The Saint John fire department’s work earlier this week in saving a vacant building in the south end means the plans in place to renovate it aren’t going down in flames.
Sean Illman bought the building at the corner of Duke and Carmarthen Street with a group of people in March and tells CHSJ News the damage was contained to the basement, and though there was a lot of smoke and fire throughout they are still able to move ahead with the project.
The building has been turned over to them and they’ve baorded up windows and cleaned up the sidewalk. They plan to restore the original two units and eventually add a third apartment to the basement. We asked if the fire put any kind of a damper on the renovation plans.
“Not timeline-wise probably but a little financially, we’re unknown yet, we haven’t really assess the total damage but it won’t affect us moving forward.”
He says he sees the increase in activity uptown:
“We believe it is people simply looking for a lifestyle change,” Illman says. “If we want to grow the population in the uptown area we must give new life to these tired, old buildings.”
We’re told that the fire is still under investigation. It broke out overnight on Sunday. Here’s what Illman had to say to the Saint John fire department:
“Just thanks, they did a great job in keeping the fire contained to the basement and allows us to move forward with the project,” says Illman.
