Developers Extend Saint John’s Urban Renaissance To Streets Like Union And St. James
SAINT JOHN – Denise Greene-Lui is a self-proclaimed “market rat” who loves spending time in Uptown Saint John – at the City Market, of course, but also the Queen Square Market, cafes and restaurants.
She also loves to walk her dog in the neighbourhood, which is how she stumbled upon the land on St. James Street in the south end where she is now building her new house.
“I used to walk the dog down here all the time,” she said in a recent conversation on the building site. “I began looking at this lot, thinking, ‘That’s weird. It’s right between Canterbury and Germain and nobody is building on it.’ “
Uptown Saint John has been booming in recent years with many new residential and commercial developments in the areas close to King Street. Following a North American trend, the residential population of the urban core is growing quickly with people mostly moving into renovated historic buildings on streets like Canterbury and Germain near King.
As that area begins to fill up, developers have begun looking toward streets like Union and St. James for new opportunities. On Union, that has led to numerous projects like Percy Wilbur’s restoration of the building at the corner of Charlotte Street and Union, and Saint John Non-Profit Housing’s planned apartment building at the corner of Union and Wellington Row.
On St. James, the new developments range from Greene-Lui’s single-family home to Mike Cavanaugh’s project to convert the old Salvation Army to a multi-unit apartment building.
Steve Carson, CEO of Develop Saint John, says this trend is part of a natural progression as developers and residents become more interested in a city centre that extends beyond the narrow boundaries of the first wave of developments.
What we’re seeing now are the rings of that [development] starting to expand outwardly, and the areas of the urban core that are most challenged and have not seen a lot of interest and investment over a period of decades are now seeing a real renaissance as well.”
St. James is a prime candidate for this kind of growth, with developments already in the works and a new city neighbourhood plan that envisions the street as a centrepiece with new trees and other landscaping features on a now largely barren streetscape.
Greene-Lui recognized this potential, tracked down the land owner and bought the lot and then two lots beside it. She and her husband are now constructing a three-storey modern-style house with a wall of windows on two floors facing the harbour, a gym, artist studio, and a rooftop patio.
They plan to move from suburban Millidgeville in the spring of next year for a more minimal existence in the city centre.
I like the ease of living uptown,” said Greene-Lui. “I’m in Millidgeville and I love my house and my two-car garage. [But] I hate gardening. I joked that I’d put astroturf in the backyard [of the new place]. I don’t want all the maintenance.”
“I want the amenities without the work basically. I want to go out my door and walk the streets, go for a coffee, take the dog for a walk. It’s really conducive to that kind of living and no maintenance.”
Saint John Non Profit Housing sees the same potential for residential development on Union Street. “The Wellington” development will be a six-storey building with ground-floor commercial space and five floors of mixed-income apartments.
Stephen Kopp of Acre Architects, the firm hired to design the new building, says there’s great potential because Union is essentially a gateway to the city centre.
“It’s an incredibly busy crosswalk with a lot of pedestrian traffic,” he said. “People are coming from the parking garage or Cooke Aquaculture down the street. That corner is almost like a threshold to the city because it’s also part of the path from Rothesay and Quispamsis.”
They plan to have something like a diner on the main level, and construct the building 30 feet back from the street on Wellington to create space for people to gather, rather than just pass through in cars or on foot.
“It creates a little corner that could be landscaped and have more activity so you’re not just funneling people to the uptown,” he said. “It becomes part of the city itself, part of the fabric.”
Kopp says there are other parcels of available land north of Union and the residential development on a mostly commercial street could set the tone for other housing projects.
Greene-Lui says the same is true of St. James, where she is “delighted” to see other developments happening around her and the potential for others.
She credits the city planning department and Develop Saint John for helping her explore the opportunities and hopes others recognize they can access that resource too.
“Why not?” she says of the potential for others to follow in her footsteps. “The land is available, and that’s where I think the city is starting to [help]. They were very forthcoming about what was available for me. [They] gave me the encouragement to look because you don’t know what’s available. I hope other people do it as well.”
Carson says that momentum is clearly there and he hopes it continues, especially the number of small-scale developments taking place.
“As we look at other communities that have seen the transformation of their urban core over the last few decades, that’s really the healthy approach,” he said. “It’s not relying on huge mega-projects, though we’ve got some significant ones that help drive the growth – like the Irving building that will house 1,000 employees.
“When it isn’t just one or two things happening, it’s dozens of things taking place, you can’t really take momentum for granted. You have to really seize this and build on it.”
This story is sponsored by Develop Saint John.