‘It’s a sign of momentum’: Construction cranes on the rise in Saint John

Cranes are popping up in Saint John, which Mayor Reardon says signals vitality in the city.

The Saint John skyline has a different look this spring compared to seasons past.

A number of construction cranes have popped up around the Port City in recent months. There are some cranes uptown working on residential high-rises, while others are working to expand local businesses and tourism sites.“

It’s been something that we’ve been aspiring for,” says Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon. “We want to see that movement, we want to see that vitality, we want to see that excitement that the cranes bring, and we’ve got it right here.”

There are two cranes currently erected in uptown Saint John. One is working on a 152-unit high rise at 99 King Street that will see the exterior walls completed in the weeks ahead, while another is working on another apartment building along Crown Street.

Jeff Cyr is the executive director of real estate and industrial development of the regional growth agency Envision Saint John. He says when it comes to apartment buildings, the city has never seen this level of production.

“Right now, there’s a little under 700 units actively under construction in the greater Saint John region,” Cyr says. “To put it in context, we’ve never seen this high a number since [Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation] started collecting the data in the 1990s.”

On the uptown and central peninsula alone, Cyr says there are around 230 units actively being constructed.

Cyr adds the continued construction of residential units is “very desperately” needed in Saint John, as the vacancy rate in the city is just above two per cent – which indicates a fairly tight market.

But it’s not just residential builds that have Cyr excited. Cranes are also being used heavily at a pair of high-profile port city projects. A pair of cranes are seeing long days at the Irving Pulp and Paper Mill by the reversing falls as part of the company’s $1.5 billion expansion of the site dubbed Project NextGen.

A crane has also recently been erected at the New Brunswick Museum along Douglas Avenue to work on the building’s expansion towards a 2028 opening.

“The Saint John region has experienced periods where we haven’t seen as much growth,” Cyr says when asked about the number of cranes working around the city. “It’s a sign of momentum, it’s a sign of excitement, it’s a sign of confidence in the region and in the region’s economy as well.”

According to Cyr, for the first time in “a while” Saint John is projected to top the list of major project investments in the province for 2026.

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