Uptown Saint John eyesore that used to be Woolworth's to get a major makeover

A Saint John developer with a reputation for tackling troubled properties has acquired aboarded-up former department store at the top of King Street and plans to get started on a new residential development as early as this winter.

"I would suspect by January we'll have our testing all done and by the end of February we'll know what we're doing with the property as far as design and construction features," said Percy Wilbur in an interview Sunday about plans for the location.

Property records show Wilbur's company bought the building for $900,000 in November. It is still referred to as the "former Woolworth's" in government documents even though the chain moved out in 1994.

Wilbur plans to transform it into a residential building.

"We've acquired it because it's a keystone property in the city location-wise, and we see a lot of value in the location, more so than the building itself."

The once tidy retail structure has been vacant for a decade and deteriorating for longer than that. Wilbur said its concrete structures remain in good shape but the rest is still being evaluated.

"We'll have a look at the bones of the building and see if we can save it. If we can, we'll add to it, and if not, it might have to come down and replace it with something that's suited for that location."

Wilbur has a history of moving quickly on projects and his emergence as the owner of the dilapidated and graffiti-tagged building is enough to electrify city leaders even without firm plans about what will be done there.

"It's excellent, excellent news to get the building into the hands of a local developer that has a proven track record," said Mayor Don Darling

"I'm very excited to hear what the plans are."

Donna Reardon, a city councillor who represents the central core of Saint John, said the Woolworth's building has been an eyesore in a prime location for years and anything Wilbur does with it will be a significant improvement.

"You could smell the mildew of the building when you walked by it," Reardon said."It just was terrible.

"So this news is fantastic. He's got some street credibility here in the city. I'm thrilled that he's got that building because he will get onto that right away."

Hopes that the building would be transformed were briefly lifted in March 2018,when Vancouver investors bought the property promising renovations that never fully materialized.

Wilbur bought the building from the ashes of that investment and is igniting hopes again, but with a resum to back it up.

In November 2017, Wilbur bought the then-150-year-old brick building at Charlotte and Union streets, just 100 metres up the sidewalk from the Woolworth's building.

He renovated, built an expansion and reopened the three-storey brick structure, a survivor of the devastating Saint John fire of 1877, within 13 months.

Now home to an upscale art gallery and luxury apartments, the building, like the Woolworth's property, had been boarded up and lifeless before Wilbur took ownership.

Following that development, he bought the Gothic Arches in October 2019.

The former church and massive 137-year-old stone structure occupied an uptown city block but sat empty and unheated for a decade before Wilbur obtained it.

His decision to tear it down was controversial, but it had been on the city's dangerous and vacant buildings list following years of neglect by previous owners, and Wilbur said it was too far gone to be economically restored.

Instead he opted to demolish the structure and replace it with an apartment complex that is already under construction.

Wilbur said it is his intention to move just as decisively this time

"It's been my focus, to look for properties that are in disrepair and either need to be restored or replaced," he said.

"I do like to move quickly. Time is money. The longer you sit on it, the less you're making on your money. So this one here will be on a similar timeline."