours 'derelict' docks along Saint John's west side
B1
Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal

SAINT JOHN - Crumbling concrete exposes wooden pilings that once supported one of the port's west-side piers. Further inland, the pier has nearly collapsed into the water, an unsightly artifact of an earlier time.

In their heyday, Pier 13 and the adjacent Pier 14 received agricultural products and other commodities, but that was decades ago. Back then, port officials decided the sizes and positions of the piers no longer fit into the strategic direction of port business.

The piers, built in the early 20th century, are now beyond repair. But within the next 10 to 15 years, as the port continues to expand under growing demand, they may become the site of a new terminal, says Captain Al Soppit, chief executive officer of the Saint John Port Authority. Land could stretch over the body of water connecting these crumbling structures to the west-side working port, creating a new lucrative source of revenue.

"In my time as assistant harbour master, the pier was used for potatoes, but as you can see, it's derelict now," says Soppit, while standing aboard the Harbour Queen work boat during a tour of the west-side docks.

"If we could fill this area in," he continues, pointing toward the potential new terminal site, "we could really increase the capability of the lower west side. It could be another bulk terminal, or allow for expansion of the container terminal. Or we could move scrap metal down here."

The west-side docks currently account for about 44 per cent of total revenues generated by cargo moving through the port's own facilities. Roughly one million tonnes of forest products, fish meal, molasses, tapioca, scrap metal and other materials will move through these docks this year.

The major infrastructure project necessary for a new terminal would cost an estimated $150 million, maybe more, Soppit says. Upgrades along the operational piers on the west side have a much higher priority, he says, but if a company presented a business case, the terminal could be up and running within just five years.

"It would give us much more flexibility for maintaining our diversity and looking at other types of cargo," Soppit says.

The piers currently used for bulk and general cargo approach the top of the port's priorities for infrastructure upgrades. A complete overhaul would set the port back an estimated $100 million, though a proposed real estate deal with Irving Oil would allow the port to stash about $10 million into an infrastructure fund, which could be matched against government and private funds.

Lots of Port news today - I love it!

[PostModernPrometheus]

LNG terminal owners contemplates expansion
July 25, 2008
By: Denise Miller-News 88-9 staff


SAINT JOHN,N.B.-Hundreds more construction jobs may be on the way to the Port City. If all goes according to plan, Canaport LNG is already thinking expansion at the natural gas terminal.

The majority owner of Canaport LNG, Repsol, is seriously weighing its options when it comes to expanding the LNG terminal on Saint John's East Side.
Current construction is 3 quarters complete, and the company is currently gauging whether market demand could support an expansion.

President of Repsol Energy North America Phil Ribbeck tells the Telegraph Journal at this point going ahead looks very promising, but adds until they are sure the conditions are right, will they seek the necessary regulatory and environmental approvals.

Ribbeck says they have sped up the construction of the third storage tank, which began construction earlier this year. the expansion would require two additional tanks.
This could potentially create hundreds of jobs over several more years.
Ribbeck says the increased volumes would not lead to more tanker traffic or would it involve laying more pipeline.
He says one concern could be a labour shortage, because if the second proposed Irving refinery and Lepreau 2 goes ahead, skilled labourers will be a hot commodity

interesting....if this goes through, given that repsol owns 75% of the project, one wonders if they would eventually require any significant office space / headquarters in the region as well....

i've said it before. . .if this project actually gets the go ahead, it will have to carefully be staggered with other planned projects so as not to create a situation where intense in-competition for skilled workers starts happening. . .

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by kwajo

Lots of Port news today - I love it!

I doubt the Port will have any better time to invest heavily in infrastructure . . . the west side docks are in horrible shape, and it's not a matter of IF but WHEN they will have to be replaced . . . the old addage "spend money to make money" applies here . . . .

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by random11

Greater Saint John Communities Vital Signs

Third annual report card survey on Saint John:

Take part if you feel you are in the "know" - interesting data in here as well:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=BTBd4HkapcnWZSuVQkt_2fWg_3d_3d

If this does not work for you and you have Facebook you can access via here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33390458640


If the link does not work, please drop a line.

thanks for the survey link....interesting data indeed, though it's encouraging to see (for the most part) movement in positive directions....

[PostModernPrometheus]

City's office space vacancy rate lowest in N.B.
Published Saturday July 26th, 2008


B2ANDREW MCGILLIGAN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
SAINT JOHN - With vacancy rates falling in the city for office and industrial rental space, the cost for what little is available could be on the rise.

A recently released report by a Halifax-based real estate counselling firm found that Saint John has the lowest vacancy rates for both office and industrial space in New Brunswick.

Alexandra Baird Allen of Turner Drake and Partners Ltd. said the demand for office rental space increased for the third straight year in Saint John. The increased demand pushed the vacancy rate down to 5.7 per cent in June from 7.85 per cent a year ago.

Office spaces were broken down into three classes in the report. Class A refers to the high-end buildings that cater to such professionals as top lawyers and accountants.

"Class B is the level where you'd find many government offices and C is everything else," she said.

There's little available space in either Class A or B with vacancy rates of 5.5 and 2.3 per cent, respectively. Class C is going the other way with a vacancy rate Allen describes as unsustainable at 23.7 per cent.
"With Class C, something has to give," she said. "You can't have a vacancy rate that high because you wouldn't be making any money.

"Landlords would either have to lower rent to attract more tenants or renovate to elevate up a class to attract tenants."

Based on the numbers of the past year and with the coming energy boom, Allen expects rental rates to increase for office space and more renovations - especially in the uptown area - to class C buildings.

The need for office space could breathe new life into a project called upper floors. The idea is to provide building owners of vacant top floors with incentives, perks or possibly grants to develop the space. The work could provide office space, specifically in the uptown core, that the Turner Drake report states is in dire need of such space.

Ken Forrest, the city's commissioner of planning and development, says a report on the upper floors plan is being readied to send to common council, but has yet to be put on an agenda.

"It is being drafted and essentially there's some money in this year's budget to fund something towards upper floors," Forrest said.

The city has approximately $60,000 in this year's budget to fund the plan.

As for industrial warehouse space, the survey found the vacancy rate fell from 15.74 to 8.98 per cent. Allen called it a significant drop coupled with the fact there are not many owners renting warehouse space.

"It's mostly owner-occupied in Saint John," she said.

The real estate counsellor said the need for industrial space has steadily increased over the past five years. Similar to the office space crunch, she expects the trends to continue and possibly worsen on the industrial side because there is no known warehouse rental space coming on the market.

[PostModernPrometheus]

also in the telegraph today -


word that construction started on the skate park.....

[kwajo]

Project Parking lot or corporate HQ? Saint John mayor wants to be sold on Long Wharf deal
A1
SANDRA DAVIS
Telegraph-Journal

SAINT JOHN - Long Wharf at the head of Saint John harbour would be better used as a parking lot than as the site of Irving Oil's world headquarters, says Mayor Ivan Court.



Ivan Court
However, Court insists that he hasn't made his mind up about whether he will support a proposal that would see the city sell to Irving the former Lantic Sugar site at the tip of the city-centre peninsula. The company would in turn swap that property with the Saint John Port Authority for the Long Wharf site.

Council must approve the sale of the former Lantic Sugar property or the deal dies.

Looking purely at the revenue side, the port authority would make more cash using Long Wharf as a place to park cars, Court said.

"I said 'that piece of land over there is worth at least a half-million in parking for (the port authority), if it's only about making money'," the mayor said.

"They can take out of context if they want."

Court made the comments as he gave his side of a meeting he had last month with port chairman Stephen Campbell, International Longshoremen's Association business agent Patrick Riley, MLA Abel LeBlanc and others.

Briefing notes about the meeting were obtained by the Telegraph-Journal.

In the notes, which the port chairman distributed to board members and stakeholders, Campbell writes "the meeting did not go well."

"The mayor made it clear he was not supportive of the port offering this kind of option (the Irving Oil proposal) to the community."

Court said his intent is simply to make sure taxpayers get fair bang for their buck from the Long Wharf site.

"I said, 'what's a half-a-million dollars for the next 100 years worth to you? It's worth $50 million in revenue. That would allow you to build something on there and at the same time generate revenues,' " said Court.

City manager Terry Totten, who has recommended that council accept the Long Wharf deal, has said the $30-million Irving Oil proposal will have a "significant effect" on municipal tax revenues, adding perhaps as much as $2 million annually to city coffers. The city currently receives an annual grant from the port authority of $44,000 in lieu of taxes for the property.

If the deal goes through, Irving Oil promises improvements to Long Wharf and the nearby Fort LaTour site, as well as a world-class second cruise ship welcome centre to complement one that is nearing completion at the former Pugsley Terminal on the uptown side of the harbour. The Irving Oil headquarters at Long Wharf would also concentrate 1,000 employees downtown.

But Court has more concerns.

If Long Wharf is lost by the port, the mayor said he fears he'll be going to Ottawa to fight for money to fix piers on the western side of the harbour at the same time as he's looking for federal cash to bring the city's water system up to par.

"They're going to need over $100-million to fix up berths," he said. "My concern is I'm going to need $200-million for the water situation."

He also says he doesn't like the deal based on its terms and conditions.

"If it's a 100-year lease and you can only use it for cruise ships, it ties up this piece of land."

Questions about fair-market value are also on the mayor's mind.

He insisted the city should get a minimum of $1.4-million for the 9½-acres on which the sugar refinery once sat, even though fair market value of the site is estimated at between $750,000 to $1-million.

"If we get less than a million dollars for that piece of land, we're getting shortchanged," said Court.

"I'd like to know how somebody determined that the site was worth $1-million or less," he said.

"Citizens have called me because they thought that down at the sugar refinery site there was going to be a condominium or housing project which would generate millions of dollars in taxes for the citizens of Saint John."

Lantic Sugar transferred the title of its property to the city for $1 in 2003 and reimbursed the city approximately $800,000 for the demolition of the old refinery.

Since then, the city has spent more than $400,000 to remediate the Lantic Sugar site.

"If (Irving Oil is) going to offer us $750,000, take away the $400,000 and at the end of the day we got a net $350,000. I think that's one of the questions I have for the city manager. What is the real value of that site?"

"We haven't really put it out there to find out what somebody else would be willing to pay for it," Court said.

But, in fact, the first suitor for the site was a Montreal-based developer looking to put in a mixed commercial/residential development. The proposal didn't go ahead for a number of reasons, including environmental and access concerns. The second proposal was from Green Space Development Holdings for a $300-million raised horse-racing track, hotel, round reef marine park and other structures. That didn't happen because it would have required additional land owned by the port and city staff believed the port would not make the land available. The Saint John Waterfront Development Partnership and Enterprise Saint John have shown the site to investors, but it has not resulted in further interest.

The port authority's Campbell said that, in its current state, the former Lantic Sugar property will meet any requirements that a working port would have.

"We've been told that to bring that up to snuff for residential or an urban village, additional monies would have to be spent," said Campbell.

"It's because of all these factors that, despite the best efforts of Waterfront and ESJ (Enterprise Saint John) and others, they have not been able in all the time they've had, to come up with a development.

"Developers back away. So its most appropriate use, clearly, is port."

What a great Mayor we've elected for ourselves

[PersonPlaceorThing]

Originally Posted by kwajo

What a great Mayor we've elected for ourselves

Hopefully he remembers only 20% of voters chose him. It's sad that he is grasping at straws on this. The mayor's role isn't to chose what is best for the port's bottom line - they are not under his domain. The discussion about whether this is good for this city is relevant, but he seems to be ignoring the good and drawing on and magnifying the potential bad.

Sad.

[GUB]

"I said 'that piece of land over there is worth at least a half-million in parking for (the port authority), if it's only about making money'," the mayor said.

"They can take out of context if they want."

Sorry to be crude, but I think this man truly is an idiot.
Who votes for these people?!

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by kwajo

If the deal goes through, Irving Oil promises improvements to Long Wharf and the nearby Fort LaTour site, as well as a world-class second cruise ship welcome centre to complement one that is nearing completion at the former Pugsley Terminal on the uptown side of the harbour. The Irving Oil headquarters at Long Wharf would also concentrate 1,000 employees downtown.

But Court has more concerns.

If Long Wharf is lost by the port, the mayor said he fears he'll be going to Ottawa to fight for money to fix piers on the western side of the harbour at the same time as he's looking for federal cash to bring the city's water system up to par.

say what you want about irving, but they do try and invest in the city's image (the nature park & loyalist city burial grounds being great examples). . . the fact that they are willing to step in and convert 9 acres of concrete into something more prominent is fantastic, and i'm sure they'd do a great job on the fort latour site.

also - shouldnt we have been fighting with the feds loudly and persistently for YEARS to upgrade the westside piers??

the long wharf development is a no brainer in many ways....it's shocking to see this degree of resistance going up.... personplaceorthing is right though....the port has it's own jurisdiction in many ways when it comes to these matters....

[Helladog]

Yeah, thats all we need: another parking lot on prime land...what an a$$.

[mylesmalley]

Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus

say what you want about irving, but they do try and invest in the city's image (the nature park & loyalist city burial grounds being great examples). . . the fact that they are willing to step in and convert 9 acres of concrete into something more prominent is fantastic, and i'm sure they'd do a great job on the fort latour site.

also - shouldnt we have been fighting with the feds loudly and persistently for YEARS to upgrade the westside piers??

the long wharf development is a no brainer in many ways....it's shocking to see this degree of resistance going up.... personplaceorthing is right though....the port has it's own jurisdiction in many ways when it comes to these matters....

Surprises me there hasn't been much opposition to the footprint of the building. You could easily put three or four times that much floorspace on the wharf, without sacrificing the green space being proposed, if several 10-15 story buildings were put up. The building looks fine to me, but it does strike me as an inefficient use of all that land so close to uptown.

[PersonPlaceorThing]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

Surprises me there hasn't been much opposition to the footprint of the building. You could easily put three or four times that much floorspace on the wharf, without sacrificing the green space being proposed, if several 10-15 story buildings were put up. The building looks fine to me, but it does strike me as an inefficient use of all that land so close to uptown.

The only reason I am not in the "it's not dense enough" camp is that a taller building would block the view from Fort Howe if the buildings were too tall. I think the Fort Howe view is valuable and should be maintained to some degree.

[Helladog]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

Surprises me there hasn't been much opposition to the footprint of the building. You could easily put three or four times that much floorspace on the wharf, without sacrificing the green space being proposed, if several 10-15 story buildings were put up. The building looks fine to me, but it does strike me as an inefficient use of all that land so close to uptown.

I agree...it has too large a footprint for a building uptown. If it came down to either take it or putting the HQ out east, I'd take it though...

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by Helladog

I agree...it has too large a footprint for a building uptown. If it came down to either take it or putting the HQ out east, I'd take it though...

That's the kicker for me too. I'm very much in the camp who wants a smaller footprint and a taller building, but when it comes down to the current option versus losing the development to a sprawling area, I'll choose the proposal that is on the table 10 times out of 10.

[random11]

Folk's, we have a cowboy on our hands, lol. A writer to the Telegraph Journal on-line referred to Ivan Court as the "George Bush" of Saint John politics - I couldn't agree more. He is single handedly going to try and kill this project (with some help from Abel LeBlanc and the ILA).


SAINT JOHN - The chairman of the Saint John Board of Trade has trouble believing that Mayor Ivan Court would characterize the business group as "elitist."

"The mayor didn't call me 'elitist' when we met with him," says Dr. Michael Barry. "He said he wanted to work with us together on positive things. He said we'd have to let the Long Wharf process play out, which is fair enough."

But according to briefing notes obtained by the Telegraph-Journal, that was the word Court used to describe both the trade board and Enterprise Saint John when he met last month with members of the port authority's board, representatives of Local 273 of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and Saint John Lancaster MLA Abel LeBlanc, who worked the port for 40 years.

"Listen, I'm not going to go there," said Court when asked if he did, indeed, use the term to describe the two organizations.

The meeting's topic of discussion was a proposal by Irving Oil to build its $30-million world headquarters on Long Wharf, a deal that both the trade board and Enterprise are embracing as a "win-win-win" for the city.

The ILA is the only group to come out against the proposal.

During the meeting, Court "made it clear" he is not supportive of the proposal, port authority chairman Stephen Campbell has said.

"Groups like the Board of Trade and Enterprise Saint John were described as 'elitist,' " Campbell writes in his briefing notes.

The term is also used in Pat Riley's briefing on the proposal. Riley is Local 273's business agent.

"It is disgraceful that the elitists in this city were in the know about this deal and port users and the general public were not," Riley writes.

Bob Manning, who is chairman of both Enterprise Saint John and the Benefits Blueprint initiative, excuses the mayor for the label, saying he's a "passionate" person.

"I don't mind that at all. He had two of his largest supporters in the room with him," says Manning.

"The mayor has a very solid base of support in Mr. LeBlanc. They have a strong friendship and it goes back a long way. And he's got great support from the union side, especially the ILA.

"So you have to understand the context. It was a closed-door meeting. I would imagine, if there would have been more people in the room and a more public forum, the mayor would have been much more balanced in his views."

The linchpin in the Long Wharf deal is Irving Oil's proposed purchase of the former Lantic Sugar site from the city; that sale, which common council will vote on Aug. 18, is the city's only involvement in the proposal. If that sale goes through, Irving Oil would then turn the Lantic Sugar site over to the port in return for a long-term lease on Long Wharf, an agreement that must be approved by the federal government.

Long Wharf juts into the harbour alongside Harbour Passage and has been used primarily as a secondary berth for cruise ships. It is one of the first things people see as they travel east cross the Harbour Bridge and into the city.

Just 56 ships have docked at Long Wharf in the past 10 years, most of which carried limestone. They require a service that could be offered at Lower Cove, Campbell has said. It makes sense to do this, proponents have argued, because the property trade-off would consolidate port activities on the east side of the harbour.

In addition to building its corporate headquarters on the wharf, Irving Oil has agreed to fix up the nearby Fort La Tour site and to build a world-class welcome centre for cruise ships to complement one being built at Pugsley Terminal. And it would keep Irving Oil's 1,000 employees in the heart of the city.

City manager Terry Totten, who has recommended that council accept the Long Wharf deal, has said the Irving Oil proposal will have a "significant effect" on municipal tax revenues, adding perhaps as much as $2 million annually to city coffers. The city currently receives an annual grant from the port authority of $44,000 in lieu of taxes for the property.

Meanwhile, Barry says the business community will be "very upset" if the proposal dies.

"It's an opportunity that we just can't lose," says Barry. "Anybody who cares about the growth of the city should get on board with this thing and be pretty proud of it."

[random11]

[QUOTE=
Meanwhile, Barry says the business community will be "very upset" if the proposal dies.

"It's an opportunity that we just can't lose," says Barry. "Anybody who cares about the growth of the city should get on board with this thing and be pretty proud of it."[/QUOTE]

I have written 2 emails to Mayor Court supporting this project. He has not responded and I know it's safe to say that he won't. I agree with Dr. Barry's comments that 'anybody who cares about the growth of the city should get on board'. With that, I contacted the Saint John Board of Trade as they seem a strong voice to represent my views. The email address and website are below:

[email protected]


http://www.sjboardoftrade.com/bot/

[kwajo]

I met with the new commissioner of planning the other day and he seemed enthusiastic about doing things in this city to reduce the sprawl and increase density in the Uptown through North End corridor, including trying to focus on in-fill development. The planning department has been extremely busy, with almost double the development proposals going through PACs than the average number they had in the last couple years.

Some exciting stuff is - and will continue to be - going on in the city, and its just a matter of getting the public and the special interest groups to buy into modern practices and to get comfortable about the idea of higher density developments. It is, however, unfortunate that our Mayor seems to be one of those who need convincing...