Steepleview Developments Inc. has received the green light to break ground for a new 56-unit affordable housing complex in the Waterloo Village neighbourhood of Saint John.
Kevin McDonald, board chair with Steepleview, told Huddle the board was approved for a variance by the city planning advisory committee on September 21 – and that work will begin soon to start excavation.
“It’s important we beat the winter weather,” McDonald explained.
The variance allows contractors to start excavation of a 0.39-hectare site and 0.48-hectare site at 31 Cliff St. before rezoning of the land is approved by the city council.
The city Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) has recommended council approve the development.
Steepleview plans to build a five-floor mixed-use apartment building with 28 subsidized affordable housing units and 28 market rental units, along with a 120-child daycare on the first floor.
“I feel they certainly meet a need in the city – they meet a desperate need for affordable housing,” said McDonald.
The building, located at the intersection of Waterloo Street and Cliff Street, will feature a mix of one and two-bedroom apartments. The footprints of apartments will range in size from 640 to 1,300 square feet, depending on the unit. The building will also feature underground parking and, potentially, electric vehicle chargers on site.
When asked about the price point of the market rental units, McDonald said the board wants rents to be significantly lower than other rental units in the city core.
“There certainly are developers that are putting up beautiful, high-end buildings, and some people want brick walls and, maybe, steel and open wood. Certainly, some rents in the city are in the range of $1,000 to 2,100 and we’ll be far below that,” he said.
“Buildings are built to be occupied and you have to pay the mortgage, but once the mortgage is paid, you have a reserve fund and things are run properly, the building will gain a bit of income. We’re not into making big money – we’re here to provide much-needed housing for all walks of life.”
Each apartment will feature a heat pump and balcony, and the majority of the 4,735-square-metre building will have frontage of Cliff Street. Information from the PAC noted the building would be consistent with the medium-to-high density housing already present in the Waterloo Village area.
McDonald said the project requires two rezonings, because of the apartments and the fact that the first floor of the building will house a 10,000-square-foot daycare run by Heather Hamilton, founder and owner of west side Saint John-based Hamilton Homestyle Daycare.
The daycare will be supplemented with a 3,000-square-foot playground.
Also on the first floor will be a boardroom, meeting rooms and washrooms for the Knights of Columbus, which is supporting the project financially.
“She’s tremendously successful and we thought it would be appropriate, so Heather’s business will be part of a building in establishing a presence in the Waterloo Village-cathedral block of the city core.”
“It’s been a long battle. We moved next door when plans for the school didn’t materialize, moved other places and left it alone for a while,” said McDonald.
“We started in earnest about a year ago, when we formed the board.”
McDonald is confident things will continue moving briskly once the matter is brought before city council on October 4, noting the requisite geotechnical work, and a level-one environmental assessment are complete.
If approved, construction on the new building will be carried out by Sussex-headquartered Iron Maple Constructors Inc.
In addition to McDonald, himself, Steepleview’s board consists of five Catholic diocese appointees and five appointees by the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus.
The site of the new development once housed the St. Vincent’s Convent – a 147-year-old structure owned by the Catholic Sisters of Charity that was torn down, with an adjacent chapel in 2012, after they were declared beyond repair – and the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) building, which was torn down after a fire damaged it beyond repair in early 2000.
Macdonald noted there may be remnants of the CYO’s bowling alley or pool at the site.
If approved, the new apartment building will also be adjacent to the historic St. Vincent’s High School building, which was decommissioned in the early 2000s – the site of another potential 60-apartment affordable housing development awaiting federal funding.
Sam Macdonald is a reporter for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
