[Moncton] Downtown Developments

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by bridgeoftea

I've seen on some other threads, for the bigger cities they have a "future skyline" rendering over what looks like a google earth view. Is there one for Moncton with all of it's current builds in progress?

Not really.

BlackYear did produce this image though, with the 20 Record Street project added in, but this is incomplete.

[Franco401]

If someone can give me a complete list of project underway and proposed, I'll whip one up.

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by Franco401

If someone can give me a complete list of project underway and proposed, I'll whip one up.

We're still waiting on renders of Ashford's proposal for the lot south of Assumption Place. Best to wait until then for a "future skyline view".

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Franco401

If someone can give me a complete list of project underway and proposed, I'll whip one up.

St. Bernard Square at 12 floors would be a major one. They wanted to start in the fall, but the city had to upgrade the water/sewer services in the area first. It should get underway in the spring.

[josh_cat_eyes]

On Google Earth they are missing all of the projects that have been built since 55 Queen finished. I don’t even know if I would be able to remember all of those projects. It’s been a huge change the last 5 years.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

We're still waiting on renders of Ashford's proposal for the lot south of Assumption Place. Best to wait until then for a "future skyline view".

I agree. Ashford's proposal will be at least as big as the Coast Guard site in SJ and will transform the downtown. They should be putting up something before PAC sometime this year. I would wait until then........

[bridgeoftea]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I agree. Ashford's proposal will be at least as big as the Coast Guard site in SJ and will transform the downtown. They should be putting up something before PAC sometime this year. I would wait until then........

The hardest part is the waiting when it's being worked on in counsel meetings and PAC meetings. Just want the excitement of watching the skyline develop! Especially for Moncton which I feel like has big potential because there's a lack of traditional "big" skyscrapers.

[MonctonRad]

I noticed this the other day, but it was snowing out, and I deferred taking a picture.

Since then, this picture has appeared on Retail Talk & Share:



Signage has been installed for the new relocated Vien Dong Restaurant on Main Street.

They have done a fine job on the restoration and conversion of this building. I wish them well, but their new location next to the derelict Subway Block might be problematic. Hopefully their loyal customer base will ignore this fact, and continue to support this fine business.............

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I noticed this the other day, but it was snowing out, and I deferred taking a picture.

Since then, this picture has appeared on Retail Talk & Share:



Signage has been installed for the new relocated Vien Dong Restaurant on Main Street.

They have done a fine job on the restoration and conversion of this building. I wish them well, but their new location next to the derelict Subway Block might be problematic. Hopefully their loyal customer base will ignore this fact, and continue to support this fine business.............

It's a real shame something couldn't be done with the Subway Block. I think the return on investment wouldn't work out because the cost involved would be astronomical.

[MonctonRad]

Reposted from the [Moncton] Retail thread:

Originally Posted by CreamOfpumpkin

New tenants for the old Vien Dong Restaurant, there is a convenience store moving in. High Mart, which has a location in Charlottetown will bring a variety of ethnic foods and specialty items to 880 Main street.

Good to see that this storefront will not remain empty.

Here's a photo of their Charlottetown location:



High Mart is an ethnic convenience store. According to a CBC article from Charlottetown:

HighMart at 175 Queen St. in Charlottetown sells various foods from Latin American countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, as well as goods from the Philippines, Africa, India and Pakistan.

[MonctonRad]

According to this interesting graphic from Statistics Canada, the downtown of Moncton is experiencing a bit of a population boom:



The downtown of Moncton is growing as fast as the national average for downtown growth across Canada, and is growing faster than the Moncton CMA in general!!!

Good news for downtown densification, and, with all the apartment buildings currently under construction in the core, this trend should accelerate in the future.

Maybe the province should reconsider the location of a new downtown school given these developing trends. Maybe they could even reconvert the old Moncton High back into being an urban high school again, especially since it remains vacant and repurposing of the building appears to be going nowhere.........

[SevenSquared]

I was actually quite disappointed with those numbers, when you look at comparable places like Kelowna and Kingston.

The demand for downtown units right now is just unreal by Moncton standards, which is so refreshing. But between the labour shortage, the crane backlog and the seemingly infinite number of developments happening 4-8km away from the downtown core, I'm wondering how many of the proposed downtown projects will actually happen in the near term. If they do, we could see a massive increase over the existing 8708 by the next census.

[MonctonRad]

It could be better, no question, but I was most encouraged by the fact that the increase in growth rate in the core was larger than in the CMA in general. This shows that attitudes are changing.

If there is anything which will save downtown Moncton, it will be the establishment of a resident downtown population. I think we are beginning to see this.........

[MonctonRad]

This graph certainly shows that downtown Moncton still has a long, long way to go in terms of densification:



In terms of downtown urban density, we are tail end Charleys conpared to almost all other Canadian CMAs.

Things are improving however, with a number of yet-to-be-occupied apartment buildings under construction in the downtown west end, not to mention several huge developments on the way (Lafford Towers, St. Bernard Square, Ashford development behind Assumption Place).

By the time the 2031 census data comes out, I predict our position in the urban pecking order of the nation will have gone up several notches.

[SevenSquared]

I'd take that particular statistic with a grain of salt, after seeing Statcan's map of downtown Moncton.

They don't include the neighbourhoods that are a short walk from the heart of downtown such as Garden Hill or the Jones Lake area, but yet they inexplicably include a huge amount of unpopulated land south of West Main down to the Petitcodiac River.

[MonctonRad]

Interesting.

Yes, the downtown core as defined by Statistics Canada certainly is quite suspect, and would certainly substantially artificially deflate our population density numbers.

Good pick-up!

[JHikka]

Here is StatCan's explainer on why specific areas are or are not considered 'downtown'. Items like job density and walking times are calculated into the definition of downtown for each city.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Here is StatCan's explainer on why specific areas are or are not considered 'downtown'. Items like job density and walking times are calculated into the definition of downtown for each city.

That's still no excuse for including a broad swath of muddy Petitcodiac riverfront extending westward towards the former dump. This land is devoid of population and would greatly decrease any calculated population density for the core.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

That's still no excuse for including a broad swath of muddy Petitcodiac riverfront extending westward towards the former dump. This land is devoid of population and would greatly decrease any calculated population density for the core.

Downtown cores and areas seem to make sense for every other CMA i've seen so far.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Downtown cores and areas seem to make sense for every other CMA i've seen so far.

Not everyone agrees with you.

This post is from the statistics thread in the Canada section:

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Those "Downtown" maps are...interesting.

The one for London includes some areas south and west of the Thames River that have never been considered "downtown".

The one for Abbotsford stretches westward along South Fraser Way into the highly suburban Clearbrook area, not an area I'd consider "downtown". Yet, areas between the downtown and Highway 11 are not classified as part of the "downtown", despite being within walking distance.

The ones for Toronto and Vancouver seem reasonable. But I think for some smaller cities the methodology isn't quite right, and were likely determined by people who have never been to these cities.