[Moncton] Downtown Developments

[lirette]

Its crazy to think a few years ago I would have questioned who would even be able to afford any of this units to be able to fill them & now I'm thinking how fast will it sell out?

Moncton is poised for a post pandemic recovery.

[jonny golden]

The nice thing about these projects is that they will be replacing a chunk of downtown surface parking. Much better to have the parking integrated into the buildings. This is exactly what the city wants.

[Mattyyy]

What a beautiful building. What are the chances of this breaking ground this year??

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Philbilly

What the history of Frederic Properties Corp in Moncton ? Do they have a good track record on getting thing done ?

It's reasonable to be skeptical, especially given the saga around the "Harper Building", but, by and large, almost all other large developments proposed for the city have eventually gone ahead (at some point) over the last decade or so. As for Frederic Properties, I don't have any knowledge of them so I can't comment.

Originally Posted by Mattyyy

What a beautiful building. What are the chances of this breaking ground this year??

I very much doubt this year. Usually it is 1-3 years after submission to PAC before you see ground being broken. Financing needs to be secured, lots of legal paperwork, project management has to be hired, contractors need to be lined up etc, etc, etc...……...

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

St Bernard's Square


Render

This along with 55 Queen will create momentum in the east end of downtown for more such projects. Next to fill would be the lot at Botsford and Queen and the east end would be transformed.

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I very much doubt this year. Usually it is 1-3 years after submission to PAC before you see ground being broken. Financing needs to be secured, lots of legal paperwork, project management has to be hired, contractors need to be lined up etc, etc, etc...……...

I don't know, the way things have been moving recently from proposal to actual construction is the fastest I've ever seen in the city. Later this year may not be out of the question. Granted this could be the largest residential building in the city (maybe Horizon Place is larger?) so more prep time is expected compared to the more run-of-the-mill downtown residential buildings.

[Mattyyy]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

This along with 55 Queen will create momentum in the east end of downtown for more such projects. Next to fill would be the lot at Botsford and Queen and the east end would be transformed.



I don't know, the way things have been moving recently from proposal to actual construction is the fastest I've ever seen in the city. Later this year may not be out of the question. Granted this could be the largest residential building in the city (maybe Horizon Place is larger?) so more prep time is expected compared to the more run-of-the-mill downtown residential buildings.

Didn't Horizon Place move at lightening speed? I seem to remember people were unaware of the project until it was basically breaking ground.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Mattyyy

Didn't Horizon Place move at lightening speed? I seem to remember people were unaware of the project until it was basically breaking ground.

Yes, but Dieppe projects tend to fly under the radar as the planning process in that town is much more secretive than it is in either Moncton or Riverview. Documentation online is much more difficult to find in Dieppe than in either of it's neighbours.

[Monctoncore]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Yes, but Dieppe projects tend to fly under the radar as the planning process in that town is much more secretive than it is in either Moncton or Riverview. Documentation online is much more difficult to find in Dieppe than in either of it's neighbours.

An interesting thing to this is that Design Plus Architecture is located directly across the street.

[MonctonRad]

A couple of random thoughts about St. Bernard Square:



1) - this will be the second new residential building in the downtown core with a townhouse podium. The building currently under construction at 106-124 Weldon is also of this style. I like this new trend.



2) - I wonder what is up with that elegant two storey glass penthouse on top of St. Bernard Square. Is it also residential (high end), or will this penthouse have a different purpose such as a restaurant or, a common area for the residents of the building?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

51 Highfield Street
proposal before Moncton PAC


Location map


Site plan


South elevation


East elevation

The rehabilitation of Highfield Street between Main and Gordon continues. The makeover is nearly complete.

51 Highfield will be a six storey apartment building with underground parking, which is really fronting on Campbell Street, but across Highfield Street from the Hilton Garden Inn. A separate parkade is located on the back of the property, off of Sangster Street. This is in addition to ground level indoor parking within the building itself. The elevation of this new apartment building will be 68 feet.

Between this proposal and the proposal for St Bernard's Square, nearly two city blocks of surface parking will be eliminated from the core.

Here are a couple of actual renders of this proposed building, found on the Spitfire Design Facebook page:

Welcome to 51 Highfield St, Moncton.

This 6-storey, 55-unit is the sister building to Ashford Living's Gordon street project and boasts spacious modern suites, large decks, secured bike storage, 2 levels of covered parking plus a separate 2 level parking garage.

Urban living at its best!

Curiously, although the building is described as being "51 Highfield Street", the address on the side of the building in the render is "29 Campbell Street." I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they finally call the building.

As NBNYer previously pointed out, the existing former library on this block is being saved, except for a small addition on the rear of the building. It will be interesting to see what Ashford has in mind. The building is unique in the downtown core and has an interesting architectural style. I'm glad it is being saved............

[Mattyyy]

There was an article in CBC this morning stating their hope is to get shovels in the ground by the end of the year, as it will take a few years to construct. The overall estimate at this point to build is $35,000,000.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Mattyyy

There was an article in CBC this morning stating their hope is to get shovels in the ground by the end of the year, as it will take a few years to construct. The overall estimate at this point to build is $35,000,000.

To be clear, we are talking about St. Bernard's Square here.

Here's the link to the article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-residential-downtown-construction-1.5908290

Nice photo showing the relationship of the building lot to St. Bernard's Church, with FiveFive Queen in the background.


A couple of quotes:

Designs show the building named St. Bernard's Square rising about 38 metres, which would make it among the city's tallest, though dwarfed by the nearby Bell Aliant Tower that's 127 metres tall.

Christian Hébert is an architect with Design Plus Architecture in Moncton, which designed the building. He said based on initial conceptual designs, construction of the building could cost around $35 million.

The company's plans for St. Bernard Square involve 170 underground parking spaces, walk-up townhouse units taking up the first and second floors, with the building core then set back. Two-storey penthouse units are planned for the top of the building.

A private street would run between the building and the church, which Hébert said would ensure the building doesn't undermine the structural stability of the church and provides distance to separate the structures.

- So, we now have an elevation for the building - 38 metres (126 ft)
- We now also know what the penthouse will include - they will be two level rental units. The render shows them to be glass faced, and with the setback from the edge of the tower, presumably there will be outdoor patios too - quite snazzy.

[adamuptownsj]

To comment on a couple earlier posts, the townhouse base of the towers is a huge improvement. Puts residents at street level, makes for a more interesting walk, and prevents the building from towering over passers-by.

Seeing the strange little library and its vaulted roof survive is nice. The addition is of no architectural merit from what I can tell. A lot of this kind of 50s-70s public and commercial architecture is facing the wrecking ball.

[ChampduLarge]

I am happy to see the St. Bernard Square development for Moncton, it will add an urban feel where one is already happening. The building is attractive. I agree that townhomes on the street are good. I hope we see more proposals south of Main Street that start to fill in the gap from the downtown to the river, but happy for this one for sure.

[emad]

Originally Posted by Philbilly

What the history of Frederic Properties Corp in Moncton ? Do they have a good track record on getting thing done ?

Quote from the article in CBC :

Valdo Grandmaison is listed as Frederic Properties Corp.'s director in corporate records.

[Philbilly]

Originally Posted by emad

Quote from the article in CBC :

Thanks

[jonny golden]

St. Bernard's Square:
It will take years to build, but if they can get shovels in the ground by the end of the year, that'll be a great start. Hopefully the planning committee and building permit process go smoothly.

I really like the idea of the two floor penthouses. With what looks like a lot of glass, there should be great views from that high up. It's hard to tell from the renders if there are outdoor terraces for these units.

Also the first two floor townhouses are a great idea. Being called townhouses and not apartments, I wonder if they'll be for sale, or for rent. Mixing in some units for sale is a model we've seen at 55 Queen as well as Bella Casa in Riverview.

[OUIR@random]

St. Bernard Square is a great project for downtown Moncton, this one is definitely an urban development. Not a suburban one pretending to be an urban one...

[MonctonRad]

a few new tidbits about St. Bernard's Square, courtesy of the T&T today.



- the third floor units will have rooftop garden patio terraces.
- the penthouse units will be two storey.
- pet friendly building, with a pet wash station in the garage
- bicycle storage
- charging stations for electric vehicles
- car share program for tenants.
- they very definitely want to have shovels in the ground by the end of summer.

As soon as this project has been approved by city council, I will create a project specific thread for this very substantial building.

[BlackYear]

The old Library would make a decent StarBucks/bakery/mini book store/cultural store/art gallery type of place. Seeing all of the surrounding hotels & apartments within a 5 minute walk might work here.