Irving Oil's plans questioned after Red Head land purchases

Questions are being raised about Irving Oil Ltd.'s future plans after the company purchased several properties in the Red Head area of Saint John in recent months.

Irving Oil paid twice assessed value for a collection of land parcels bought in the Red Head area in December and the company snapped up even more property less than a month ago.

The activity is causing anxiety for the chair of a local citizens group.

Leanne Sutton, the chairpersonof theRed Head Anthony's Cove Preservation Association, said she believes these purchases are proof the abandoned plan for a second oil refinery called Eider Rock has been revived.

"My suspicions are Eider Rock is right around the corner, which would be detrimentally horrible for Red Head," she said.

Samantha Robinson, a spokesperson for Irving Oil, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday that the land purchases are a normal business practice for the company.

"As we do from time-to-time, we recently acquired properties that are adjacent and complementary to our current land holdings in Red Head. All of these properties were listed for sale prior to our purchase," she said in an email.

"We have no immediate plans for these properties."

Empty lot on Red Head Road

Sutton parked in front of an empty lot at 3010 Red Head Road on Wednesday.

She said a few days ago there was a house on the property.

On Wednesday, all that remained was a section of deck and a satellite dish.

Service New Brunswick records show the deed was changed to a company controlled by Cobalt Properties, an Irving Oil subsidiary, on May 29.

The sale price was $132,900, slightly more than the $122,400 assessed value as listed by Propertize.ca.

But five other Red Head properties totalling about 16 hectares (40 acres), were purchased by the same Irving subsidiary onDec.15.

Taken together the land, which is located near the Canaport LNG facility, is assessed at just more than $1 million. The purchase price as listed on Propertize.ca is $2.3 million.

Shawn Peterson, a software developer who maintains the Propertize website, said it is difficult to predict what the sales will do to assessment levels on nearby properties in Red Head.

"It should go up, but it may not," said Peterson.

He notes many homes selling in east Saint John are trading for under assessed value.

"And those are the lucky ones, many homes just aren't moving at all," said Peterson.

"The reality is the market's not good."