A local tour guide is hoping what have been come to be called the Jelly Bean buildings on Wellington Row can be saved.
Lori Seymour says several developers have approached the city and were unable to negotiate the possibility of restoration. Seymour claims similar situations have happened in the past involving other properties.
She questions what will be left for tourists and citizens if the city continues to tear down historic buildings. Seymour argues Saint John has an obligation, as Canada’s oldest incorporated city, to restore, preserve and revitalize historic buildings and there are solutions out there but developers need to be given a chance.
Debates have surrounded the future of the buildings, which survived the Great Fire of 1877, for the better part of a decade.
Saint John Non-Profit Housing Association agreed to purchase the buildings to develop mixed income housing in its place.
