Former St. Vincent's High School site slated for redevelopment

An old high school in uptown Saint John is one step closer to becoming a 34-unit mixed-income apartment building in a neighbourhood where the city is keen to attract development.

St. Vincent's High School first opened in 1919 as a boys school, then turned into a Catholic girls school in 1954.

Since closing in 2002, its been vacant.

Last week, Saint John City Council gave its approval to rezone the area for the development.

There is optimism the project will help revitalize the Waterloo Village area.

As these projects have done in other areas in the city, they do act as catalysts and pump primers for nearby projects, said Peter MacKenzie of Comeau MacKenzie Architecture.

MacKenzie hopes to have apartments ready to rent by the spring of 2017.

Linda Scott of the Waterloo Village Association says the project will help bring more people to the neighbourhood.

"Part of our problem is that there's a lot of transient residents and we have several services and things like that in the area, but anything that's going to attract more residents will be a good thing," she said.