Moncton marks rail history as redevelopment continues on former CN land

Moncton marked itsrailway legacy Thursday as plans were outlined to redevelop a portion of former rail land downtown.

City officials and several dozen former CN rail workers gathered at the Avenir Centre for the unveiling of an interpretive plaqueshowcasing the city's rail history.

Theplaque, installed in the adjacent plaza, is on land purchased by the federal government in 1872 for a railway that connects the Maritimes with the rest of Canada. It was also the site of the Intercolonial Railway's national office, station and machine shops.

The unveiling happened on the 100-year anniversary of the incorporation of theCanadian National Railways, which included the Intercolonial.More than 5,000 people worked for CN in Moncton before the decline of the railway led to economic hardship in the city.

"The railway has defined our community and our country in so many ways,"Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold said at the event, saying the city had built the Avenir Centre on former railway land to help spur new growth in the city.

Vaughn MacLellan said it did just thatat a separate event earlier Thursday.

The Westmount Developments Inc. presidentand the company's partnersrevealed more details of its plans to build residential and retail space on former CN property alongVaughan Harvey Boulevard.

The development's name, The Junction,alludes to its former use as CNland as how the area connectsdowntown, the west end andRiverview.

MacLellan, who now lives in Toronto butgrew up not far from The Junctionsite, said his grandfather and two uncles had worked for CN.

"CN has been an incredible important part of this city, the fabric, the history of the city," he said.

The first phase of work began on the11-acresite at thecorner of Main Street and Vaughan Harvey Boulevard about three years ago with construction of Ivan Rand Drive and a gym.

Ground broke last month on a six-storey concretebuilding, named Tannery Place South,that will include 46 upscale apartment units and more than 13,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

MacLellansaid all of the apartments in the$15-million development are already reserved and the company is now moving ahead with a second, similar building called Tannery Place North. That building is expected to break ground next spring.

A third building on the corner ofMain Street and Vaughan Harvey Boulevard is in the planning stages.He said he hopes to announce more details about a "big, significant, signature" mixed-use building "in the next little while."

A hotel planned for the site had gone through several stages of approvals at city hall. But MacLellansaid the plans are being reassessed given changes in its cost and other new hotels under construction downtown.

"It's still there on the drawing board, but we have to come back and make a final decision on that and we hope that will be happening in the near future as well," MacLellansaid.

Last month, Moncton council approved providing a development incentive forTannery Place South.

Bruce Peacock, president of the local CN Pensioners' Association, was part of unveiling the plaque Thursday and called the change he's witnessedsince moving to Moncton40 years ago incredible.

"There's just so much construction everywhere," Peacock said.