[Moncton] Downtown Developments

[MonctonRad]

According to the CBC article, the start date for the new west end anglophone k-8 school will be in 2022, or, in other words, probably in about 20 months time. I suppose they could clear the land ahead of time. The DEC chairman seemed to think land clearance would be starting in the near future.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by flyer99

They have a construction fence up between Dolma and the brick building at the corner or St George and Archibald. I assume that brick building will be undergoing some changes.

Large hole dug in the parking lot, so sub-grade work happening. It'll be interesting to follow this project to see what they do with the brick building. Nice to see it being brought back to life.

[josh_cat_eyes]

I came across some SNB property assessment info today. Apparently on August 28th this year, a large amount of properties were sold in downtown Moncton. The first was the property between the new police station and the government office building on Albert street, including the old rail warehouse. The second was the parking lot to the north of the Eatons building. The third was the north east corner of Lutz and Robinson all the way around Robinson until you get to the parking lot that is there. The fourth is the small parking lot on the south east corner of the same intersection. The 5th is the parking lot to the east of the RCMP station, and the 6th is the north east corner of Queen & Lewis. The common theme I’m noticing is these are all parking lots. Someone is buying up a lot of parking lots and I don’t know why.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

I came across some SNB property assessment info today. Apparently on August 28th this year, a large amount of properties were sold in downtown Moncton. The first was the property between the new police station and the government office building on Albert street, including the old rail warehouse. The second was the parking lot to the north of the Eatons building. The third was the north east corner of Lutz and Robinson all the way around Robinson until you get to the parking lot that is there. The fourth is the small parking lot on the south east corner of the same intersection. The 5th is the parking lot to the east of the RCMP station, and the 6th is the north east corner of Queen & Lewis. The common theme I’m noticing is these are all parking lots. Someone is buying up a lot of parking lots and I don’t know why.

I wonder if it could be the Ashford group again?

[BlackYear]

Hilton Garden Inn photo update from last night. Crane makes a peak entrance.

[flyer99]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

I came across some SNB property assessment info today. Apparently on August 28th this year, a large amount of properties were sold in downtown Moncton. The first was the property between the new police station and the government office building on Albert street, including the old rail warehouse. The second was the parking lot to the north of the Eatons building. The third was the north east corner of Lutz and Robinson all the way around Robinson until you get to the parking lot that is there. The fourth is the small parking lot on the south east corner of the same intersection. The 5th is the parking lot to the east of the RCMP station, and the 6th is the north east corner of Queen & Lewis. The common theme I’m noticing is these are all parking lots. Someone is buying up a lot of parking lots and I don’t know why.

If these are all parking lots and they are not replaced as parking lots or garages, there could be a bigger parking problem downtown than there is currently.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by flyer99

If these are all parking lots and they are not replaced as parking lots or garages, there could be a bigger parking problem downtown than there is currently.

Perhaps it is Ashford that’s buying them and perhaps they have a plan to replace the parking spots with garages. If they have control of surface parking, it’s a heck of a lot easier to transition that surface parking to parking garages.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Perhaps it is Ashford that’s buying them and perhaps they have a plan to replace the parking spots with garages. If they have control of surface parking, it’s a heck of a lot easier to transition that surface parking to parking garages.

Jim Dixon, one of the principals with the Ashford Group gave an interview about a year ago. It was just after they purchased the Assomption tower, the old jail, and the Paramount building. He stated that addressing downtown parking would be a priority.

I got the impression that he was talking about incorporating parking within their proposed projects, reducing the need for these large surface parking lots for buildings. He referred to 55 Queen and described a vision of more retail, restaurants, office space and residential units on top.

But some of the purchases referred to don't seem like they'd be suitable for this type of development. So who knows.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Jim Dixon, one of the principals with the Ashford Group gave an interview about a year ago. It was just after they purchased the Assomption tower, the old jail, and the Paramount building. He stated that addressing downtown parking would be a priority.

I got the impression that he was talking about incorporating parking within their proposed projects, reducing the need for these large surface parking lots for buildings. He referred to 55 Queen and described a vision of more retail, restaurants, office space and residential units on top.

But some of the purchases referred to don't seem like they'd be suitable for this type of development. So who knows.

Well if they get people paying monthly fees at their surface level lots, they could move those spots to a parking garage when the time comes and then develop the lots they bought that have parking on them.

The ones near the Rogers call centre could have been bought with the intent of building a parking garage close to the building and thus developing the surrounding parking lots that I believe that they own.
The lot north of the former Eatons building would actually be a solid place to build a parking garage anyway.

I assume the police station parking lot was purchased with the intent of bidding on the police station building once it comes up for sale.

I’m also just realizing that it was the north & south east corners of Rabbi Lippa Meddjuck & steadman that they bought rather than the corner of queen as I had previously mentioned.

Another thing I’d not, the parking lot between Lutz & Robinson was also listed as recently sold the same day as well. I wasn’t able to see any info on it until today.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Well if they get people paying monthly fees at their surface level lots, they could move those spots to a parking garage when the time comes and then develop the lots they bought that have parking on them.

The ones near the Rogers call centre could have been bought with the intent of building a parking garage close to the building and thus developing the surrounding parking lots that I believe that they own.
The lot north of the former Eatons building would actually be a solid place to build a parking garage anyway.

I assume the police station parking lot was purchased with the intent of bidding on the police station building once it comes up for sale.

I’m also just realizing that it was the north & south east corners of Rabbi Lippa Meddjuck & steadman that they bought rather than the corner of queen as I had previously mentioned.

Another thing I’d not, the parking lot between Lutz & Robinson was also listed as recently sold the same day as well. I wasn’t able to see any info on it until today.

All of these sales on the exact same day sounds like one buyer, and would have to be a major player to make these big purchases. They're obviously looking long term, and I see it as a positive thing. Having any of these surface parking lots developed with underground parking will only help densify the downtown. More people, more vibrancy, and good for businesses located downtown.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

All of these sales on the exact same day sounds like one buyer, and would have to be a major player to make these big purchases. They're obviously looking long term, and I see it as a positive thing. Having any of these surface parking lots developed with underground parking will only help densify the downtown. More people, more vibrancy, and good for businesses located downtown.

I did some more digging and it turns out a large number of the properties were previously owned by Heritage Management, the company that owns Heritage Court (the former Eatons catalogue building)
I also did some digging into what properties Ashford owns downtown. They are well positioned to lead downtown into the future.
I made some maps of some of the big land owners in downtown. If Ashford really is who purchased all this land last month, they just upped their game.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

I did some more digging and it turns out a large number of the properties were previously owned by Heritage Management, the company that owns Heritage Court (the former Eatons catalogue building)
I also did some digging into what properties Ashford owns downtown. They are well positioned to lead downtown into the future.
I made some maps of some of the big land owners in downtown. If Ashford really is who purchased all this land last month, they just upped their game.

Looking at the maps, some of the acquisitions are abutting existing Ashford property, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are the purchaser.

Also, there are two development opportunities that I would really like to see happen. The Aquilini block & the Crombie building at 1222 Main Street. Both companies are more than capable of creating signature projects that would make a significant impact on this section of the downtown.

[David_99]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

The most interesting purchase, to me, is the parking lot north of Heritage and the small building above it. The green strip of grass in between them is the proposed new street to run parallel to Main and connecting to Downing St, through the Ashford lot.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by David_99

The most interesting purchase, to me, is the parking lot north of Heritage and the small building above it. The green strip of grass in between them is the proposed new street to run parallel to Main and connecting to Downing St, through the Ashford lot.

Yes it's very interesting. I remember back a while ago, that the discussion was if the new street would finish at Lutz St, because of the Heritage court parking lot. But now it looks like connecting through to Foundry St. is the plan. Would this new street be started as early as next summer?

[lirette]

That lot in front of heritage is currently being used for service canada, although since covid parking is ample in the large lot across the street along with the front lot. Service Canada only sees a small fraction of pre covid traffic.

The government offices that used to reside on the 1st floor (dealing with the pension issues) have all switched to remote and the office has been cleared out.

If there was ever a time for a major disruption to this area this is it.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by lirette

That lot in front of heritage is currently being used for service canada, although since covid parking is ample in the large lot across the street along with the front lot. Service Canada only sees a small fraction of pre covid traffic.

The government offices that used to reside on the 1st floor (dealing with the pension issues) have all switched to remote and the office has been cleared out.

If there was ever a time for a major disruption to this area this is it.

Yes I parked in that lot many times, and I never thought I'd see it sold and be used to construct a new street! The Downtown Core Improvement Plan that the city released in Dec. 2017 called for the new street to extend from Downing all the way to the new downtown center. Looks like our downtown core is in for a lot of changes.

[MonctonRad]

Seeing all this consolidation of surface parking lots in the core means only one thing to me - someone is trying to build flexibility in terms of future development potential.

If Ashford (for example) wanted to close down one of these lots to allow for new construction, then there is now lots of room available to shuffle around the parking leaseholders to other lots in the core while this happens.

Lets say that Ashford has big plans (and I think they do), then they could close down one of the lots to build a multistorey parking garage on it, and then when this structure opens, they could relocate all their parking customers to the new parking garage, and then use the other newly vacant surface lots freed up in the core for new downtown residential or office properties.

This is how we will build density in the core, and in the most painless way possible.

My bet is that there are deep discussions going on between Ashford and city hall regarding the surface parking in behind Assumption Place. The city wants to relocate the city market here, and perhaps relocate the city library as well, facing Downing Street. Combine this with an adjacent midrise apartment/condo building and an indoor parking structure, as well as the completion of phase two of Downing Street, and you then will have a completely revamped neighbourhood in the core, including a shared use roadway connecting city hall with Riverfront Park.



Once the city market is relocated, then work can proceed on reorganizing the street grid south of Main Street, and also develop plans for further downtown housing and mixed use commercial.

I think there is something BIG going on here..........

[jonny golden]

MonctonRad is right in-that something big is being planned. A new east-west street from Downing to the Avenir Center would transform the downtown core. I go back to the Jim Dixon interview where he spoke of mixed use development like the 55 Queen project and the need to address parking:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...ment-1.5287907

Another interesting purchase is the large parking lot just east of the RCMP station. They're obviously looking to the future to when the new RCMP building opens up and existing police station comes on the market. Owning that land when the existing property comes up for sale opens up a significant development opportunity. It's a prime Main Street location and it would be great to see something major happen there.

[josh_cat_eyes]

I completely agree with you MonctonRad. They are definitely consolidating parking so they can build a parking garage later on. It’s also interesting that if it is indeed Ashford, they will own now own 4 clusters of land.
- The area around the RCMP/Spin it
- The area around assumption place
- The area around Rogers building
- The area on the north side of Main Street by Sobeys
Some of these areas would be excellent locations for a parking garage, and they would be evenly spaced out across the downtown. I can see there being 3-4 parking garages for these different areas.

[shanemagee]

Property records show these Aug. 28 transactions are transfers from one Heritage entity to another.

For example, the property south of the rail line beside the new RCMP station (PID 70368576) went from Heritages Resources Inc. to Heritage Group Properties Inc.

The property between Foundry and Lutz where the future east-west street is planned was transferred from Heritages Resources Inc. to Albert Management Inc., which lists Ross and Richard Carpenter as its directors.