Peel Plaza – Pretty much inevitable

Long time readers probably have read me complain about Peel Plaza more often than was reasonable.

While I still have my reservations and concerns (including issues of respecting our cultural heritage, as alluded to in the Carnegie Building photo), it seems this isn’t going to be stopped. 

Details of the agreement between the City and the Province where PNB commits to around $10,000,000 of cost sharing are posted on the city website:

http://saintjohn.ca/article-details.cfm?ArticleID=8EF785A0-EA15-44F7-F3A7C044FE597FB8

With the IOL HQ shelved, maybe a massive public building program is needed to keep construction jobs in the city (though, this, like the ‘the police need an HQ’ argument only supports some type of public/police building, not necessarily Peel Plaza).

I heard or read somewhere that Federal cash may flow toward this as well.  If cost are controlled, perhaps this won’t be financially devastating for the city.

In related news that parking lot of the building adjacent the Justice Building site is now cleared of cars, indicating that they must be planning on starting something soon.