Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus
Princess Street will get royal treatment
Renewal: Following complaints, city agrees to fast-track upgrade of important uptown route
Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday January 5th, 2008
Appeared on page B3
SAINT JOHN - A business owner who had been critical of the state of Princess Street is thrilled the city will be treating the uptown boulevard like royalty in 2008.
The operations and engineering department will be working with Saint John Water and Saint John Energy to give the western-most sections of Princess Street an approximately $2-million makeover, including street reconstruction, water, wastewater, and stormwater work, and underground wiring.
"They're going to do stage 1 and 2 at the same time, which is great," said Peter Smit, a building and business owner who has poured about $100,000 into the historic Brodie building, which also houses his happinez wine bar.
The city had originally talked about fixing the area from Sydney Street to Prince William Street from 2008 to 2011, a one-block-at-a-time approach that had Smit and the owners of Hayward & Warwick, one block away, each hoping their section would be done first.
Commissioner of operations and engineering Paul Groody said earlier this month the city decided it would be less expensive to complete the area from Charlotte Street to Prince William Street all at once.
Smit said he's happy the construction will take place more quickly than originally planned.
"If you look at the whole street, the street is in very bad shape," he said. "It's a street where you see a fair amount of new businesses coming up at the moment, all bringing something new to the downtown of Saint John, which I think is fantastic."
Relatively new visitors to the street include a martini bar and the headquarters for the Saint John Theatre Company, while long-standing members of the community include Hayward & Warwick and the Irish pub O'Leary's.
"It's really a main artery for the downtown core," Smit said, adding that the reconstruction tied in well with waterfront development and Saint John's cruise ship industry.
Smith hopes to coordinate the repointing of his foundation with the work on Princess Street, and says he's already thinking ahead to how the reconstruction will affect his business.
"Of course [the construction] kills business for the time being, for the time that they're going to do it," he said. "So we have to think of that as well. How can we make it more attractive? How can we make it, instead of a negative thing, a beautiful future? In other words, it's going to be fantastic in 2009, but it's going to be a tough year for people on the street. So what can we do to make it positive? There's a fair amount of things to be thinking of in the next coming months."
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