The tarp has come down revealing the freshly made-over City Market facade but it’s a different story inside the tower where renovators have now turned their attention.
Members of the media took a tour today of the market tower which is an active construction zone. It’s bare-bones now, with exposed brick, ceiling beams and unfinished flooring, but they’re hoping to have this interior work finished towards the end of June or July of 2019 for use as workspace by City of Saint John staff.
It’s all part of the $7.2-million City Market upgrade project which is expected to be totally done towards the end of 2019 or early 2020.
We asked project manager Samir Yammine if this project is on time and on budget.
“We’re working diligently…to find, to remediate any problem here, to make sure we don’t go over budget or on time,” says Yammine. “It’s always been a challenge here…especially working with such a building as this which hasn’t been maintained in a long time.”
This project started back in 2016 with funding from all three levels of government.
“Our next phase after we finish this in 2019 we’re going to be working on the sitting area, we’re going to be put in a new roof, a new lighting system…there’s a lot of work left to be done,” says Yammine.
(Architect Malcolm Boyd)
(One of the vaults in the City Market tower)
(Samir Yammine and architect Malcolm Boyd)
