The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[Seely32]

Does anyone Have any renderings of what the justice complex is going to look like.

I also thought it was supposed to being in the fall. I guess the money has not yet been secured.

[Seely32]

Also does anyone know what they are doing to this church??

DOWN COMES THE STEEPLE



Published Thursday August 16th, 2007
Appeared on page C2

Dave Wilson, left, and Chris Lomax work on building the staging to prepare for the removal of the steeple of St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church on Broad Street Wednesday.

[Helladog]

Ribbed for his slip of the tounge earlier this week, after saying the Premier was in town announcing forty-five million dollars for the complex, McIntyre says the province isn't quite at the announcement stage.

He knew what he was doing...

[Helladog]

Source: My cell phone

[kwajo]

^ I'm glad they're expanding that building, it's one of the best new offices in the city and will do the North End well. I recall the original development had room to expand the design to 3 times as big I think, so hopefully that will happen.

He knew what he was doing...

I'm not so sure, Roly is pretty old school, he frequently makes political slips while talking. For example, swearing at people, saying things he isn't supposed to and stuff like that.

[kwajo]

Some more great news for Saint John! I'm glad our port is undergoing a surge in growth, it is the lifeblood of this city and as the port goes, so goes Saint John.

Port lands shipping line

SARAH REGAN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
Published Friday August 17th, 2007
Appeared on page C1

SAINT JOHN - A new shipping line will be taking on cargo from the Port of Saint John for the first time today and it appears it won't be the last.

The Saint John Port Authority is crediting a strong increase in lumber exports to the Port of Saint John with attracting Nirint Shipping, based in the Netherlands.

"Despite strong global competition in the forest products sector and a slowdown in housing starts in the United States, we are delighted to welcome another European shipping line for New Brunswick lumber," said Capt. Al Soppitt, president and CEO of the Saint John Port Authority.

"We are proving once again that our strategic location and cargo handling expertise offer significant advantages to our transportation partners."

The Nirint Pride will be arriving in Saint John to take on forest products. It is expected to dock at Lower Cove Terminal where Furncan Marine stevedores and the ship's crane will manoeuvre 6,000 cubic metres of construction lumber.

Representatives from the shipping company visited the city earlier this year and were impressed with the facilities offered, said Elias Hage, director of Echo Freight, the shipping company's agent in Canada.

"Nirint is very interested in the Port of Saint John and the new business this relationship creates," Hage said.

"We are looking to call at the Port of Saint John on a regular basis and will be announcing more scheduled calls soon."

Murray Gorodensky, executive vice president of Empire Stevedoring, the parent company of Furncan Marine, said he is happy about this new business venture, saying the fact the ship has its own gear will make it easier for the longshoremen on-site today.

And there may be more good news for the port.

Todd Pickard, of Drakcip Inc., a New Brunswick wholesale lumber company, said another four ships have been secured to export forest products to Ireland.

Pickard said there is another shipment scheduled to take lumber to the United Kingdom in September.

Pickard is now looking into establishing additional exports to the Middle East.

[Alberta Bound]

I had my doubts Saint John transit's COMEX bus rapid transit (BRT) service would ever be launched but I see they have schedules posted on their website and service will start Sept 4, as planned.

Originally Posted by Saint John Transit Website

KV Express stops:
Kings Square, McAllister Mall, Parkside Drive - Quispamsis, United Baptist Church - Quispamsis, Arts & Culture Park - Quispamsis, Lila Court Park - Quispamsis, Rothesay Arena, Church Street - Rothesay, Riverside Golf Course, Kennebecasis Park

Grand Bay-Westfield Express stops:
Kings Square, Grand Bay arena

Hampton Express stops:
Kings Square, Hampton, Hammond River, Mc Allister Mall

From what I understand, this will be a true BRT service with buses having priority with traffic lights at certain intersections (or at least that was the plan). The cost is $3.00 or monthly pass is $89. I would have liked to see the cost in line with their intra-city buses but overall, I think its a great idea. At last check, this puts them in with other Canadian cities with BRT service (Calgary, Halifax, GTO, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Waterloo, Gatineau).

http://www.saintjohntransit.com/index.php?id=4

[kwajo]

Pardon my language, but the Town of Rothesay is ******* retarded. Nobody on the town council believes in the commuter bus service, and it is proved by the locations they chose for the bus stops. Whereas Quispamsis has several of them spread throughout the town, and chose to include lower income areas such as the trailer park, the town of Rothesay thinks it is a good idea to put the bus stops in some of the wealthiest areas of town and only have 3 stops. It seems ridiculous to put bus stops in the areas of town where a large portion of the population owns multiple vehicles and has little concern over the cost of commuting. The agreement the towns signed with the City and SJ Transit allows them to test the service for a period of time, and if they aren't satisfied with ridership, they can opt-out. Well it is obvious that Rothesay wants to opt out (the Mayor didn't want the transit service in the first place), but they're trying to make people happy by trying it, then blaming its failure on the same public that demanded it. I'm sick and tired of Rothesay's council and mayor thinking that they can do whatever they want without thinking of whole segments of the town's population (low income people, residents of the old Village of Fairvale, etc.). The whole municipal government needs to be tossed out in the next election, but it will never happen because no one wants to run for town council, and the current councillors can claim that they've overseen a massive growth in town population and prosperity, despite the fact that it was all due to natural out-migration from the city that would have happened no matter who was running the town.

God, I am so angry with myself for not running in the last mayoral election. In case you didn't know, I actually announced to the media my intent to run for the position of Mayor of Rothesay in 2003, had my nomination form filled out, had Paul Zed lined up as my campaign manager, began producing signage, but decided to withdraw my candidacy to return to university. Thus Bill Bishop won the election by acclamation, and with every bone-headed move Bishop makes I have been regretting my decision to withdraw ever since.

Oh well, maybe next time.

[nero1979]

Kwajo, Honestly I do not see it working out at all, regardless .. too many rich people who would rather just drive then wait for a bus. The bus system would probably work better working at 2am driving all the club go'ers home. Its a good way to get congestion down on the highway and city streets but they won't use it. I remember a few years back a councillor in SJ was suggesting putting up tolls or something along those lines along highway 1 and 100 for people in KV because of road damage etc. Maybe they should revisit that. lol

[Seely32]

They were running a Late night bus around the city for saturday and sunday nights and Having takin it home multiple times, it was always pretty packed I am interested to see if they wil be running that bus again.

I could see the grand bay bus used quite regularly, I wonder what there expected ridership is. If they break even will they continue or do they need to make a profit. I hope the bus routes work and making the city more accessible to more people more often. Hence increasing money spent here, and giving the people who dont have cars the possibilty of having jobs in town. There could be many small positive ripple effects if this bus is successful.

[Seely32]

Published Friday August 17th, 2007
Appeared on page C2



Workers continue the construction Thursday of a new three-unit apartment building on St. James Street in the South End. Overall housing starts in the city for the first seven months of the year jumped 17.8 per cent, with 383 units, compared to 325 units for the same period last year.

[PersonPlaceorThing]

Is there no stop in French Village? There would likely be more riders from this area than from Riverside.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by Seely32

They were running a Late night bus around the city for saturday and sunday nights and Having takin it home multiple times, it was always pretty packed I am interested to see if they wil be running that bus again.

I could see the grand bay bus used quite regularly, I wonder what there expected ridership is. If they break even will they continue or do they need to make a profit. I hope the bus routes work and making the city more accessible to more people more often. Hence increasing money spent here, and giving the people who dont have cars the possibilty of having jobs in town. There could be many small positive ripple effects if this bus is successful.

There was some figure kicking around, minimum 1% of the population using the busses daily I think, that would be needed in order for the service to be sustainable. I think that's doable, though I have my doubts about Rothesay's bus stop choices. Quispamsis and Grand Bay-Westfield should be able to reach those numbers IMO.

[PostModernPrometheus]

Greetings all;
I stumbled across this thread the other day, and have not yet had a chance to read through all the previous posts, so please excuse any ignorant questions / questions i may ask that have already been addressed.

A bit of background - my wife and I are young educated professionals; I grew up in this aea in the 1980's/early 90's & have lived in Moncton, Halifax & St. John's, NL ove the past decade. We just moved to the area about a month ago on a quiet spot on the river.

The amount of change and development in the Saint John area that has taken place in the past decade, and particularly in the past 3-4 years, is quite astounding. Walking up King Street last night, seeing the upper levels of CentreBeam place being renovated with its brick & beam architecture preserved, seeing the old Pascal Emerson building FINALLY restored & the Bayview Credit Building getting a facelift are the most recent examples in a long list of positive developments / tangible results I've been seing in the past couple of weeks. The single most striking aspect I've noticed however is that the general attitude / optimism level in the area is as high as I've ever known it to be.

Anyhow - there are a couple of questions I have regarding projects areas in the city :
1) what is going on on Sandy Point Road - theres several acreas of cleared land that's now being levelled right next to the road between Somerset & the Hospital - Does anyone know what this is??

2) The group of 3-4 building that were levelled on City Road - what's happening there?


3) Long Wharf - I'm hearing rumors & buzzing about a land swap / possible site for a new office building by a well known local company.....how true is this??

4) There's no FOR SALE sign on the old Pascal Emerson building, and It looks like a lot of money has been poured into restoring it....anyone know what the plan for it is?

5) The old Paramount Theatre in King Square.....I've heard nothing about what the plans for it are....

Thanks to whoever started this thread - fantastic idea!



PMP

[Helladog]

The group of 3-4 building that were levelled on City Road - what's happening there?

I believe someone is planning some sort of apartment building...as to the size of the project, I have no idea...

About the rest of your questions, I have no to little idea about what's going on...

[Alberta Bound]

Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus

Anyhow - there are a couple of questions I have regarding projects areas in the city :
1) what is going on on Sandy Point Road - theres several acreas of cleared land that's now being levelled right next to the road between Somerset & the Hospital - Does anyone know what this is??

2) The group of 3-4 building that were levelled on City Road - what's happening there?


3) Long Wharf - I'm hearing rumors & buzzing about a land swap / possible site for a new office building by a well known local company.....how true is this??

4) There's no FOR SALE sign on the old Pascal Emerson building, and It looks like a lot of money has been poured into restoring it....anyone know what the plan for it is?

5) The old Paramount Theatre in King Square.....I've heard nothing about what the plans for it are....

Thanks to whoever started this thread - fantastic idea!



PMP

1) Closure of an old dump I believe (Howe's Lake). I know of both sides of the road is where the old dump was. If you look at what has been bulldozed recently on the west side of the road, you will see lots of garbage in it.

2) Definitely an apartment building(s). I heard it on the news (radio) a few weeks ago or more but cant recall the size. It seems to me it was over 100 units though.

3) I really hope so! That would be a great property to see developed. By the sounds of the "rumour", I would have to guess at Irving but I'm just guessing.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus

Anyhow - there are a couple of questions I have regarding projects areas in the city :
1) what is going on on Sandy Point Road - theres several acreas of cleared land that's now being levelled right next to the road between Somerset & the Hospital - Does anyone know what this is??

2) The group of 3-4 building that were levelled on City Road - what's happening there?


3) Long Wharf - I'm hearing rumors & buzzing about a land swap / possible site for a new office building by a well known local company.....how true is this??

4) There's no FOR SALE sign on the old Pascal Emerson building, and It looks like a lot of money has been poured into restoring it....anyone know what the plan for it is?

5) The old Paramount Theatre in King Square.....I've heard nothing about what the plans for it are....

Thanks to whoever started this thread - fantastic idea!



PMP

1) It's the final stage of capping for the old Howe's Lake landfill. They are remediating the site to its final natural appearance. The dump was leaking into Alder Brook (which runs through Millidgeville and into the Kennebecasis near the RKYC) as recently as last year, so they have fixed the leaking and put new top soil, etc. on the dump site.

2) New apartment building. There are scant details but I think it is supposed to be around 100 units, so it could end up being a mid-rise building, which is great for that area of town.

3) There are indeed rumours about Irving wanting the site. The city is confirmed to be talking to the Port about swapping Long Wharf for the old sugar refinery site. The port wants the old refinery land to expand its growing Lower Cove traffic, and the city wants Long Wharf to to developed for offices/tourist interests. If Irving Oil does end up using the site, it would probably be a lease of the wharf from the city (like the Coast Guard site with the Hardman Group). I have heard people who work for Irving talk about this possibility, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened, but any rumours you may have heard about them simultaneously restoring Fort LaTour are just false.

4) The man who owns the building renovated it last year, and did a beautiful job, and has no interest in selling it. He is waiting for the right tenant to rent to, and is willing to let it sit empty until he finds the kind of tenant he wants (he doesn't want to just rent it out to anyone and see it close a year later). He expressed hope tat someone would want to open a department or hardware store, like the old Pascal-Emmerson, because he feels there is a great market for such a store uptown.

5) There have been many rumours about the theatre. One of them is that it will be leveled and turned into a parking lot (the man who was buying it/has bought it was the one who bought the old Cineplex Odeon and tore it down). The other rumour is that Irving Oil is considering the site for their office tower. They own an office on the corner of Sydney right next to the Paramount, so they could tear both down and build a new larger building in their place. So far, I have yet to hear of any interest in re-opening the theatre, especially with Empire Theatres planning a multiplex on the Golden Mile (west side)


Hope that helps, and don't hesitate to ask more.

[michael_d40]

Originally Posted by kwajo

1) It's the final stage of capping for the old Howe's Lake landfill. They are remediating the site to its final natural appearance. The dump was leaking into Alder Brook (which runs through Millidgeville and into the Kennebecasis near the RKYC) as recently as last year, so they have fixed the leaking and put new top soil, etc. on the dump site.

2) New apartment building. There are scant details but I think it is supposed to be around 100 units, so it could end up being a mid-rise building, which is great for that area of town.

3) There are indeed rumours about Irving wanting the site. The city is confirmed to be talking to the Port about swapping Long Wharf for the old sugar refinery site. The port wants the old refinery land to expand its growing Lower Cove traffic, and the city wants Long Wharf to to developed for offices/tourist interests. If Irving Oil does end up using the site, it would probably be a lease of the wharf from the city (like the Coast Guard site with the Hardman Group). I have heard people who work for Irving talk about this possibility, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened, but any rumours you may have heard about them simultaneously restoring Fort LaTour are just false.

4) The man who owns the building renovated it last year, and did a beautiful job, and has no interest in selling it. He is waiting for the right tenant to rent to, and is willing to let it sit empty until he finds the kind of tenant he wants (he doesn't want to just rent it out to anyone and see it close a year later). He expressed hope tat someone would want to open a department or hardware store, like the old Pascal-Emmerson, because he feels there is a great market for such a store uptown.

5) There have been many rumours about the theatre. One of them is that it will be leveled and turned into a parking lot (the man who was buying it/has bought it was the one who bought the old Cineplex Odeon and tore it down). The other rumour is that Irving Oil is considering the site for their office tower. They own an office on the corner of Sydney right next to the Paramount, so they could tear both down and build a new larger building in their place. So far, I have yet to hear of any interest in re-opening the theatre, especially with Empire Theatres planning a multiplex on the Golden Mile (west side)


Hope that helps, and don't hesitate to ask more.

About #5......... Irving will not be tearing both buildings down for an office tower. I just walked by their building on the corner of sydney st, and they have papers up in the windows, and they are renovating the inside of it, Lots of construction workers comming and going, so they are not going to renovate it now, just to tear it down in a year......

[GUB]

I agree with you Kwajo in regards to the majority, if not entirety of Rothesay town council. The decided placement of bus stops in Rothesay simply does not make any sense. For godness sake---in front of Riverside Country Club?! Are Saint Johners going to grab the bus to Riverside and proceed to pay $100 green fee?!
The bottom line is that 70% of Rothesay residents are wealthy enough to simply drive 1 of their cars. The bus stops should be placed in proximity to French Village/Wells along with another close to Rothesay arena/Scott Ave, area and possibly Millenium Drive?
Concerning Mr. Zed-- Anyone that knows politics will tell you what this MP has done for Saint John---Sweet f--k all!
Dr. Ed Dougherty would have been a far better MP for Fundy Royal and actually accomplished some work as oppoed to hiding in Ottawa, but that's another topic.

[GUB]

I agree with you Kwajo in regards to the majority, if not entirety of Rothesay town council. The decided placement of bus stops in Rothesay simply does not make any sense. For godness sake---in front of Riverside Country Club?! Are Saint Johners going to grab the bus to Riverside and proceed to pay $100 green fee?!
The bottom line is that 70% of Rothesay residents are wealthy enough to simply drive 1 of their cars. The bus stops should be placed in proximity to French Village/Wells along with another close to Rothesay arena/Scott Ave, area and possibly Millenium Drive?
Concerning Mr. Zed-- Anyone that knows politics will tell you what this MP has done for Saint John---Sweet f--k all!
Dr. Ed Dougherty would have been a far better MP for Fundy Royal and actually accomplished some work as oppoed to hiding in Ottawa, but that's another topic.