Development in downtown Moncton is reaching new heights, spurred by a new arena and other projects under construction, and the city’s vacancy rates are dropping.
Fadha Badha says business was good when she first opened her restaurant across from the Highfield Square Mall 11 years ago, but since the mall closed three years ago her sales have slumped.
Now that the new $100-million area has taken the mall’s place, Badha says she’s hopeful her restaurant’s business will get better.
“I’m going to be adding more food and we're going to be open extra hours,” she says. “I don't open Saturday and Sunday now but I will be open Saturday and Sunday and I will be open for supper.”
On the east end of Main Street, a boutique hotel with 75 rooms and restaurant complex is under construction. The Junction Urban Village is also being built, which will cost $100 million.
“Had the Downtown Centre not been built, we would not be seeing any of these very large investments that companies are making,” says Carol O’Reilly from the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce.
The spike in construction has led to a dip in vacancy in the downtown core. According to a 2017 market survey of major cities in the Maritimes, Moncton’s vacancy rate sits at about nine percent, while Fredericton is at 12 per cent, Saint John is 21 per cent, and Halifax is in the mid-teens.
Downtown Moncton is a destination for entertainment, dining, and pub activity, but also startup companies and entrepreneurs with new businesses.
Moncton’s economic development director Kevin Silliker says the city’s downtown is home to about 1,800 businesses that he hopes will diversify the area.
“We want to see more residential growth in the downtown as well,” Silliker says. “More citizens and people living in the downtown.”
According to him, the city has granted $35 million in new building permits for the first half of 2017. Typically that number is between $8 million and $20 million over 12 months.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.
