Major restoration work has begun at the former Sydney Street Courthouse in uptown Saint John in preparation for a significant transformation.
The Saint John Theatre Company plans to turn the 200-year-old building at Sydney Street and King Street East into a multi-purpose performance and event venue.
But before that work can get underway, crews must first secure the masonry envelope of the building, according to the executive director of the theatre company.
“We’ve got a 200-year-old stone wall all the way around, between the rear rubble wall on the back of the building and the other three walls of sandstone,” Stephen Tobias said in an interview.
“With all due respect to the building, it hasn’t really been maintained much from a masonry perspective for the last 30 or 40 years, and there’s a range of work that just needs to be done before we can really start working on the expansion of the building and the major construction work inside.”
Tobias said some stones have already fallen out of the wall, and they were concerned it could be in danger of falling within the next few years.
Building has been vacant since 2013
Built in the 1820s, the courthouse was gutted by a fire in 1919. It was rebuilt within the original structure in 1925 and has sat empty since the new provincial law courts building opened in 2013.
Looking for a new space to meet its growing programming needs, the theatre company began discussions with the province about acquiring the former courthouse in 2016.
After years of negotiations and a federal funding announcement in 2019, ownership was transferred to the company in 2020, just as the world shut down for the pandemic.
The site will eventually be a home theatre for the Atlantic Repertory Company, which offers a variety of professional work opportunities in acting, stage management and design, alongside top-notch professional development initiatives.
The state-of-the-art facility will be designed to foster artistic growth and collaboration. It will feature office space for resident artists and expanded rehearsal and production areas.
It will also feature a mid-range 250-seat performance venue, which Tobias said is the ideal range for professional theatre production in the region. The Saint John Theatre Company currently owns the 100-seat BMO Studio Theatre and also uses the 900-seat Imperial Theatre for performances.
Construction should be done by early 2028
Tobias said they expect to finish the masonry work before winter arrives and move onto the major excavation and construction work in the spring.
“Assuming that we can start and just keep going, we would expect that the building would come online in either late 2027 or early 2028, depending on the pace of construction,” he added.
Tobias said the project is still estimated to cost around $30 million, although the true costs will not be known until the project goes out to tender.
Officials had secured just under $20 million as of late 2024, including $14.5 million from the federal government and $818,000 from the city.
