How Fredericton North’s Main Street Is Being Reimagined For The Modern Era
FREDERICTON – A small, 2.3-kilometer rectangle in Fredericton North is one of the fastest-growing business improvement areas in New Brunswick.
Fredericton’s northside holds the greatest proportion of the city’s residents and, over the past five years in particular, it has become fertile ground for many of the city’s latest developments.
Its Main Street business corridor continues to evolve as an up-and-coming location for commercial real estate. Development across the northside boomed through the pandemic, while its boroughs have grown beyond simply playing suburb to Fredericton’s other downtown amenities.
Business Fredericton North general manager Trina MacDonald says the pocket that makes up the business improvement area now has over 90 commercial property owners.
Those property owners pay 20 cents per $100 of assessed value on their property extra, with that share reinvested back into the business improvement area.
She says the levy pays for things like running Business Fredericton North (BFN) as an organization, marketing and promotions, advocacy, and capital improvements.
Reimagining Main Street
Business Fredericton North and the City of Fredericton continue to see the fruit of an Urban Design Plan for the northside’s Main Street business improvement area.
The original 2016 draft plan established a series of guiding principles and “big moves” that have helped frame a bold new vision for Main Street and the surrounding area.
But what lead to the renewal has roots in the northside’s previous growth boom, from the 1950s to the 1970s, when Main Street and the surrounding area saw an explosion of development.
Fueled by a housing shortage in Fredericton and inexpensive land in nearby Nashwaaksis, the new suburban population began to transform Main Street from a rural village main street into a modern commercial main street, with shops and amenities for a car-driving public.
The plan notes that while the volume of traffic on Main Street is considered an asset for drawing shoppers, the single-pronged approach resulted in a car-centric environment with little character and cohesiveness, leaving the stretch “unappealing for pedestrians.”
With its Urban Design Plan, Main Street is working toward becoming a more attractive and vibrant place, one that’s ready to offer a variety of living and shopping choices within a mixed-use, livable environment.
New developments changing landscape
MacDonald says the plan gave developers a guide for what new development projects could look like as part of Main Street’s 15-to-20-year vision.
“Everyone’s kind of rowing in the same direction as it relates to development, and what’s happened with the pandemic. A lot of people that were operating businesses, maybe in a farmers market or out of their home, they are now looking for bricks-and-mortar locations, especially on Main Street,” said MacDonald.
“We’re in a situation now where it’s very difficult to find space on Main Street, which is a good problem to have.”
She points to two of the latest multi-use developments going up at both ends of the business district as examples of Main Street bringing residents closer to the mixed-use livable environment the plan promises, with high-end apartments on top and commercial space on the bottom.
One currently in development, at the corner of Douglas and Main near the Westmorland overpass, ties in closely with an existing apartment complex, filling a large gap separating Main Street from residential doorsteps.
“It gives the pedestrian a much more comfortable feel of looking at Main Street as a place they want to walk as well,” explained MacDonald, “We have a lot of concrete, and so we’re trying to change that look and feel.”
Another development on Main’s west leg, at Sunset Drive, is almost finished.
Under construction by White Rock Developments Ltd., Millstone Place features a two-storey townhouse development and a handful of ground-floor units, adjacent to one of the community’s busiest walking trails.
At the beginning of April, some of the first tenants began moving in and the building was already at 50 percent occupancy.
It is the “steps from local businesses” aspect that’s key to the re-imagination of Main Street into a more vibrant area for businesses and residents.
MacDonald says the challenge now is maximizing the limited space available for commercial opportunities.
“That’s what’s so important about those new developments, because they’re going to offer some new commercial space for people and we’re really limited right now on inventory.”
Funding opportunity
What Macdonald has missed over the past two years is the chance to bring the public back to Main Street in a greater way, though opportunities to do just that will finally be coming this summer.
“The pandemic has really shut us down on community events because we couldn’t gather,’ said Macdonald, who adds plans are in the works to bring back the summer concert series to Main street, a successful string that’s been a hit with residents for 22 years but was put on hiatus for the last two.
MacDonald confirmed BFN recently applied through ACOA’s Rediscover Main Street Initiative for more money to help jumpstart community events like the Summer concert series.
ACOA plans to contribute up to $10-million to non-profit organizations across Atlantic Canada, including business improvement associations like Business Fredericton North, to help generate new ways to drive consumers back to activity hubs.
MacDonald says she hopes to hear back about the funding sometime in the coming weeks.
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].