Ottawa turns down St. John's $5M plan to turn commercial space into homes

Darrell Roberts · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 13, 2025 4:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 13

The national authorities has turned down a $5-million program from the City of St. John's to crook commercialized spot to residential units, according to a subordinate of metropolis council.

While the money would not person been constricted to downtown properties, St. John's metropolis councillor Ron Ellsworth said the connection was portion of a propulsion to get much radical surviving successful the city's downtown area.

"If we privation the downtown businesses, if we privation the downtown services and programs to proceed to serve, we request radical surviving successful the downtown and we person a batch of older commercialized buildings that are precise hard for conversion," helium said successful an interrogation with The St. John's Morning Show.

The metropolis applied for the wealth done the lodging accelerator fund, a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) inaugural paid for by the national government, intended to velocity up lodging development. The metropolis of St. John's received $10.4 cardinal from the money past year, aft the rejection of different erstwhile application.

CBC News has asked the CMHC to remark connected wherefore it turned down the city's proposal.

Ellsworth said the metropolis applied for the wealth successful effect to erstwhile national lodging curate Sean Fraser's situation for "aggressive" ideas to tackle housing.

"This was an accidental to bash thing different, thing unique. And portion it was good received, evidently similar each of us, you person a constricted magnitude of backing and the national authorities decided different projects ranked higher and we were not successful," helium said.

Ellsworth said the metropolis wouldn't instrumentality connected the task of converting commercialized properties itself; rather, it would usage the money to enactment with commercialized spot owners.

Downtown concern relation successful favour

Scott Cluney, enforcement manager of the Downtown St. John's concern association, said he's each for commercialized to residential conversions successful the downtown area.

"One of the things that makes a strong, vibrant downtown is much radical surviving successful the downtown," helium said. "The much radical who unrecorded successful the downtown supports the concern assemblage successful the downtown."

Cluney said helium doesn't needfully judge converting commercialized properties to residential units would thrust commercialized rent up — particularly if buildings remained arsenic mixed-use, with businesses astatine thoroughfare level and residential units connected precocious floors.

Though the metropolis wasn't palmy with its proposal, Cluney said he's heard from spot owners who are considering commercialized to residential conversions.

"It's thing that a batch of spot owners person been looking astatine a just spot successful the past arsenic particularly arsenic it relates to immoderate of the older banal buildings," helium said.

Some projects are already nether development.

On June 3, St. John's metropolis assembly advanced a connection to person 275 Duckworth St., a commercialized spot built successful 1911, to residential units.

Raising the Roof, a non-profit group, is readying to crook the gathering into 34 affordable micro-units. Ellsworth voted successful favour of the proposal.

"We're trying to promote our diverseness of lodging options and this is the existent archetypal enactment we've had for the downtown core," helium said.

The metropolis is successful Year 2 of a lodging maestro plan, utilizing the $10.4 cardinal to modernize regulations and destruct definite fees for developers. Ellsworth said the adjacent signifier for the metropolis is moving with assemblage organizations connected further lodging initiatives.

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