[Saint John] Uptown Thread

[darkharbour]

Originally Posted by sailor734

MonctonRad posted some office vacancy numbers in the statistics thread. SJ is at 35%!

I guess I shouldn't be that shocked. Was in the Market over the noon hour today...very quiet. Then drove down King and past Market Square. The outdoor section of the boardwalk patios looked to be less than 30-40% full and the newly completed version of Loyalist Plaza was completely empty. I literally didn't see a single person in that expanse of stone pavers. Nobody strolling, nobody sitting on a wall or bench eating their lunch or reading a book....nothing.

Reading that 35% statistic and then looking around the uptown at noon hour makes me realize how much things have changed in the past 4-5 years.

It's odd that this was your experience, I was walking around and had lunch Uptown today and even said out loud to my friends that it was nice to see so many people out enjoying the weather. I guess anecdotal experiences continue to be just that.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

It's odd that this was your experience, I was walking around and had lunch Uptown today and even said out loud to my friends that it was nice to see so many people out enjoying the weather. I guess anecdotal experiences continue to be just that.

Oh certainly. I may have just happened to drive by when the plaza was empty.
The City Market, on the other hand, is a shadow of it's pre Covid self. To be fair though, it's also summer so there wasn't the high school lunch crowd.

[Sabien]

Originally Posted by sailor734

Oh certainly. I may have just happened to drive by when the plaza was empty.
The City Market, on the other hand, is a shadow of it's pre Covid self. To be fair though, it's also summer so there wasn't the high school lunch crowd.

When I was there from 6pm-8pm every restaurant was filled to capacity and roughly 100 people strolling around enjoying the evening. We sat on a bench a people watched for a while. Lots of smiles walked by. It’ll be great when they have live music!

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by Sabien

When I was there from 6pm-8pm every restaurant was filled to capacity and roughly 100 people strolling around enjoying the evening. We sat on a bench a people watched for a while. Lots of smiles walked by. It’ll be great when they have live music!

Oh, I don't doubt it, especially on a nice Friday night in the summer.

My point was more about how the 35% office vacancy rate shows in the way the lunch hour office worker crowd is so sparse compared to years ago.