Saint John construction value hits $148 million in 2023

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The 2023 development season in Saint John was one for the record books, with the city falling just shy of $150 million worth of construction value.

Numbers presented to Saint John council’s growth committee on Tuesday showed the city rounded out last year with 632 building permits worth a collective $148.1 million.

The five-year average, by contrast, is 705 permits and $100.1 million in value.

On the residential front, Saint John had 479 housing starts, with 1,700 more in the queue. The average over the last five years was 284.

“It’s the biggest year we’ve had with respect to residential units,” said Amy Poffenroth, the city’s commissioner of growth and community services.

“With the exception of a large project in 2017, the Irving Oil home office building, this is one of the largest years, 2023, with respect to construction value.”

Poffenroth noted that while the number of permits issued was down compared to the average, the project values have increased.

Poffenroth said the housing starts are “significantly higher than what we typically have seen over the last number of years.”

“And with respect to the number of projects that we have under construction right now, there are 579 units currently under construction, and that’s just in major projects,” Poffenroth said.

“We need more in the city of course, but we’re certainly trending in the right direction.”

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to Saint John to announce the city will be receiving $9.18 million from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Housing Accelerator fund to help boost housing starts

With the funding, the city is expected to see the creation of 285 additional units, with a total of 1,124 between 2024 and 2026.  When the city applied for the funding, it was with a goal to see housing starts climb to 425 annually. Saint John already surpassed that target without the housing accelerator funds in 2023 at 479.

However, Saint John will need to ramp up to 700 housing starts per year to achieve its population growth goals, city staff have previously said.

Speaking after Wednesday’s announcement, Poffenroth said the housing accelerator funds will help the city “make sure that that trend continues.”

But there are some challenges outside the city’s control, Poffenroth added, like supply chain and labour challenges.

The city also has a limited developer pool, she said.

City housing manager Andrew Reid said the housing accelerator funding will give the city new “levers” to stimulate more development, such as incentives, planning initiatives, zoning bylaw updates and working with public land.

“Certainly we can’t control the market,” Reid said. “We have certain levers and we’re looking at pulling all the levers.”

At Tuesday’s growth committee meeting, Saint John Coun. Gerry Lowe said he didn’t want to see Saint John compared with the development numbers of other cities.

Moncton, for example, finished out 2023 with $341 million in construction value and 1,177 housing starts, while Dieppe attained $182 million. Fredericton’s year-end numbers have yet to be released.

“I think it’s time we stopped comparing Saint John to Moncton and Fredericton,” Lowe said, noting the Saint John region, including Lepreau, has the bulk of the province’s heavy industrial properties, at about 60 per cent.

Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon said she was “thrilled” with the city’s numbers, adding that “comparison is the thief of joy.”

With files from Alan Cochrane