First construction steps finally underway for overhaul of Centennial Building in downtown Fredericton

After gathering dust for three years, Fredericton's Centennial Building redevelopment is no longer on hold.

The current plan is for the building to have 94 apartments, with a commercial space and restaurant on the main floor.

The original plan had included a hotel, but pandemic-driven financing difficulties forced a change in course last year. 

Concrete blocks are now on the downtown Fredericton site to prepare the foundation, said Geoff Colter, a developer with Centennial Heritage Properties. He said the hope is for construction to begin in the spring.

Colter said the first phase has an expected end date in 2024, when people would be able to move into the apartments and commercial space and the original building will be opened.

Centennial Heritage Properties bought the building from the Brunswick government in 2019 for $4 million. 

The city's planning committee approved a proposal to turn the building into a hotel and residential units in November 2020.

In 2021, the company put the project on hold because of financing issues brought on by the pandemic, Colter said.

Originally, Colter said, the plan was to have three floors of hotel space and four floors of apartment units, and he had a hotel partner already lined up. But with banks shying away from hotel developments after 2021, he said they went back to the drawing board.

"We had to pivot and go back to city council and and get approval for essentially 100 per cent multi-unit residential rather than a hotel component," he told Information Morning Fredericton.

He said there is still hope for a hotel on the Brunswick Street side of the property, but they will explore this in the second phase of the project.

"For phase one we're pretty much committed to multi-unit residential at this point."

He said the plan is to have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The target audience won't be big families, Colter said.

"It'll probably be retirees that move in," he said. "If it's a three-bedroom unit, they'll use two of the bedrooms for hobby rooms or office."