City of Fredericton pays $8.2M in land deal for new downtown courthouse

The City of Fredericton is purchasing a large piece of land downtown in a deal that helped lure the province to put the new justice building in the city centre.

It's a deal that will also see potential new developments on the site, including a newperforming arts centre.

City council approved the purchase of a section of land at 560 King St, between Regent and Carleton streets, with a price tag of $8.2 million. It will immediately sell about 25 per cent of the land to the province for $2.4 million.

"We had identified the downtown as a place where we would want an institution such as this," said Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers. "The province supported and shared that vision. And so I see this is just the beginning of good things moving forward."

The city is waiving 60 per cent of the development fees and the parking requirements for the courthouse development. It will also sell land to the province to use for a new school in one of the city's areas marked for high-growth for $1 in the future. All those incentives are worth nearly $2 million to the province.

"This deal that the city put together made it a hard one to pass up," said Transportation Minister Jill Green.

Green said there were 15 sites the province was considering. This particular site quickly rose to the top, as many options were outside the downtown.

"The second option is outside the downtown core. So that's why we're so excited when the city passed this, this evening," Green said after the council meeting Monday night.

A new performing arts centre

The city has designated a second chunk of the land for a new performing arts centre, the same spot the city had intended for that development several years ago. But at the time the city wasn't able to secure the land, according to Rogers.

"We spent quite a bit of time a few years back trying to make it work for a new performing arts centre, but without the other partners in place, and the other development in place, we couldn't make it work," Rogers said. "We now can make it work."

She said the city will be speaking with the board of directors at the Playhouse to see if they're interested in the location.

Green would not confirm whether the province had any intention of putting funds toward the performing arts centre, which has struggled to get any financial input from other levels of government foryears, despite being at the top of the city's capital priorities.

"Our focus right now is absolutely the justice building," Green said. "We've just located the property. The city got to complete their land transaction. We need to design and build this courthouse."

Residential development in the works

The third piece of the property has been earmarked for a high-density residential and commercial development, up to 18-storeys. The height of the future development would still be subject to the zoning process. The city said Commercial Properties Limited, which is selling the land to the city, holds the right of first offer on that potential development.

The cost of the property is $9.5 million.

Rogers said the municipality is financially fit enough to take on the borrowing costs.

"We're able to take this on without it affecting the residents' tax bill in any way. We have the borrowing room because we've been so fiscally responsible for many, many years. And so we have this available to us."

Right nowmost of the land is used for parking andthe only building on-site houses an optometry office.

The city will generate revenue from the parking and the rent of the building until construction begins.