Saint John's Gothic Arches listed for sale once again

An ambitious condominium project in Saint John appears to have run out of steam, asGothic Arches has been listed for sale once again.

The imposing stone structure was built as a churchin 1882, designed to seat 1,400 people. But by the late 1990s, the size of the congregation hadshrunk to the point that itcould no longer afford to maintainthe property.

Whilea part of Saint John's heritage, the property is not protected by any heritage laws and it has been a struggle for subsequent owners to find a new use that would pay the bills.

• Gothic Arches sold to Toronto developer

The property was bought by Jody McCairns, a Toronto-based developer, in 2012. McCairns relocated to New Brunswick with plans to turn the Gothic Arches into condominiums. The first 75-unit conceptwas scaled backa year ago to 26-units.

The Gothic Arches was listed for sale once again, with McCairns as one of the real estate agents,ata listing price of $500,000. It was listed at $399,000 when McCairns purchased the property just over three years ago.

But according to information obtained through the open data websitePropertize.ca, the selling price for the former church in November 2012 was $100,000.

Tough condo market

McCairns could not be reached for comment, but in an interview with Information Morning Saint John in January 2015, he said there had been difficulties.

"Being an existing 130-year-old structure it had inherent challenges from an engineering perspective," he said.

"This market, of course, had had its challenges, trying to mesh those two into something that works from an economic standpoint has been a challenge."

Saint John has never embraced condominiums the way other North American Cities have.Real estate agent Bob McVicarspecializes in selling condominiums. He says condos have been a miniscule part of the market in greater Saint John.

"Well it is changing slowly, it's not changing nearly enough and I would say to you that this is probably the last city in the country where condo ownership isn't a significant portion of residential ownership in a market," he said.

Morgan Lanigan, a board member with Uptown Saint John, says retail and restaurant developments over the past several years are pulling more people into the city centre, but what's needed now is an increase in home prices.

"When prices go up, it's goingto drive people into those types of housing, so a hot market would certainly benefit a condo market in the city," he said.

According to McVicar, there are 73 condominium listed in greater Saint John, over the past year, only 40 units have sold.