[Moncton] Downtown Developments

[lirette]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Happy Craft Brewing have opened up a Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/happycraftbrewing

They will be opening in the old Paramount location on Main Street, likely later this fall (once the pandemic is over and renovations are complete.

I noticed the signage has been taken down already. A pleasant sight, that venue has been through many ownership changes over the years and was never overly attractive in appearance. Hopefully the new owners do a nice job with it in such a prime location.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by lirette

I noticed the signage has been taken down already. A pleasant sight, that venue has been through many ownership changes over the years and was never overly attractive in appearance. Hopefully the new owners do a nice job with it in such a prime location.

There was a picture posted that showed the inside totally gutted and ready for a completely new interior. I have a feeling it will be a really nice place when they're finished with it. I just hope the city doesn't put that cement barrier down the middle of Main Street this coming summer like they did last year. It would be great to see the downtown core bounce back and regain the vibrancy it once had. I hope this place is successful.

[KnoxfordGuy]

The cement barriers were taken down after a lot of protest. I doubt they will be putting them back in the spring.

[MonctonRad]

From the January Moncton PAC documents:

From Ashford Investments Inc. variances for 84 Highfield (PID 70660089) to reduce the rear yard landscaping from 4 metres to 0 metre and to reduce the driveway setback from the side lot line from 3 metres to 0 metre and et 45 rue Gordon Street (PID 70660139) to not provide parking lot screening adjacent to a residential use

This is to compensate for deficiencies in the original parking lot and parking access for their Ashford Living building at Highfield & Gordon, now that they are prohibited from demolishing the heritage building at 84 Highfield Street.



Original plan:


It would appear that they have slightly altered the turning radius for the ramp leading to the underground parking garage. They have also moved the main floor garage access from directly off Elm Street to the rear parking lot. Also, the rear parking lot (and main level parking) access will be off Highfield, with the exit onto Elm.

[MonctonRad]

A (mini) tower crane has recently been installed on Weldon for this project:

[MonctonRad]

There is now construction hoarding up around the façade of the former Paramount on Main Street where they are building the new Happy Craft Brewing

[lirette]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There is now construction hoarding up around the façade of the former Paramount on Main Street where they are building the new Happy Craft Brewing

A pleasant sight as I walked by this morning. This location really deserves something of high quality. Being across from Old T will great benefit them. The previous businesses in this location were poorly managed and not complimentary to the area.

It will be important to have spots on main street to draw people in as we reach hopefully the end game of this pandemic. Seeing main st bustling again will be a sight to see! Curious how long the old Starbucks and Piatto locations will remain empty.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by lirette

A pleasant sight as I walked by this morning. This location really deserves something of high quality. Being across from Old T will great benefit them. The previous businesses in this location were poorly managed and not complimentary to the area.

It will be important to have spots on main street to draw people in as we reach hopefully the end game of this pandemic. Seeing main st bustling again will be a sight to see! Curious how long the old Starbucks and Piatto locations will remain empty.

Agree 100%. Main Street was such a vibrant place. This new brew pub is a great addition, and I do believe it will be of high quality.

I think the key to getting Main Street back to it's prior glory is for employees to return to their downtown offices. Unfortunately, I think a lot of them will choose the convenience of working from home.

Also more people living downtown would be a plus. I keep wondering if the new owners of the Higgins Block will pivot away from office space and decide to go with residential units on the upper floors instead.

[Aging Hipster]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Also more people living downtown would be a plus. I keep wondering if the new owners of the Higgins Block will pivot away from office space and decide to go with residential units on the upper floors instead.

As the Mandalorian would say, this is the way. Main St. would not seem so hollowed out now had it not been so heavy on office space. Just look at St. George St—it’s actually more prosperous than has been in a long time! New developments, stores, etc.

[lirette]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Agree 100%. Main Street was such a vibrant place. This new brew pub is a great addition, and I do believe it will be of high quality.

I think the key to getting Main Street back to it's prior glory is for employees to return to their downtown offices. Unfortunately, I think a lot of them will choose the convenience of working from home.

Also more people living downtown would be a plus. I keep wondering if the new owners of the Higgins Block will pivot away from office space and decide to go with residential units on the upper floors instead.

I believe there is some lobbying going on to get federal employees back to downtown offices similar to what's being asked in Halifax. It accounts for a huge chunk of the workforce down here. I feel like some restaurants are more impacted by this than others though.

Restaurants like the old triangle for example don't do big lunch business and are likely more impacted by not being able to pack the place on weekends due to covid. A restaurant like Garden House though relies almost entirely on office workers.

No events at Avenir Centre, Capitol Theatre etc. definitely hurts as well. I have no doubt downtown will be busy again once we are back to normal so some of these businesses just need to get through these next few months. I know in yellow phase in early December downtown was VERY busy on friday and saturday evenings.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Aging Hipster

As the Mandalorian would say, this is the way. Main St. would not seem so hollowed out now had it not been so heavy on office space. Just look at St. George St—it’s actually more prosperous than has been in a long time! New developments, stores, etc.

Yes there has been a lot of residential buildings constructed along and just off of St. George Street over the last several years. And there is still some vacant land available for development. The new City Realty building on the corner of Weldon is a great improvement over what was there before. Their 1 bedroom units are already sold out. I really hope the ground floor café & the Indian grocery store are successful.

The big game changer for the Main Street core of downtown could be the Ashford Group. It will be interesting to see what happens with the land behind Assomption Place. For example, I'd like to see a tall residential tower replacing the vacant jail building.

[MonctonRad]

The big difference between Main St. and St. George St. is that:

1) - Main Street is a principle commercial street first and foremost, with a large non resident population of office workers and hotel guests who are the primary users of retail and restaurant resources in the neighbourhood. Remove the office workers (and hotel guests) from the equation and Main Street goes into a deep depression.

2) - St. George Street on the other hand is a neighbourhood commercial district, primarily serving the adjacent downtown residential areas. There has been a recent profusion of new downtown residential apartment construction, and there has been a recent flourishing of small retail businesses along the street as a result. I expect this to continue (although unfortunately the entire street will be under serious reconstruction for the next three years as aging infrastructure is replaced).

Johnny is right. Main Street needs to broaden it's base. While the office workers and hotel guests will eventually return, a strict reliance upon this narrow base will continue to place the Main Street district at increased risk of serious disruption down the road. I agree that the future of Main Street is dependent on increased residential development, especially to the south and particularly on that large parcel of land the Ashford controls. We need to see some 15-20 storey residential towers going up to support the retail/hospitality sector on Main Street.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The big difference between Main St. and St. George St. is that:

1) - Main Street is a principle commercial street first and foremost, with a large non resident population of office workers and hotel guests who are the primary users of retail and restaurant resources in the neighbourhood. Remove the office workers (and hotel guests) from the equation and Main Street goes into a deep depression.

2) - St. George Street on the other hand is a neighbourhood commercial district, primarily serving the adjacent downtown residential areas. There has been a recent profusion of new downtown residential apartment construction, and there has been a recent flourishing of small retail businesses along the street as a result. I expect this to continue (although unfortunately the entire street will be under serious reconstruction for the next three years as aging infrastructure is replaced).

Johnny is right. Main Street needs to broaden it's base. While the office workers and hotel guests will eventually return, a strict reliance upon this narrow base will continue to place the Main Street district at increased risk of serious disruption down the road. I agree that the future of Main Street is dependent on increased residential development, especially to the south and particularly on that large parcel of land the Ashford controls. We need to see some 15-20 storey residential towers going up to support the retail/hospitality sector on Main Street.

The Happy Tap Room will be going into a property that the Ashford Group purchased in 2019. I think it will be a great improvement over what's there now. The old Paramount Theater behind this was part of the sale, and it was then demolished. Jim Dixon from Ashford was interviewed at the time and he described a vision of more retail, restaurants, office space with residential units on top.

That was before covid, so it will be interesting to see what they build and when they decide to proceed. I wouldn't be surprised if they develop the Paramount property next. I just hope there is some height to the project, although I can't see it being too many floors because of parking. More tenants, more parking required. But a nice building with residential units would sell out quickly and further enhance the downtown. What was there before, honestly was a bit of an eyesore.

[MonctonRad]

St Bernard's Square
Proposal before PACS:

From Design Plus on behalf of Frederic Properties Corp. Botsford and Victoria Streets (PIDs 00683474, 00678474, 00678482, 00678151, 00678169, 70018015, 00683482) a Conditional Use application to develop a parking garage below the minimum geodetic elevation for a 12 story building with approximately 148 units and variances to (1) increase the permitted height of the building to be more than 19 metres; (2) provide non- traditional material on portions of the building; (3) not provide the step-back on the Wesley Street side; (4) not provide jogs and recesses along the façades of the building; (5) increase the maximum setback in one section of the facade facing Victoria (3.5 to 3.9); (6) reduce the size of the balconies on one floor; (7)reduce the ground floor fenestration ratio on Victoria 25% to 24.5% and Wesley 25% to 0% (File 21-43489 & 21-43490)

Site location


Render


Render


Birds eye view


Birds eye view


Rear birds eye view


Ground floor plan

So, this will be located on the vacant parking lot along the north side of St Bernards Church, on the SE corner of Botsford and Victoria Streets.

The plan is for 3 levels of underground parking, a two storey podium (townhomes), a seven storey tower capped by a two level penthouse, and a mechanical floor.

This is not a mixed use building, but given the size of this building and it's downtown location, I certainly intend to create a project specific thread for the project once it has been approved by PAC and city council. This is a huge development for the east end of downtown, and will be a larger project than FiveFive Queen was. These two buildings are close to one another, and will complement each other well. The east end is being transformed, and if successful, I'm sure we will see other similar buildings in the neighbourhood in the future.

[ErickMontreal]

Overall , pretty impressive. My only beef with this proposal and most proposals in Moncton are the usual setbacks from the street. That being said , it’s night and day with the low-rise vinyl siding buildings that were built not so long ago.

I am surprised that there isn’t any commercial space being proposed at street level.

[Nashe]

12 storeys! Nice!

[Philbilly]

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

[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.

[NBNYer]

From what I understand from the 51 Highfield proposal, they are planning on preserving most of the old library and only removing a small part of the back of the building. I have always been fond of that building and thought it could look great of it were renovated. I wonder what the plans are if any.

[josh_cat_eyes]

This 12 storey building is an absolute game changer for Moncton! I believe it also would become the 2nd tallest high rise in the city. If it’s taller than the Assumption Cathedral than it would be the 3rd tallest structure in the city. Also I’m loving the infill in west downtown. Another 6 storey building from Ashford.