LIFPA pulls out of plans for international French private school in Saint John

An international French school won’t be coming to Market Square in Saint John, N.B., after all.

Lycée International Français des Provinces Atlantiques (LIFPA) announced Tuesday they have abandoned the project due to financial reasons. A press releases states the total amount of construction work to complete the project is 50 per cent higher than what was first budgeted in January 2023, a cost LIFPA could not afford.

The school would have been the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada, with LIFPA saying they remain hopeful to bring a school to this part of the country and are currently exploring all possibilities.

“Everybody is pretty disappointed in the announcement,” says Saint John Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie. “We were looking forward to having that in the uptown area, but we will have to look forward now and put this behind us.”

MacKenzie expects the topic to come up at the next city council meeting. He says the city, along with Market Square and other community partners, will look to fill the vacant space as soon as possible.

With all the growth Saint John is currently experiencing, highlighted by the revamped public space outside of Market Square that will open this spring, MacKenzie doesn’t expect the space to be available for long.

“The city of Saint John is growing by leaps and bounds and we are a great place to invest,” says MacKenzie. “We have all kinds of people looking to invest in the city, so y’know, it’s not going to last long I suspect.”

Envision Saint John interim CEO Andrew Beckett also expects there to be a lot of interest in the space.

“It’s a great time to invest in Saint John,” he says. “We have waterfront development taking place with the Fundy Quay project, the extension of the harbour passage. We’ve got a vibrant urban core that’s got a real resiliency over the last couple of years. There is a lot of really good pieces that when you take to together with the increased traffic in the uptown area with some of the residential developments taking place, hopefully that’s going to provide the catalyst we need to get some of these spaces reimagine and reutilized in different ways.”

He shares the deputy mayor’s disappointment on the school no longer coming to the Port City, but he too is looking ahead rather than in the past.

“Our focus now turns to looking at how we can make use of the space that’s available in Market Square,” Beckett says. “Maybe it’s converting like Calgary and other places are doing in terms of looking at residential development in some of those areas, or we can carve up the space in other different ways to attract other business opportunities to it.”

Residents also have their opinion on what should go in the now vacant space. A casino was a popular wish for many in town, with others hoping for a farmers market or even an indoor play area for kids.

Whatever does end up going in the space, residents just want it to stick and stay.

“We’d like to see a viable business that is going to be able to pay rent and contribute to the city of Saint John go in there,” says resident Lisa Keenan. “I think it’s extremely important that the landlord and officials do their proper due diligence before a tenant signs a commitment for that space.”

The Hardman Group, which owns and operates Market Square, declined a request for comment.

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