New plan for crumbling Moncton heritage building

At more than a century old, Moncton's subway block has seen better days. The brick facade is cracking and crumbling. Scaffolding covers the sidewalk to protect pedestrians. The city has ordered the owner of the historic building to either fix it or tear it down. The building is in rough shape. Is it worth saving? Absolutely. Consultants for its owner, Seville Property Group, laid out a plan to rebuild the structure. Let's try to save the building in as much of its glory as possible. Concepts shown to Moncton's Heritage Conservation Board show the third floor removed, a rear wall moved farther from a rail line, but some elements kept. The goal, a retail space after more than 15 years vacant. The board voted to support the idea in principle. It's a great project, really needed downtown. We need to, you know, take care of all. Old buildings, in this case, it's going to be hard to entirely do, so maybe some elements of the facade will be kept. Whalen says the owner wants to rebuild to avoid leaving a vacant lot that would be hard to fill. This project will likely, you know, never make him money, but he wants to do it because it's the right thing to do. The executive director of Moncton's Downtown Business Association is pleased. Thank Iconic space downtown and an important corner, kind of a welcoming space when you come under the subway and you're driving into the downtown, so pretty excited to see something happen there. The building owner plans to work with an architect on detailed designs, permits, and other approvals are still required. you. We'll work at securing tenants because that will obviously impact the design, particularly internally, and then the hope is to start construction next spring. But more immediate work is planned to stabilize the building that's expected to start in the coming months.