23 June 2025

Revitalizing Saint John’s Waterfront

FUNDY QUAY DEVELOPMENT TAKES SHAPE

June 20, 2025

In Canada’s oldest incorporated city, the waterfront has always played a vital role in the local economy. From the early days of its bustling wooden ship building trade, through to modern times with the Canadian Coast Guard base, the Market Square/Water Street area of uptown Saint John, New Brunswick has always had a largely commercial and industrial presence.

While the Canadian Coast Guard officially operated on Water Street from the 1950’s to 2019, the City of Saint John put plans into motion in 2005 to revitalize the waterfront of uptown Saint John. The city issued a request for proposals on nonindustrial development for the Coast Guard site. A proponent was chosen in 2006; however, geotechnical and engineering evaluations revealed several challenging site conditions. These adverse conditions, along with economic hardships of the time, forced the cancellation of the project in 2011. In 2017 there was renewed interest, this time by the provincial government as a site for the New Brunswick Museum. These plans were scrapped in 2018 due to budget constraints.

Fundy Quay Project

In July 2021, the City of Saint John entered an agreement with local developer Fundy Harbour Group Inc. The extensive waterfront development of Fundy Quay then began to take shape, making it one of the highest profile development opportunities in New Brunswick. The multiphase mixed-use development at full build-out (estimated completion by 2032) will consist of five buildings and 677 apartments with a total floor area of 67,700 square meters. The ground floor in each building will be home to commercial/retail space.

Surrounding Infrastructure & Seawall Repair

Along with the construction of these five buildings, the City of Saint John released plans to revitalize Market Slip, Harbour Passage, and Loyalist Plaza, further increasing the vibrancy and usability of the existing waterfront public spaces.

In February 2021 the Provincial and Federal governments announced joint funding to support the City of Saint John in the redesign of Market Slip and for the site preparation of the former Coast Guard land to make it available for private development.

The seawall along the Harbour’s edge had existing damage repaired, and it was raised by approximately 2 meters to account for rising sea levels. The entire site needed soil remediation, and the grading had to be raised to match the height of the seawall. New site infrastructure (sewer, water, electrical) was installed to prepare the site for development. Ocean Steel Rebar supplied & installed 107 tons of rebar for the seawall.

South-West at Fundy Quay

Construction began on the first Fundy Quay building at 35 Water Street in November 2023. The South West Building is a six story L-shaped residential building with 79 luxury apartments and 12,000 sq. ft. of ground floor retail space. Ocean Steel Rebar was hired by Fundy Harbour Group to supply and install approximately 477 tons of rebar and 129,000 sq. ft. of wire mesh. OSCO Rebar expects to wrap up their portion of work by early Fall 2025.

Ocean Steel & Construction Ltd. is also participating on this project. Erection began at the end of April, 2025, and is expected to last for 10 weeks. In total, OSCO will be supplying 250 tons of structural steel, 210 tons joists, and 96,000 sq ft of deck for this landmark project.